It is understood that you will follow the program of study which has been approved; however, it may be necessary to make changes in your course selection once you are abroad.
For Colby-programs, these changes need to be approved by your resident director.
For non-Colby programs, your academic advisor and the OCS office at Colby should be consulted regarding course changes. In order to request approval for any of your courses to count towards your Major or Minor requirements and/or All College Requirements, you need to contact the appropriate Dept. Chair for approval AND forward their response to OCS. You should send them the course number, name, description and a syllabus. If you are on a non-Colby program, it is your responsibility to contact the appropriate department and the Off-Campus Study office. Credits will be transferred only if your course changes are approved.
Off-Campus Study Course Approval Form for Major/Minor/All College Requirement credit
Colby programs: All grades received abroad will appear on your transcript and will count in your GPA. This includes passing and non-passing grades. You may elect to take a course satisfactory/unsatisfactory prior to a specific deadline, which will be announced once you arrive on-site. Resident directors of Colby programs submit the grades for students in their program directly to the registrar at Colby.
Non-Colby programs: Grades earned abroad are posted by the registrar but do not figure in your GPA. These grades do appear on your Colby transcript, and it is quite legitimate for you to count them when you are asked to compute your own GPA for the purpose of employment or graduate school. You will not receive credit for any course in which a grade of less than C- was received, but the grade will appear on your Colby transcript. You may not take a course on a pass/fail basis unless this is the only grading option available for that particular course. Transcripts for students on non-Colby programs are reviewed by the Off-Campus Study Office before credits are posted by the registrar. If you have made substantial changes in your academic program without prior approval of the Off-Campus Study Office, you may not receive full credit.
You are required to register and complete a full course load which must be at least the equivalent of 15-16 Colby credits for the semester. In some cases, the course load required by Colby may be higher than that recommended by your program provider. Colby may not approve full credit for certain courses that do not meet Colby’s standards of academic rigor.
Colby Programs: see individual program information.
Non-Colby Programs:
Standard courseload equivalents at some foreign universities
United Kingdom Universities: Students enrolled in both programs sponsored by US institutions (such as Butler Univ.) and directly enrolled at the host universities must register for a full course load as defined by the “Standard Course Load” handout. This course load must be at least the equivalent of 15-16 Colby credits for semester-based or early-start programs. Students attending UK institutions on the term system will generally receive between sixteen and twenty-one semester credits for two terms (winter and spring). Enrollment at most institutions for the fall term only is not permitted since the single term does not constitute full-time status.
Exam policy for UK universities:
Students are expected to take all final or Degree exams. At the LSE this always means exams in all courses and half-courses in which the student is enrolled. At other UK universities it means Degree exams except in the following situations:
- When graduating students do not sit an exam.
- When a student’s work is of high enough quality during the term to be excused from the exam using the same standards applied to the UK students receiving exemption from a degree exam in classes where such an exemption is possible.
- When a student joins a year-long course part way through the course. This situation would apply most frequently to spring semester students.
- When the degree exam covers materials not covered by the class taken by the student.
NOTE: Please take these exam policies into account as you plan your stay abroad. Those students attending approved fall semester programs should expect to stay into January to complete university exams, unless there is an early start program in September.
Australian and New Zealand Universities: Students enrolled in both programs sponsored by US institutions and directly enrolled at the host institution must register for a full course load as defined by the "Standard Course Load” handout prepared by the Office of Off-Campus Study. This course load must be at least the equivalent of 15-16 Colby credits. Students attending the University of Otago must enroll in 72 Otago points. A complete list of Colby College students and notation of this requirement will be sent at the beginning of each semester to the University of Otago Office of International Students and to Butler University.
Programs sponsored by US Institutions: Students enrolled in programs sponsored by US institutions must register for a full course load as defined by the sponsoring institution. This course load must be at least the equivalent of 15-16 Colby credits.
Course credit: Please be aware that Colby may not award full credit for certain courses taken abroad that are not deemed to have sufficient academic content to compared to Colby courses, even when these courses are “marketed” to you during your program orientation. For example, Sports & Learning in Australian Culture at the University of Sydney may only receive 2 credits. When in doubt, please consult with OCS by email and include a full course syllabus to allow us to determine the course content.
Students enrolled in programs in countries where the host language is not English are required to study the local language for the duration of the program. This includes both languages taught at Colby College and languages that are not included in the Colby curriculum. In some programs such as DIS (Denmark), the Danish language course will be in addition to 4 other courses for a total of 5 courses. Students who have received special accommodation for language study at Colby College should speak directly with the Office of Off-Campus Study.
For SIT programs or other programs involving Independent Study Projects not graded by the home institution, credit will be assigned by Colby only after the independent study project is evaluated by a Colby faculty member who has agreed to do so. If you write your project in a language not spoken by your evaluator, it is your responsibility to translate the project. Directed study projects on School for Field Study and Pitzer College programs do not need to be reviewed by Colby faculty.
Colby students on programs which are in session in January and whose total duration is at least eighteen weeks are exempt from the January program requirement for that year. Programs that qualify include: Fall: Colby in Salamanca (integrated program); Spring: Colby in Salamanca (integrated and language programs), Washington University in Chile, Oxford University, Wesleyan in Regensburg, University of Haifa, University of Sussex, University of Edinburgh, Pitzer in Ecuador, Cambridge University, University College London, University of York, Kings College, Royal Holloway, Williams-Mystic. (Note: If you believe that your program qualifies for the Jan Plan exemption and is not listed here, submit a program calendar for your semester to the Off-Campus Study Office for review.)
Students on Colby programs are billed by Colby in the same way as a semester or year on-campus.
Program fees for non-Colby programs will be paid by the student and directly to the program. All students studying on non-Colby programs will be billed a $1000 continuation charge for each semester they are away (excluding certain Colby affiliated programs). The charge will be billed to your home address by the business office. For students on financial aid, the charge is built into the aid package. Financial aid is portable to both Colby and non-Colby programs, if your plans have been approved by the OCS office. More details about billing can be obtained from the office of Student Financial Services. If you are on a non-Colby program, keep in mind that the program will not release your transcript to Colby if you have not paid them in full by the time your program is complete.
All students are required to complete program evaluations. Colby and Non-Colby program evaluations will be completed online. Transcripts for non-Colby programs and grades for Colby programs will not be released to the registrar until student log-ins to the evaluation site have been documented. Evaluations will be available at the end of the semester through the Off-Campus Study Web-site. http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/ocs/evals/takeeval.cfm
