With approval from the relevant department/program, coursework that students complete abroad can count toward the satisfaction of specific requirements (e.g. major, minor, distribution, twenty course rule), as well as toward the thirty-two credits needed to graduate. 

ACES (our online credit evaluation system) allows students to request Major, Minor, or general Department credit from specific academic departments and programs at Swarthmore. 

Keep in mind that each academic department or program at Swarthmore has its own policies concerning granting study abroad credit. If students plan to take courses in their major/minor, it is important to check with the relevant departments or programs about whether the courses they intend to take abroad will count for credit, will fulfill any major/minor requirements, etc. (see question below: “Do any departments have specific credit-granting policies?”)

If students do not need to fulfill a specific departmental requirement, they can often request OCST elective credit.  OCST credit is Swarthmore credit awarded by Global Engagement that counts toward the 32-credit graduation requirement but NOT toward a major, minor, or distributional requirement. OCST credit can often count toward the required 20 credits outside the major (if the course falls under a different discipline). 

A few important notes on OCST credit: 

• OCST credit is the required credit type for courses that do not fall under a department/program that exists at Swarthmore, including courses in languages not offered at Swarthmore.
• OCST credit is not available for economics, business, or finance courses.
• Courses that are pre-approved for OCST credit will usually receive Auto Credit (i.e., final course materials do not need to be submitted after students return).

The Global Engagement Office will convert the number of credits for each course abroad to an equivalent number of Swarthmore credits.  

This is based on the specific study abroad  program’s credit units and how many credits the program considers a full course load. A full course load is often greater or less than four courses, depending on the program.

The conversion is based on the following formula (which allows the student to receive at least four total credits for their semester abroad):
(number of course credits) ÷ (number of credits considered a full course load) × 4

In a preliminary review, GEO recommends the converted amount of credit to the department/program that evaluates each course. But the number of credits pre-approved by the department/program may differ from the GEO-recommended number of credits. Ultimately, only the department/program reviewing the course content can decide how many credits to pre-estimate. 

If a department gives approval for less than the pre-approved amount of credit, the course can receive supplemental OCST credit to reach the pre-approved amount of credit (if the student would otherwise be left with fewer than 4 credits from the semester abroad). 

Study abroad courses  are often pre-estimated for less than one Swarthmore credit, especially if a full course load for the program is greater than four courses. 

One full Swarthmore credit per course is ALWAYS required to fulfill a divisional requirement (i.e. Arts and Humanities, Natural Sciences, or Social Sciences). Partial-credit courses can NEVER be used toward this requirement. 

One full credit is also USUALLY required to fulfill a major or minor requirement. In some cases, partial-credit courses can be “combined” to meet major and minor requirements, if the relevant department or program approves. Students must consult departments or programs if they have questions about whether/how partial-credit courses can be used toward major or minor requirements. 

Partial-credit courses (including those awarded OCST credit) can be “combined” to count toward the 20-credit rule for courses outside the student’s major. 

​​Yes. Before students request credit from a specific department or program, it is important to check on relevant Credit Policies by Department/Program. Common policies include the following:

• A maximum number of credits that students can receive from a department/program for courses abroad.
• A requirement to take course(s) offered by a department/program at Swarthmore before that department/program grants credit for courses abroad.
• A rule that only majors and/or minors can receive credit from a department/program.
• Specific requirements for study abroad courses related to the hours of instruction, reading list, assignments, or other aspects of the course structure or content.

Note on labs: It can be difficult to meet a lab requirement while abroad; if a lab is required for one of a student’s courses abroad or their semester abroad, it’s important for them to check with the relevant department about whether the lab is possible during their intended program.

Note for pre-medical students:  Students should not plan to take any of their required pre-med coursework abroad. For more information about scheduling required courses to free up a semester to make study abroad possible, consult the Health Science Office's Guide to Premedical Studies. Gigi Simeone, Health Sciences/Pre-law Advisor is available to chat if students have questions or concerns.

Most study abroad courses approved by departments/programs count as electives rather than equivalents of specific Swarthmore courses. 

Even if a study abroad course has a similar title or description to a Swarthmore course, Swarthmore departments/programs may not consider the content to be equivalent. Students should not assume they can take the equivalent of a specific Swarthmore course while abroad.

