Course Equivalency
At Baruch College, credit for study abroad is awarded strictly on the basis of course equivalency. What this means is that any course you take at a foreign university or on a study abroad program must closely match a course offered at Baruch in terms of content and academic level. Students who study abroad must have the courses they intend to take abroad approved in advance whenever possible. All decisions regarding course equivalencies for foreign university courses are made by the chair or designated representative of the relevant Baruch department.
When completing your Application to Study Abroad, you will be asked to find courses at the host institution, obtain syllabi or other documentation to help the departments make the decision, and suggest an equivalent Baruch College course. Detailed instructions on how to choose and enter courses for your Application to Study Abroad are given below.
Academic Policies and Study Abroad
The same basic policies that apply to courses taken at Baruch also generally apply to courses taken abroad: you may only take certain courses if you have completed the prerequisite(s) listed for that course. However, students studying abroad are sometimes granted a temporary waiver for a pre- or co-requisite course. This means that you may be approved to take a more advanced course abroad before you complete the pre- or co-requisite(s), if you take the course abroad.
Please note: If you receive a pre- or co-requisite waiver, you are still required to complete the course(s) temporarily waived when you return, unless you are granted an exemption from taking the course(s). An exemption from a pre- or co-requisite requires the written approval of the Chair of the department offering the Baruch equivalency and must be submitted to the Director of Study Abroad.
The credits and grade(s) (if applicable) for the courses taken abroad will not be posted until you have completed the waived pre- or co-requisite(s) or obtained an exemption and submitted it to the Director of Study Abroad.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you meet all requirements for any course you take abroad for Baruch credit.
In addition to the specific prerequisites for individual Baruch courses, if you wish to take a course abroad which is equivalent to a 3000- or 4000-level level business course at Baruch, you must also fulfill general eligibility requirements:
- If your declared or intended major is in the Zicklin School of Business, you must meet all the requirements of Regular Entry into the Zicklin School of Business. In practice, this means that you need to complete all Zicklin prerequisite courses prior to study abroad (not just be “admitted” to the Zicklin School of Business) to be eligible to take 3000- or 4000-level business courses abroad for Baruch credit.
- If your declared major or minor is in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs or the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and your major requires or allows you to take 3000- or 4000-level courses in the Zicklin School of Business, you are NOT required to complete the requirements of Regular Entry. However, you may only earn Baruch credit for a course taken abroad if it has been approved as equivalent to one of the courses specifically listed as part of your major or minor curriculum. Any exceptions to this policy must be approved in advance by the Chair of the department offering the course and the Director of Study Abroad.
Studying abroad is fundamentally about taking courses for academic credit in a different cultural context. All study abroad involves a combination of academic (disciplinary) and cultural learning. A significant amount of cultural interaction-hence cultural learning-takes place studying alongside other students inside the physical classroom. The experience of such cultural interaction cannot be replicated through an online course, and is significantly diminished in hybrid or “blended” formats. Consequently, with very few exceptions, students may only enroll in classes taught fully in person when studying abroad.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was self-evident that students studying abroad would only enroll in in-person classes, because other modes of instruction (“hybrid,” synchronous and asynchronous online classes, etc.) were rare. Like Baruch, since the pandemic, many institutions have expanded their course offerings in varied formats. Many Baruch students may find that a combination of in-person, hybrid and/or online courses fits in well with their schedules and other commitments when studying at Baruch. However, these considerations do not apply to study abroad, because of the priority study abroad gives to immersive academic learning in a different cultural environment.
Naturally, in an emergency like a pandemic, institutions or programs abroad may shift to online modes of instruction for shorter or longer periods. Moreover, sometimes a course that is initially offered in a fully in-person format will switch unexpectedly to a different mode of instruction. Mindful of these various possibilities, Baruch has developed a policy that properly privileges in-person learning abroad, but that is flexible enough to adapt to changed circumstances.
Students wishing to earn Baruch academic credit while studying abroad are required to enroll in fully in-person classes unless:
- the host university or Study Abroad Program has moved all instruction to an online format as a result of an emergency (students must provide evidence of this change to the Director of Study Abroad); or
- the mode of instruction for a specific course was changed from in-person to hybrid or online after the student had registered for the course, and there was no opportunity to switch into an alternative in-person class. Students must document this switch to the Director of Study Abroad and must also provide evidence of their good-faith effort to swap into an in-person section of the course or an alternative course. In any case, students must obtain written approval of the Director of Study Abroad to remain in the hybrid or online course; or
- there is a compelling and urgent academic justification for being allowed to take a course in a hybrid or blended mode of instruction. Such requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and each individual request to enroll in a course taught in hybrid or blended mode must be approved in advance and in writing by the Director of Study Abroad. Waivers of the Study Abroad In-Person Study Requirement will normally only be granted if a student can satisfactorily demonstrate that not being allowed to take a given course abroad in hybrid or blended format would (1) force the student to delay her or his graduation or (2) would create an unreasonable impediment to the student’s ability to complete all remaining degree requirements by the student’s anticipated graduation date.
Any Course Equivalency Approval Request listed on a student’s Application to Study Abroad is valid only for courses taught fully in-person, unless the student is granted a waiver by the Director of Study Abroad.
Students who enroll in hybrid and/or online courses without written approval of the Director of Study Abroad forfeit their eligibility to receive a CV Starr Study Abroad Fellowship.
A minimum of 60 percent of the credits in a student’s major field must be completed at Baruch College. Transfer students must meet all degree requirements of their major and must in addition take a minimum of 30 credits earned for courses taken at Baruch for the BA or BS degree, and a minimum of 31 credits earned for courses taken at Baruch for the BBA degree.
