Students Currently Abroad - Zicklin School of Business

We hope you are enjoying and making the most of your study abroad opportunity. Your time abroad should be focused on academic, cultural, and experiential learning. You should become involved in student and cultural life as much as possible while you are abroad; it is a unique opportunity, so make the most of it.

Even if you have prepared yourself well for study abroad, living and studying abroad will confront you with new experiences that you had not anticipated. As was mentioned in the section on preparing to study abroad, these experiences, and the ambiguous or sometimes conflicting feelings they engender, are a normal part of adjustment to your new environment. Should you encounter difficulties, please seek help locally immediately. If you are unable to resolve the problem, you should contact the Study Abroad Office. We can only help you if we know that you have a problem. The Center for Global Education provides a helpful online Study Abroad Student Handbook to help inform you about some of the everyday issues your will face living abroad.

But there are a few administrative matters you need to be aware of, and some you need to attend to, in order to ensure that you receive full credit for your work abroad, and that your transition back to Baruch goes smoothly. We in the Study Abroad Office will do whatever we can to help you meet all your deadlines and obligations throughout the application process and while you are abroad. We have provided information to help you make sure you are administratively on track for a smooth “re-entry” into Baruch.

Contribute to the Study Abroad Blog

While you are abroad, please consider contributing items to the blog of the Weissman Center for International Business, which welcomes blog contributions from students currently abroad who have stories, photos, or information that they would like to share with the Baruch Community. You can access the blog at here.

Academics

REGISTRATION

Registration for courses at Baruch College for students abroad is handled as it is for students in residence, online via CUNY First. Inquiries about any difficulties you are having with CUNY First should be addressed to the Registrar’s Office.

If you have completed your Study Abroad Permit as required, there should be nothing pertaining to your study abroad that would delay your registration for the next semester. Please consult the section Study Abroad Permit to make certain that you have fulfilled all requirements. If you are taking abroad the prerequisite for a course you want to register for when you return you must complete and have submitted a Certificate of Attendance. Failure to complete these requirements in a timely fashion could result in your missing your registration date.

Course prerequisites

Students often take courses abroad whose Baruch equivalencies are prerequisites for courses they wish to take when they return. However, because of the delay in processing transcripts from abroad, this information is not available in the CUNY First registration system. Consequently, students who attempt to register for a course may receive an error message stating that they lack a prerequisite. This would happen, for example, if you are currently enrolled in a course at a foreign university that is equivalent to FIN 3000, and wish to register for FIN 3610 for the subsequent semester. Since your credits for FIN 3000 would be entered into CUNY First only after your registration date, you would likely receive an error message if you attempted to register for FIN 3610.

There is, however, a very simple way to deal with this difficulty. If you have been approved to take a course abroad that is a prerequisite for another course, and you need to register for this more advanced course the semester you return, you must notify the Study Abroad Office as far in advance of your registration date as possible. We will contact the appropriate department chair to grant you permission provisionally to enroll in the more advanced course.

PLEASE NOTE: The permission to enroll in the more advanced course is provisional, and is conditional upon your receiving a passing grade for the (prerequisite) course taken abroad. Should you not receive credit for the course taken abroad once the transcript has been processed, the provisional permission to enroll in the advanced course will be rescinded and it will be dropped from your schedule.

Study abroad Extension

If you decide while you are studying abroad that you wish to extend your time abroad into the next semester, please follow these simple instructions:

If you wish to continue studying on the same Study Abroad Program or at the same university, you must submit your request to extend your stay in writing to the Director of Study Abroad, along with a statement explaining your request, by the deadline for students’ Application to Study Abroad (October 1 for January Intersession and Spring Semester; March 15 for the Summer and Fall Terms). You should receive a decision on your request within three weeks.

If you wish to study abroad at a different location or on a different Study Abroad Program, you must submit online a new Application Study Abroad for the new destination and/or program. You must meet the same application deadline as students in-residence applying to study abroad that semester.

In either case, you are responsible for obtaining your Study Abroad Permit before the next semester begins for any courses you wish to take during that semester, or, if necessary, for applying for a Conditional Study Abroad Permit. Please keep in close contact with the Study Abroad Office, as we can help you deal with aspects of the Study Abroad Permit application process that are difficult to do from abroad.

If you have already registered for courses at Baruch for the following semester, and in the meantime have received approval to extend your study abroad, you must drop all your courses in order for the Study Abroad Office to process your Study Abroad Permit application.

Financial Aids

Certificate of Attendance

Students who are studying abroad for at least one semester are required to take the equivalent of a full-time course load (at least 12 credits transferable to Baruch College) at the university or educational institution they are attending. If you are receiving financial aid or a scholarship for your study abroad, you must provide evidence that you are enrolled for at least 12 credits. The proper way to do this is to file a completed Certificate of Attendance.

The Certificate of Attendance is a document that verifies your continued registration at the host university or Study Abroad Program and the specific courses you are taking there. To fill it out, enter your personal information, the titles of the courses you are taking at the host institution, the equivalent Baruch College course, and indicate whether a course has been approved for Baruch credit or not. Print and sign this form and give it to an official of the Host University or Study Abroad Program. That official must verify after the final date for dropping classes that you are enrolled in the courses listed on the Certificate of Attendance, stamp and sign the form and send it to us by email or fax. Students who are studying abroad for more than one semester must complete a separate Certificate of Attendance for each semester they are abroad.

All students who are studying abroad for a semester and who receive financial aid or scholarship money for their study abroad must arrange to have the Certificate of Attendance submitted. The Certificate of Attendance should be submitted by the second week after the beginning of the semester or the first week after the beginning of the summer or winter program. Please note: If you are taking a course abroad that is a prerequisite for a course you want to register for when you return, you will not be given the required special permission to enroll in the course until the Study Abroad Office has received a completed Certificate of Attendance from the host institution or Study Abroad Program.

Baruch needs to have official verification that you are currently enrolled in classes that have been approved for Baruch College credit. If a completed Certificate of Attendance is not submitted for you, your financial aid may be delayed, and you risk not receiving credit for the work you do while abroad. This, in turn, could cause you to forfeit some financial aid. It is your responsibility and in your interest to submit the Certificate of Attendance in a timely fashion.