Academics

Global Engagement collaborates with Drake faculty and Partners to ensure that all students have high-quality academic experiences while abroad.

Students are encouraged to work with Academic Advisors early in their Drake careers to determine courses and a timeframe for when it would be best to join 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.  

Types of Credit 

Courses taken on any type of program, a Drake Program, Exchange, Affiliate Program, or Direct Enroll can apply to a students’ major, minor, concentration within their degree plan, or AOIs. This means that all types of academic international programs can apply toward graduation requirements. 

Course Approval Process 

For students participating in Affiliate or Exchange Programs, you will be taking courses at another institution abroad, so you will need to complete Drake’s Course Approval Form. You will meet with your Academic Advisor as you're applying to the study abroad program to get the courses pre-approved to count toward specific Drake courses, elective credits, or AOIs. On the course approval form, the student will indicate which courses they intend to take while abroad. During the meeting with the Academic Advisor, students will share the course descriptions and/or syllabi for the selected courses. The Advisor will then be able to share how the course abroad will apply to your degree plan at Drake University.

Course Load 

For short-term programs, like J-term and Summer, most students take either three or six credits. 

For semester programs, students are required to maintain a full-time load, which is equivalent to 12 U.S. semester credits abroad.

The number of credits you take can have implications for financial aid, so if you plan to use financial aid for your international program, discuss this with Drake's Financial Aid office early in the application process.