Welcome Back!!! We trust that your study abroad experience was rewarding and fulfilling. These pages are intended to answer some common questions about receiving credit for your study abroad experience, to identify some steps to ease re-entry into the college, and to suggest ways to make the most of your study abroad experience. We welcome your ideas for additional information that might be helpful to returning students.

1. Reconnecting with your faculty advisor and department

In your first days back on campus, be sure to meet with your faculty advisor, or if unavailable, the chair of your major department or program. This is an opportunity to renew this relationship, to share information on your study abroad experiences, and to review your graduation requirements. A review of your requirements, major and general education, is particularly important since you may not have been able to consult with your advisor when you registered from abroad.

2. Credit at Bates -- Completing the Circle. There are four Bates credit issues:

• General College Credit
• Credit toward your major
• Credit toward your secondary concentration
• Credit toward a general education requirement

 

A. General College credit. To receive basic college credit, the Off-Campus Study Office needs to receive an official transcript from your program or university and a completed Bates Evaluation from you. The evaluation is very important to the college and to future Bates students. An online evaluation form is available on Garnet Gateway.

Login to Garnet Gateway (go to Evaluation Menu)



B. Major Credit. You need to meet with the Chair of your major department to discuss the course or courses that you would like to apply toward your major. Provide the Chair with information that helps describe the course(s) (catalog description, syllabus and other class handouts, papers and exams, etc.). Each Bates department or program decides which non-Bates courses can be applied toward the major and the number of non-Bates courses that can be applied toward the major. The chair of the department/program makes a record of the decision. This may be recorded on the Department's own form or on the one provided below.

To print an on-line copy of the Department Course Credit Agreement Form, click on the link below and the form will appear on your screen from where you can print it out.

Department Course Credit Agreement Form

 

C. Secondary Concentration Credit. This requires two steps. First, if you have not done so already, you need to "declare' your secondary concentration. This is done with a "Secondary Concentration Declaration" form that is available from the Registrar's Office. Take this form to the relevant department or program chair along with information on the course(s) that you want to apply toward the secondary concentration. (If you have already declared your secondary concentration, just take your course information to the department chair.) Each Bates department or program decides which non-Bates courses can be applied toward its secondary concentration and the number of non-Bates courses that can be applied toward it. The chair of the department/program needs to make a record of the decision, and you need to return the signed secondary concentration declaration form to the Registrar's Office.

D. General Education Credit. Courses taken elsewhere can often be applied towards the Bates general education requirements. A form for recording this information is available from the Off-Campus Study Office and on-line in pdf format (see below).You take it to the relevant department or program chair along with information on the course(s) that you want to apply. Each Bates department/program decides whether a non-Bates course is appropriate for use toward one of the requirements. You need to return the completed form to the Registrar's Office.

To print an on-line copy, click on the link below and the form will appear on your screen from where you can print it out.

General Education Approval Form

 

3. Reconnecting with your faculty advisor and department

See #1 above.

 

4. Life Beyond Credit

Look into Barlow Thesis Grants. These grants are available to support thesis research related to the study abroad experience.

Look into post-Bates travel and graduate studies fellowships.

Check the Bates Daily and the Monthly Calendar for lectures and events that link to your study abroad experience.

Check the Off Campus Study Calendar for the dates of the Off-Campus Study Photo Exhibit. Consider submitting a photo for the exhibit and serving on the student jury.

Consider sharing your study abroad impressions with the general public. There are several campus publications (most prominently the Student, the Garnet and the E-clectic). In addition, check out Glimpse Magazine and AbroadView. They are both on-line magazines that offer alternative cultural perspectives on international events and accept submissions from students who have studied or are studying abroad. Ariel Childs '08 has a poem in the Fall 2008 issue of AbroadView.

Do you want to go back? The Office of Career Services can help you with information about jobs overseas and provide you with the names of Bates alumni living overseas. Check out our web page that lists various clearing houses for work, volunteer, and teaching opportunities abroad.

Consider serving on the Off-Campus Study Committee. Contact Dean Sawyer for all the details.

Going through reentry shock? Here's some advice.

 

 

 

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