Program Eligibility

We would like to see every college student have the opportunity to study abroad.

We do, however, look at certain factors in admissions to ensure that you have the skills needed to have a successful experience on our study abroad programs.

Our basic criteria for eligibility include:

• Age
• Academic Experience
• Academic Standing
• Personal Maturity

Age

You must be at least 18 years of age by the time your program begins.


Academic Experience

Because our programs include college-level academic coursework, you need to have demonstrated that you can be successful in a college-level academic environment.

We generally require that you have completed at least two semesters of college-level academics by the time your program begins.

In other words, you typically may attend our programs starting in the summer after your freshman year.  You can attend earlier if you have otherwise earned 30 college credit hours by the start of the program, but this is uncommon.

A handful of our more advanced programs require you to have Junior status (60 college credit hours) before attending.


Academic Standing

We maintain minimum G.P.A. requirements for all of our programs.

Our minimum G.P.A. requirement is 2.5 on many of our programs.  Some of our programs have higher G.P.A. requirements ranging from 2.7 to 3.0.

If you do not meet the G.P.A. requirements for a particular program but feel that you have special academic circumstances, we recommend that you schedule a discussion with one of our academic advisors, as we do make exceptions for students who have improved their performance over time.

Along with an official transcript of your academic work, we also require an academic reference from one of your professors.


Personal Maturity
 
We ask you to submit a brief personal Statement of Intent to highlight why you would like to study abroad.  The goal of this statement is not to test your literary skills but to help you think through your personal objectives for studying abroad.  

We also ask you to submit a Disciplinary Clearance Form from your home institution to show that you have acted responsibly in the past.

If you have a displinary history, we will look at how serious your disciplinary incidents were.  Minor incidents do not typically affect admissions, but a track record of repeated violations will.  If we have questions, one of our advisors might call you to discuss your disciplinary history.

In our multi-country programs, basic time management skills are helpful in balancing the full-time academic calendar along with the educational travel.  The vast majority of our students have not had difficulties managing their time, but if time management has been a serious issue for you in the past, you might want to consider one of our single country programs instead.


Distinguishing Factors

We make an effort to be inclusive on most of our programs. 

For certain programs where program availability might be more limited or competitive (such as the Intensive International Relations program),  we might look more closely at distinguishing factors when making admissions decisions, including:

• Interest in International Studies and/or the program topic
• Overall academic performance
• Rationale for participating in the program
• Quality of recommendations

Non-Discrimination

We do not discriminate in application decisions on the basis of gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, political affiliation or sexual orientation.


Overall

Overall, we are looking for students who have enough intellectual curiosity and interest in study abroad to be good classmates for you.