Our office works with the Drake Colleges and Schools to ensure that all students have access to high-quality academic experiences while abroad.
Students are encouraged to work with Academic Advisors early in their Drake careers to determine courses that would be best to take on a program abroad. In doing so, it’s important to understand the types of credit students earn on programs, as well as how the course approval process works.
Courses taken on any type of program, whether it be a Drake Program, Exchange, Direct Enroll, or Affiliate Program, can apply to a students’ major, minor, or concentration within their degree plan. This means that all types of study abroad programs can apply toward graduation requirements. Students can also take courses abroad that can count toward unfulfilled AOIs, which are Drake’s “gen ed” requirements, like Art or History courses.
For students participating on Exchange or Affiliate Programs, it’s recommended that you meet with your Academic Advisor before your travel abroad to get your courses pre-approved. You can use Drake’s Course Approval Form to indicate which courses you plan to take while abroad, and how your Academic Advisor would like them to count back into your degree plan.
For short-term programs, like J-term and Summer, most students take either three or six credits. The number of credits you take can have implications on Financial Aid, so if you plan to use aid on a short-term program, discuss this with the Student Financial Planning office early in the application process.
For semester programs, students are required to maintain a full-time load, which is equivalent to 12 U.S. semester credits abroad.
Visit our Study Abroad Program Search to narrow down your options. You can search by location, term, area of study and program type to help you find the best fit for you!
