Global Education & Partnerships: Academic

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Study / Intern Abroad
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Transatlantic Outreach Program - TOP (Graduate Credit)

Academic Considerations

1. It is very possible to make academic progress while studying abroad. Yet you will want to keep the following in mind as your make your academic plans:

You must plan your academic program at the international institution in conjunction with your home department, and specifically your academic advisor. Global Education & Partnerships cannot assist you with academic planning. It is important that you take your course planning seriously from the beginning. Making later changes will involve lengthy international communications and course acceptability may be in doubt.
Most international programs recommend that you take 12 rather than 15 credits. Twelve credits is the minimum full-time credit requirement for MU. Failure to maintain and complete the minimum 12 credits can affect a variety of other situations such as, financial aid, visa requirements and medical insurance.
Studying abroad for one semester waives the perspectives (“P”) requirement, but not the actual credits. Students still need 120 credits to graduate.
Your courses taken abroad will come back to Millersville as transfer courses, as if you had taken them at another U.S. institution. Millersville’s transfer policy from the Undergraduate Catalog for 2007-2008 states:
Evaluation of credits from other institutions for possible transfer to Millersville is done by the Registrar’s Office, Lyle Hall, after a student has been admitted. In general, transfer credit is awarded for courses in fields of study offered at Millersville that were completed with a C- or higher on the campus of a regionally accredited institution. For institutions with other grading scales, courses in which the applicant has earned a grade above the lowest passing grade are accepted.
Courses failed at Millersville must be repeated at Millersville in order to earn credit toward graduation. Students may not transfer credit for any course taken at another institution that is the equivalent of a course previously taken at Millersville; this policy applies whether the course was passed or failed at Millersville University. Language students should be aware that if a student’s placement test abroad places them into a level already completed at or transferred to Millersville University, these courses will not transfer. Students may repeat courses at Millersville that they have received transferred credit, but they will forfeit the transfer credit.
Transfer credits are not used in computing Millersville GPAs except when determining Latin graduation honors, and only if they increase your GPA if graduating before December 2009. (For MU students only) there is no limit for the number of transfer credits accepted as long as a minimum of 30 credits and 50% of the major / 50% of the minor / 50% of the option are completed in residence at MU per the University Governance Manual. Please discuss this policy with your academic advisor during your preparations to study abroad.
Always pay close attention that courses taken abroad will fit into your major(s), minor(s), option(s) or General Education requirements. For instance, if you take International Law abroad, it would transfer back to Millersville as GOVT 351: International Law. However, GOVT 351 is not a G3, so you would not be able to count it as a G3.
Neither the Office of Global Education nor the international institution you are attending will manipulate or change courses so that they will count toward your academic program. Nor can the Office of Global Education or the international institution advise you about your specific academic program; only your home department and advisor can authorize how your courses will count toward your academic progress.

2. Transcripts from abroad for completed Fall semesters will typically not arrive to Millersville until late March or April of the following semester. Without the receipt of the transcript, Millersville will only recognize credits completed prior to your study abroad experience. Lesser credits will impact your pre-registration status for the following Fall as well as for other situations where credit status is important.