Your Academic Plan
What About Coursework Abroad? When should this be taken care of?
Students should know, as early as possible in the application process, how their coursework abroad can be incorporated into their overall academic program. Therefore, it is important to discuss your program with you academic advisor.
Confirm Your Academic Plans
Students must consult with their academic adviser(s) to ensure that their proposed courses will enable them to make normal progress toward completion of major and degree requirements in a timely fashion.
Credit earned through Rhodes programs (all summer programs operated by Rhodes and European Studies) is Rhodes credit. Credit earned through non-Rhodes programs, including exchange programs, is transfer credit. Courses for transfer credit must be passed with a minimum grade of C- to be eligible for transfer credit. Please confirm the details of your course credit with a member of the Buckman Center staff. Normally, a student cannot earn more credit while on a full-year study program than could have been earned in a regular academic year at Rhodes. Students may not earn Foundations credit for courses completed abroad.
Credit for courses taken off campus will only be transferred once an official transcript for the work completed has been received by the Rhodes College Registrar and approval for all courses has been given by relevant Rhodes College officials.
Number of Credits to be Earned
No strict correlation exists between contact hours in courses taken off-campus and credits awarded by Rhodes. The College does not award more credit for a program than that awarded by the host institution, as determined by the host’s official transcript. If the host program’s transcript does not translate easily to “American” credit (e.g. credits, quarter hours, semester hours, units) or provide a conversion scale, or if the host institution’s academic calendar differs significantly from the Rhodes semester calendar, the following statement can act as a general principle: "A student pursuing a fully approved, full-time program of coursework on study abroad for a period roughly equivalent to Rhodes’ fall or spring semester will usually receive 16 transfer credits from Rhodes upon the successful completion of all coursework. Success completion is defined as earning a grade equivalent to “C-“ or better in each course."
Program Approval
Students seeking to study off-campus for transfer credit must submit an Off-Campus Study Approval Form for Non-Rhodes Programs to the Director of International Programs by the specified deadline for the period in which they plan to be absent from campus. They must enroll in programs which have been approved by the Director and pursue a fulltime course of study as defined by both the host institution and Rhodes. Program approval is based upon precedent, past experience, faculty, departmental and administrative knowledge and recommendation of a program, and/or site visits, whenever possible, to the program by a Rhodes faculty member or administrator. Students and faculty are referred to the Study Abroad area of the Buckman Center for International Education web site for information
on programs which are generally approved for Rhodes student use.
Course Approvals
Students who earn transfer credit while enrolled in a non-Rhodes program off-campus may have that credit applied to their major and/or minor requirements or may be given elective credit. If major and/or minor requirements are to be met with courses taken off-campus, students must receive approval of that coursework from the appropriate department or program chairs in consultation with the faculty advisers. Such approval is granted only through the signature of that department or program chair on the student’s Off-Campus Study Approval Form for Non-Rhodes Programs.
Elective credit will be approved by the appropriate academic officer acting on behalf of the Faculty Education Program Committee. In most cases, this approval will come from the Director of International Programs, the Registrar, or the chair of the department or program at Rhodes in which the coursework will be pursued. While credit should be approved prior to enrollment in the courses, in some cases it may be necessary to postpone approval until course descriptions, syllabi, papers, and tests are examined. To be accepted for credit, each course must be judged comparable in terms of content and quality to a course in the curriculum at Rhodes or it must be judged to be consistent with the liberal arts and science curriculum and of a quality comparable to that expected of courses at Rhodes.
Students must maintain a full-time load of academic coursework comparable to that at Rhodes in level, nature, and field, applicable to a Rhodes degree program. Course approvals must be secured prior to taking the course(s) so that the student is clear on the transferability of all courses and credits. Should a student’s course selection change for any reason after submission of their application, substituted courses are not transferable unless approved by an appropriate department or program chair, academic advisor, or Academic Officer. Such approval must be sought immediately (i.e., e-mail, fax); copies of any such correspondence should also be directed to the Director of International Programs. Credit will not be transferred for any course for which a student has not obtained pre-approval unless retroactive approval is granted by the appropriate department, program chair, or Academic Officer after the student’s return. Such retroactive approval is not guaranteed and must be obtained before the conclusion of the first semester completed by the student upon their return to Rhodes.