V. Overseas Study

1. Approval

A student who wishes to apply courses taken on any overseas study program to a Georgetown degree must obtain approval, prior to departure, for the study program and for the specific courses to be taken. Each student should formulate a study proposal to be submitted for approval. In most cases initial approval will be given by a faculty advisor. In Georgetown College the approval of the student’s major department is required. In all cases, the final approval is given by the Dean of the student’s school.

If the language of instruction is not English, the student must also take a language examination administered by the appropriate language department, prior to making application to the program.

If students need or want to change their selection of courses after arrival at the overseas location, approval for the changes must be obtained from the Dean of the student’s school.

2. Admission

Once the necessary approvals have been granted, a student should apply to the appropriate office for admission. In the case of most Georgetown-sponsored programs this will be the Office of International Programs. A student applying to a program which is not sponsored by Georgetown University should write directly to the program sponsor to obtain application information, and should also file an abbreviated version of the Georgetown application with the Office of International Programs.

3. Registration and Enrollment Status

In the case of Georgetown-sponsored programs, an admitted student should register for the overseas program or, in some cases, for the individual courses. An admitted student is considered enrolled for a full-time course of study during the period spent abroad.

A student who wants to participate in a program not sponsored by Georgetown must apply through the Office of International Programs selection process in order to receive credit for academic work completed abroad. A student who is not approved and chooses to attend such program must take a leave of absence (see Regulations, I, 7). If approved, the student will remain enrolled at Georgetown University in Independent Consortial status and will be enrolled in the GU Education Abroad Accident and Sickness Insurance Plan. The student will be required to register for sufficient credits to be regarded as at least a half-time student and will be certified as a half-time student by Georgetown during study abroad and will be eligible to apply for both Georgetown and federal financial aid. Once the student has successfully completed the program abroad, his or her transcript will show a Georgetown-approved independent study abroad notation.

4. Credits, Grades, and Residency

Credit towards the undergraduate degree will be awarded for all previously approved courses, provided the courses have been successfully completed with a grade equivalent to at least a C, and provided the student presents acceptable documentation from the host university or sponsoring institution. A maximum of 17 credits per semester (12 credits per summer session) may be applied to Georgetown degrees from overseas programs.

If a student has successfully completed a course of study that is considered to be a full course of study for local students at the host university, full credit (15 credits and 5 courses per semester) will be awarded for the overseas program. Credits may be applied towards general education requirements, the major or concentration, the minor, or counted as electives, at the discretion of the appropriate Georgetown academic officers.

In the case of Georgetown-sponsored programs, all grades (including grades for courses for which no credit is granted by Georgetown) will be recorded on the student’s academic transcript as reported to Georgetown by the overseas program officers. In the case of students studying on other programs during the summer, only course titles and credits (not grades) will be recorded on the transcript.

In most cases, grades earned overseas will not be computed in the student’s cumulative Quality Point Index. Exceptions are grades earned in courses offered directly by Georgetown at Fiesole, Alanya, and in Georgetown summer programs abroad; these are included in the student’s QPI.

Work completed on overseas study, including summer study abroad, does not count toward fulfilling the residency requirement with the following exceptions: semester-long study at SFS-Qatar, the Villa le Balze, or the McGhee Center, Turkey, counts as one semester toward the four semester minimum residency requirement.

Undergraduate Bulletin 2012-2013 Table of Contents
Copyright 2012, Georgetown University.