Obtaining Course Pre-Approval for Study Abroad

You must obtain pre-approval for the courses you intend to take while abroad, whether you register prior to leaving the U.S. or on-site in your host country.

Procedure:

Image: Dante sculptureFirst, meet with your advisor to discuss your study abroad plans, destination and possible course options. This conversation is a crucial first step to ensure that you maximize your academic experience and to lay the groundwork for registering for classes after you return. In this conversation, you'll identify degree requirements and which courses might lend themselves towards being taken abroad. Remember all courses need to be pre-approved to ensure that credits will count towards core, major and minor (as applicable).

Second, meet with your study abroad advisor and bring the list of degree requirements that you developed with your academic advisor. For most programs we have extensive lists of courses that have been pre-approved and together with the list you have developed with your advisor we are often able to pre-approve the likely courses in one meeting.

Normally we ask students to get approval for more classes than they are likely to take to ensure that if you need to change a class you already know what is approved and what it can be counted towards. If there are courses that have not been approved before, your study abroad advisor will coordinate the approval process with the chair of the department and will notate your course approval form to reflect the consent of the chair.

Be sure to keep your copy of the form, as this is your roadmap to which classes you can take abroad. If after arriving at the site you need to make changes beyond the alternates already listed on your course approval form, email your study abroad advisor right away to make sure we have sufficient time to get clearance for any new courses.

Study abroad courses taken without pre-approval may be rejected by Fairfield University and refused for transfer credit. Be sure all of your courses have been reviewed and approved by the study abroad office.

Third, after you return, review your stagweb degree evaluation to ensure that the courses you took abroad are appearing and that they are counting correctly towards your degree requirements. Please remember that for some programs it can take 8-10 weeks after the end of your program before we receive and post your results.

School / College Representatives

For questions or corrections that pertain to core and electives credits, contact your study abroad advisor for review. For major and minor issues please contact your School / College Representatives:

Note: Before leaving your host country at the conclusion of your semester abroad, be sure to make arrangements for a transcript to be sent to Elena Syssoeva, Study Abroad Office, so that your courses can be transferred to your Fairfield record.