All short-term Study Abroad Programs must strike a difficult balance between academic and cultural learning. The academic work required to complete successfully a 3-credit course that will be approved for Baruch credit is considerable when concentrated into a few weeks’ time. The more time you devote to reading, homework, research for papers, etc., for the more strictly academic aspects of a course, the less time you will have available to explore and engage the local culture. The principal difference between taking courses at Baruch and taking them abroad is the different cultural setting. Opinions may differ on how best to reconcile the academic and cultural learning parts of the program, but Baruch’s policy is on this matter aims to maximize your opportunities for learning about the local culture outside the classroom while ensuring that the course you complete meets Baruch’s academic standards for a semester course. For this reason, Baruch will typically not approve a student to earn credit for more than one course unless the duration of the summer Study Abroad Program is at least 5 weeks (excluding travel days).

This policy has academic and financial implications for Baruch students who wish to apply to these programs.

Some CUNY Colleges as well as other program sponsors offer summer Study Abroad Program that give students an option to earn up to 6 academic credits (2 courses); some even require students participating in the program to register for 6 credits, even though the program runs for less than five weeks’ time. Baruch students who participate in such sponsored Study Abroad Programs must pay CUNY tuition for the credits they hope to earn on these programs (in addition to the program fee, which covers other things and is paid directly to the sponsoring CUNY College), or pay tuition for 6 credits to the program sponsor (as part of the comprehensive program fee).

If a Sponsored summer Study Abroad Program does not run for a full 5 weeks, please note your options:

• If you have an option of enrolling in 3 or 6 credits, you should probably choose to enroll in only 3 credits. Since you would earn academic credit for only one course, you want to pay tuition for only one course.
• If the program requires all participants to register for 6 credits (2 courses), you would have pay tuition for 6 credits, but might earn only 3 credits.

Please keep this in mind when considering summer Study Abroad Programs. You should choose the option that best suits your interests, but you need to know exactly what your options are.