How We Advise Students on Exchange Programs

We have seen more students asking about spending a semester or year abroad and anticipate that more CALS students will take advantage of this opportunity. We are starting to gather information to make this process smoother as the numbers of students increase. Watch this website for more resources for advisors. In the meantime, we thought it would be useful to make sure you know what we tell them.

We first encourage them to talk to their advisor!

• We want to make sure they understand how a semester or year abroad will impact their academic program and try to help them have all the information they need to make the right decision for themselves.

• We try to be very careful in helping them understand that while we know the international side of study abroad, we are not academic advisors and therefore they should run all their “academic plans” by you.
  

If they are planning far enough ahead, we encourage them to “save back” some of their electives.

• We have picked specific partners because of the kinds of CALS-like courses they offer, so we anticipate that they will be able to take classes that will transfer easily back to their academic program, however, we also know that sometimes the best part of going abroad is taking classes that they absolutely can’t take here and anticipate that those will transfer as electives.

If your advisee picks a program where a lot of students have gone previously, the admissions office will have a record of the courses previous students have taken and how they have transferred back.

There are more and more resources available to students now than ever before – many universities have online catalogs or resources for international students that will help our students know about courses and credits before they go. Additionally, technology has made communication between a student abroad and their advisor much easier during their exchange.

Students go abroad for a lot of reasons. If they need the credits they earn abroad for graduation or are picking a program because of the academic content, we encourage them to use their degree audit and “work backwards” into a program that will give them the credits they need. We would then send them to their advisor to confirm their plan so they lower their risk of being surprised when they return.

We are dedicated to helping students study abroad. Because of the unique nature of semester/year abroad programs, we see academic advisors as a crucial part of the team in making sure the opportunity is a good academic investment for them. Please don’t hesitate to let us know what information we can provide for you to make your job advising them easier. Please let us know what suggestions or questions you have.