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 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. Here are some examples to consider:
- A CUNY College sponsors a summer program that offers intensive Spanish language instruction. All courses at all levels are valued at 4 credits each. At Baruch, some Spanish language courses (SPA 1001, SPA 1002) are worth 3 credits each, while others (SPA 3001, SPA 3002) are worth 4 credits each. A Baruch student participating in this program would pay for 4 CUNY credits, since that is what the sponsoring CUNY College offered it for. However, if the course the student took was equivalent to Baruch’s Elementary Spanish II (SPA 1002), the student would receive only 3 credits, since SPA 1002 at Baruch is worth 3 credits, but would be paying for 4 credits.
- Some CUNY Colleges offer summer Study Abroad Programs 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 that the program requires. As a Baruch student, 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 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 at most 3 credits. An Application to Study Abroad on such a program is not likely to be approved, for the reasons stated above. It is also possible that the relevant Baruch department(s) would not approve either of the two courses for 3 credits, if there were some doubt about the amount of time available for the academic work on the course.
Please keep this in mind when considering summer Study Abroad Programs. You should choose the program that best suits your interests, but you need to know exactly what your options are.
