Academics

Courses taken on any type of program (Drake Program, Exchange, Direct Enroll, or Affiliate Program) can apply to a students’ major, minor, or concentration within their degree plan. This means that all types of study abroad programs can apply toward graduation requirements. Students can also take courses that they can count toward unfulfilled AOIs (Drake’s “gen ed” requirements, like Art or History courses).  

Students participating in Drake Programs will earn Drake credits and grades, which will be represented on their official Drake University transcript. Drake Programs are led by Drake faculty and staff members, so the courses are considered official Drake University courses, just taught in an international setting instead of in Des Moines, Iowa. Students who join a Drake Program will earn a grade that is also factored into their Drake GPA.   

Students participating in Exchange, Affiliate, or Direct Enroll Programs will earn transfer credit. The courses and grades will appear as transfer credit on the Drake University transcript, but will not be incorporated into the student’s Drake GPA. Even though the courses are transfer credit, they can still apply toward major, minor, and/or concentration requirements, including toward AOIs. Your Academic Advisor determines how courses will transfer back to Drake, and then notifies your College or School’s Dean’s Office, as well as Drake’s Registrar’s Office.

Students who are participating in an Exchange, Affiliate, or Direct Enroll Program should complete the course approval process.

• To begin the course approval process, download the Course Approval Form. 
• From there, students should pencil in course offerings that they would like to take while abroad from the course catalog of the partner university or program abroad.
  • Courses that are available through the partner university are frequently linked through the program page in our online portal.
  • Our office recommends selecting first choice courses, but also selecting “back-up” courses in case your top choice courses fill during the term you intend to be abroad.
• Students should enter information into the “Subject & Course #,” “Course Title,” and “Expected Credits” columns.
• Once you complete your portion of the Course Approval Form, you must review the form and your course choices with your Academic Advisor. They will fill in the “Drake Equivalent” and “Fulfill and AOI?” columns, and then you and your Academic Advisor will sign the form, and turn it into your College or School’s Dean’s Office for final approval.
• The College or School’s Dean’s Office will return an electronic version of the Course Approval Form to you, and you can then upload it into your online application.

For semester students, your unofficial transcript in Drake’s Self Service system will display 12 "SPEC" credits in progress, no matter how many credits you are taking while abroad. When your study abroad transcript arrives at Drake after your program concludes, your Drake transcript will be updated with the actual number of courses and credits that you have taken abroad. You must earn a C- or higher in each course for it to count as credit toward a Drake course or requirement.

For Academic Advisors and Assistant or Associate Deans, please assist your student with reviewing the courses they have selected on their Course Approval Form. Most of our partner universities abroad and partner organizations freely provide course syllabus and descriptions. Sometimes those can be found directly on the program’s website (which the student should have access to). In some cases, the course syllabus or descriptions are not open to the public, but we can contact that university to get copies of the course syllabus and descriptions, if needed. Once you have finished reviewing the student’s course selections and decide how they can count toward Drake requirements, please indicate this in the “Drake Equivalent” and “Fulfill and AOI?” columns. In some cases, the student’s course selections may change once they arrive at their study abroad site. It is the student's responsibility to notify you of any change in courses taken, request those courses evaluated, and to remain enrolled full-time while abroad.

Course load expectations vary depending on whether the student is joining a short-term program (J-term or summer) versus a semester program.

Short-term programs are typically three or six credits, depending on the length of the program. Students who take six credits while on a short-term summer program may be eligible for additional financial aid, so it is important to disclose the number of credits you will be taking to the Financial Aid office, so that they can award the appropriate amount of aid.

On semester or academic year programs students are required to enroll in a minimum of 12 U.S. semester credits per semester while abroad to remain in full-time status.

The number of credits that courses are worth abroad can vary greatly. It is important to review credit information early in the application process to ensure you are enrolled in the correct number of credits.

To transfer credits back to Drake from studying abroad, get your courses and the number of credits a course will transfer back to Drake pre-approved using the Course Approval Form form (see instructions in Course Approval Process section above).