{"id":227,"date":"2022-07-25T01:38:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T06:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/?page_id=227"},"modified":"2025-09-26T14:02:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T19:02:46","slug":"academics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/welcome-to-saa\/academics\/","title":{"rendered":"Academics Abroad\/Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you find yourself experiencing challenges with academics abroad\/away, seek help!\u00a0 Contact the Smith Center at smith.center@stolaf.edu<\/a> or make an appointment<\/a> to meet with us to seek support.\u00a0 We can connect you with resources to support your studies abroad\/away.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t

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Grading Systems<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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Semester\/year programs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only a small number of semester and year-long programs are graded by St. Olaf faculty. The majority are direct-enroll programs, where you take courses at partner institutions around the world. In these cases, grades and assessments are determined by the faculty at the host institution. These grades will appear on your St. Olaf transcript but will not be factored into your GPA. Grades from any courses taught and graded by St. Olaf faculty, even while abroad or away, will count toward your GPA.<\/p>\n

Grading Systems and Scales
\n<\/span>In the U.S. grading tends to be “top down” –meaning everyone starts with 100% and looses points when their work doesn’t meet the highest expectation.<\/p>\n

In Europe and other parts of the world, grading is often “bottom up” –meaning everyone starts with 0% and earns points for their work.\u00a0 With this style of grading, a “good” or even “high” score is not likely to be 100%, rather maybe 60% or 70% for the equivalent of an “A”.<\/p>\n

For your program’s St. Olaf equivalent credits and grades, consult this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Resits of Exams\/Courses
\n<\/span>At select direct enroll universities abroad, those not meeting sufficient expectations or failing a course may be offered the opportunity to resit the courses’ exams.\u00a0 This is offered once final grades for the term are released.<\/p>\n

January Term programs<\/strong><\/p>\n

January Term programs are led and taught by St. Olaf faculty, meaning the grades you earn automatically count as St. Olaf credit and contribute to your GPA.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t

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Course\/Class Format<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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Semester\/year programs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courses may be delivered to you in formats that differ from at St. Olaf, each with varying levels of expected student interaction.\u00a0 At. St. Olaf, teaching is typically interactive with students, regardless if a course is lecture, seminar, or workshop-based, even tutorial, — students are asked to be active participants in class.<\/p>\n

At other institutions elsewhere in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world, students may have a less active role in their education.\u00a0 Common types of course instruction are: lecture<\/em>, seminar<\/em>, workshop<\/em>, and tutorial<\/em>.\u00a0 Courses may be taught in a single format or may combine formats.\u00a0 \u00a0You may even have multiple types of instruction within one course, with lecture<\/em> being held on one day of the week and\u00a0seminar\/tutorial<\/em> on another.<\/p>\n

Lectures<\/em> will teach you the main topics of your course and often take place in large lecture theatres and may be delivered to students on multiple sections of a course together.\u00a0 Sometimes lectures may occur in smaller classrooms where they are delivered just to students in your section of a course — this would be similar to days when your St. Olaf professor is giving you a lecture on a specific topic being studied in your course.\u00a0 Lectures<\/em> are the most formal of instruction type.\u00a0 Lectures<\/em> often involve very little student participation and do not tend to allow opportunity for discussion or debate. At many universities, attending lectures is required.\u00a0 \u00a0Courses taught in lecture<\/em> format at other institutions may even be recorded for repeat\/later viewing.\u00a0 It is also common for courses to devote one day of the week, sometimes for multiple hours, to large format lecture (<\/em>perhaps given to multiple sections) and another day of the week to\u00a0seminar\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0workshop<\/em> to explore the topic in more detail.<\/p>\n

Seminars<\/em> are smaller group discussions led by an academic (often a PhD student who might not be the professor-on-record or the same professor who provides lecture) between you and other students in your class that are an accompaniment to a lecture.\u00a0 Seminars are commonly used to build up your knowledge on a topic already covered in lecture and may also expect you to utilize knowledge learned from your own reading and study.\u00a0 They are an active form of learning where you’re expected to contribute to the session, typically completing group tasks and taking part in discussion and debates.\u00a0 Seminar\u00a0<\/em> is your opportunity to ask your instructor\/tutor any questions about that topic that you may have.<\/p>\n

