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.
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 number of classes that is designed by the program.
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.”
Foreign Equivalency of Full-Time
Baruch students are required to enroll in a minimum of 12 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 values for courses in “credits” of its 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. In this example, if you are studying at a European university, you would be required to take courses worth at least 24 ECTS credits. Each course that you take abroad must be approved for equivalent Baruch credit. You must take enough courses to equal at least 12 Baruch credits, and each course that you take must be approved for transfer to Baruch.
Credit values for Foreign Courses
Credit values for courses at Baruch are based on “contact hours,” or the number of hours over the semester that you are in class actively receiving instruction.
Number of Credits |
Minimun Required Contact hours at Baruch |
3 Credit Courses |
36 hours |
3 Credit Language Courses |
45 hours |
4 Credit Language Courses |
60 hours |
Credits abroad may be assigned using a similar measure, but often the standard used is overall workload for a given course.
At many universities abroad, one course will be equivalent to one Baruch course. In any situation where this is not the case, it will be reviewed by the Director of Study Abroad. As a rule of thumb, as long as you are taking what is considered a full-time load at your host university, you should be able to convert your credits into at least 12 Baruch credits.
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 Study Abroad Office.