Certain courses in the curriculum at Baruch must be taken in-residence, and thus will NOT be approved for study abroad. Those include:
- MGT 4999 (formerly BPL 5100)
- Capstone courses for all majors and minors (any exceptions must be approved in advance and in writing by the Chair of the Department in question and the Director of Study Abroad)
- FIN 4610 or FIN 4710 (students may take either FIN 4610 or FIN 4710 abroad, but not both
Changes are frequently made to the curriculum of the Zicklin School of Business, and the list above should not be seen as exhaustive. Information about the current curricular requirements for undergraduate programs in the Zicklin School of Business is available on the Zicklin website, and inquiries about any restrictions on courses students may take abroad may be directed to the Undergraduate Programs Office.
Grades Earned for Study Abroad
You will receive a grade for every course you take abroad. There is no “pass/fail” for courses taken abroad. However, not all grades students receive for their course work abroad will be displayed on their Baruch transcript. In addition, depending on the program, the credit for the courses you take abroad is considered either “GPA credit” or transfer credit (“Non-GPA credit”).
GPA Credit
“GPA credit” means that the grade(s) you receive for the course(s) you take abroad will be factored into your Baruch grade point average, just like any other course you take at Baruch or on E-Permit at another CUNY College.
You earn GPA credit only if you study abroad on Baruch-sponsored faculty-led Study Abroad Program or on a Study Abroad Program sponsored by another CUNY College. If the course you take abroad is on a program sponsored by a CUNY College (this includes Baruch Faculty-led programs), you have paid (or had paid on your behalf) CUNY tuition for that program, and you have filed an E-Permit for that program (if it is sponsored by another CUNY College), you earn GPA credit. The sponsoring CUNY College will post your course, credits and grade(s) on your CUNYfirst record, the grade(s) will be listed on your CUNYfirst record, and the grade(s) will be factored into your GPA at Baruch.
Transfer credit
Transfer credit is academic credit earned at another institution of higher education that Baruch College accepts for credit. Such academic credit can count towards students’ degree requirements. Transfer credit earned from studying abroad is accepted in much the same way: as credit only. Such academic credit is considered “GPA neutral,” in other words, the grades are NOT factored into a student’s GPA.
Students earn transfer (“non-GPA”) credit if they study on a Baruch Exchange Program, at a foreign university through Direct Enrollment, or on a Study Abroad program NOT sponsored by another CUNY College. For example, students who study at the Berlin School of Economics and Law through the Baruch Exchange, at the Instituto Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence through Direct Enrollment, or on a Study Abroad Program sponsored by CIEE, a SUNY campus, Arcadia University’s College of Global Education, Academic Programs International, etc., will earn transfer credit only. The grades one earns on these programs may be displayed on a student’s CUNYfirst record, but these grades will NOT be factored into a student’s Baruch GPA.
Please note, however, that students must have been awarded the local equivalent grade of at least a “C” (undergraduate) or “B” (graduate) for the course from the host institution or Study Abroad Program in order to receive transfer credit.
If you have any questions about this policy, please speak to the Director or Associate Director of Study Abroad.
All students who study abroad from Baruch must take a full load of courses as designed by the program. For Summer Session and Winter Intersession programs, this usually means 1-2 courses per session.
For semester programs, this means the equivalent of at least 12 transferable credits. If a course at a foreign institution has been approved for Baruch credit, then the credit is “transferable.”
Most students studying abroad for a semester must obtain a student visa, which requires you to be a full-time student. Furthermore, taking less than a full-time load could affect your eligibility for financial aid and scholarships used to pay for study abroad.
If you are studying on a short-term program, you must take the minimum number of classes that is designed by the program. However, if you are studying abroad on a short-term Study Abroad Program (especially during the summer term), you may only take more than one course abroad if the Study Abroad Program is at least 5 five weeks in duration. If you have any questions about how many courses you are allowed to take on a short-term program, please speak to the Director of Study Abroad.
Foreign Equivalency of Full-Time for Semester Study Abroad Programs
Baruch students who study abroad for a semester are required to enroll in a minimum of 12 transferable credits to be considered full-time for financial aid purposes. However, 12 credits at a foreign university do not automatically equal 12 Baruch credits. For example, universities in Europe assign credit values using the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). A full-time course load at these universities is 30 ECTS credits per semester, which translates into 15 Baruch credits. However, you are not required to enroll in the equivalent of 15 Baruch credits. In fact, we recommend that you enroll only in the equivalent of 12 Baruch credits, if possible. In this example, if you are studying at a European university, you would be required to take courses worth at least 24 ECTS credits. You must make sure that you take enough courses at the host institution to equal at least 12 Baruch credits. Each course that you take abroad must be approved for equivalent Baruch credit, and the total number of credits transferable to Baruch must equal at least 12.
Part-Time Internships
From Baruch’s perspective, approved credit-bearing part-time internships taken abroad are considered part of your academic course load and thus count towards your full-time status. However, if the policies of the host institution are different, you must abide by its policies. If you are doing an internship that is not credit-bearing, then you will need to take a full-time load of courses in addition to the internship.
If you have any questions about any of these policies, please contact the Director or Associate Director of Study Abroad.
If you are enrolled in a graduate program of the Zicklin School of Business, the credits you earn studying abroad on one of Baruch’s exchange programs count as in-residence credit, even though they are recorded as transfer credit and are “GPA neutral.” This is an advantage for Zicklin graduate students who are in a position to study abroad for a semester, because the credits earned abroad on an exchange program are not counted towards the maximum number of credits students are currently allowed to transfer.