In rare cases, departments/programs may choose to approve a study abroad course as the equivalent of a specific numbered Swarthmore course. Students who wish to pursue this option should be in close consultation with the relevant departments/programs.

Study abroad courses can count toward the required 20 credits outside a student's major (provided the courses are not in the same discipline as the student's major).

For certain programs, and with planning, students can use coursework abroad to count toward one of the required three courses per division at Swarthmore:

• Arts and Humanities
• Natural Sciences and Engineering, and
• Social Sciences

For it to be possible to count a course abroad toward the division's requirement, a Swarthmore department that the College considers to fall under the relevant division needs to approve the study abroad course.  That course needs to be approved by the department for at least 1 Swarthmore credit, which makes certain programs incompatible with meeting the divisional requirement (see "What is the impact if a course is awarded less than 1 credit?"). 

Some distributional requirements are difficult or impossible to meet abroad. For example: Courses abroad can never meet the Writing requirement.

A few reminders:

• Within each division, two of the three required courses must be Swarthmore courses (which excludes study abroad courses, AP courses, summer courses, etc.).
• The three required courses in each division must be taught or approved by at least two separate departments. 

Some students have done an Honors preparation based on work done abroad.  However, this requires early and careful planning.  Additionally, this is not possible for all departments/programs.  If a student is interested in this, they'll work closely with their academic department, both before their abroad experience and after their return to Swarthmore. The chair of the student’s actual or prospective major department/program will be the main advisor for this and will determine whether any work they complete abroad can count as an Honors preparation.

In some cases, Departments/Programs may decide that they have enough information on a proposed course that it is not necessary to go through a final review process after a student returns from abroad (i.e., Auto-Credit).  In other cases, Departments/Programs require students to submit additional documents before the department/program can finalize credit approval (i.e., Not Auto-Credit).  Requirements regarding course materials are covered in more specific detail on the How to Request Credit page. 

Students are NOT permitted to register for courses with a remote learning component. All courses taken abroad must be fully in-person. If a student takes a course that begins as an in-person course but becomes remote due to a change in circumstances in their study abroad location, they must contact Global Engagement.

Credit/No Credit grades are NOT permitted for study abroad courses - students must take all courses for a grade. Courses with CR/NC grades are not eligible for credit.

Students can only receive credit for internships when their study abroad programs consider these internships credit-bearing and grade them. Credit-bearing internships offered by programs typically include a seminar and written assignments. In most cases, eligible internships receive OCST elective credit (see “What Types of Credit Are Available?” above). 

Any internship that doesn't appear on a student’s official program transcript with a grade is not eligible for credit.

It’s important to remember that around the world, grading systems and approaches to assessment vary greatly. Grading may be less transparent and may be based largely or entirely on one or two large exams or projects. Students may be accustomed to attaining certain grades at Swarthmore.  However, it might be difficult to achieve the equivalent grade in their host country.

A passing grade for courses abroad is (the equivalent of) a straight "C" or above (i.e., not a C-).  To be eligible for evaluation for Swarthmore credit, a student must receive (the equivalent of) a grade of straight “C” or better. 

The titles and grades of credit-eligible courses will show up on a student’s Swarthmore transcript and degree audit after they have returned from abroad and completed all GEO requirements for Final Credit Evaluation. Typically, these courses appear in the student’s records several weeks or months into their first semester back on campus. 

Courses that receive a C- or below will not receive credit.  

Grades earned abroad will appear on the Swarthmore transcript but are NOT included in the Swarthmore GPA. When graduate programs or employers ask students to self-report their GPA, GEO recommends including both a "Swarthmore-only GPA" and an "all-courses GPA" for the sake of clarity. See the Registrar page on Grades and GPA for additional details. 

Some overseas programs are accredited by U.S. institutions and issue their transcripts using U.S. letter grades. In other cases, official transcripts will be issued based on the foreign institution's grade scale. In these cases, if an accompanying grade scale is not provided by the foreign institution, the Swarthmore Registrar's Office uses conversion scales from 'Scholaro' which reflect best practices for international conversation standards. Scholaro is an endorsed member of the Association of International Credential Evaluators (AICE) and provides credential evaluation services to hundreds of universities around the world.