Tutorials<\/em> are one-on-one or small group sessions with you and your subject tutor.\u00a0 This style of teaching is most common at our Oxford University programs (Harris Manchester College and CMRS).\u00a0 Under tutorial<\/em> style teaching, you will get tailored instruction on the specialized subject matter you’re studying under your tutors supervision.<\/p>\n

Workshops\u00a0<\/em>are typically separate from lectures<\/em> and seminars<\/em> and are often seen as an optional “extra”.\u00a0 They are a good way to add to the information learned in lectures<\/em> and\u00a0seminars<\/em>. While they may be “extra,” it is wise to treat them as obligatory as they offer valuable contributions to your studies.<\/p>\n

January Term programs<\/strong><\/p>\n

January Term programs<\/em> offer a wide variety of activities. All St. Olaf affiliated January Term programs are led by a faculty and take place entirely abroad or away from campus, though some may include on-campus classes or lectures.\u00a0 Students may engage in activities like field excursions, interactions with local cultures and communities, and lectures. Participants in these programs are fellow St. Olaf students.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t

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Course Registration<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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Provider Programs<\/span>
\nProvider program courses are most often registered for in advance of your arrival.\u00a0 Registration is often done through your program portal.<\/p>\n

Direct Enroll
\n<\/span>Course registration for a direct enroll program may occur in advance through the university’s portal OR it may happen upon arrival, sometimes requiring you to visit academic departments and obtain signatures on paper.<\/p>\n

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Things to consider<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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Teaching Styles<\/span><\/p>\n

In the U.S., teaching is often more interactive and less dependent on rote memorization.\u00a0 Students regularly ask questions and engage with the faculty during class.<\/p>\n

At direct enroll universities abroad,\u00a0 teaching may be less interactive.\u00a0 Students may not be expected to interact with the faculty and it may inappropriate to do so during class.<\/p>\n

Student Dress<\/span><\/p>\n

In the U.S., students and faculty ten to dress rather informally.\u00a0 Elsewhere, students and faculty will dress more formally when attending or teaching class.\u00a0 It may not be acceptable to go to class wearing leggings, sweatpants, hoodies, etc.<\/p>\n

Attendance<\/span><\/p>\n

American universities and colleges are typically much more lenient compared to many institutions around the world. In general, class attendance is expected and may even directly affect grades.<\/p>\n

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Access to Faculty and Faculty Support<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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At St. Olaf, it is relatively standard for your faculty to be highly accessible to you.\u00a0 They are typically available to you during class and immediately before or after class, and also during set office hours.\u00a0 While this may be the norm at St. Olaf, faculty availability at other programs\/institutions can be quite different.<\/p>\n

In different contexts around the world, it is NOT common for faculty\/professors\/tutors to be accessible to students.\u00a0 In some cases, students may only have access to a Teaching Assistant (TA), rather than the instructor.\u00a0 That said, faculty may be quite approachable and can even have office hours similar to what’s typical in the U.S.<\/p>\n

At direct enroll programs outside of the U.S., students tend to receive less personal support from faculty and mentors. Students are expected to engage in reading and study outside of lectures and any required assignments and readings.\u00a0 As such, students must be self-motivated to fully engage in studies beyond the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t

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Assessment Methods<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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In the U.S. it is common for you to be assessed continuously throughout the semester using a variety of methods.\u00a0 You likely have coursework (including essays and reports), group projects, presentations, and exams that occur throughout the course.\u00a0 Final grades are often based collectively on these on-going assessments, a final exam\/project and also often a participation grade.<\/p>\n

Assessment for courses taught by provider programs often follows the continuous assessment model and will likely feel very similar to courses you’ve taken at St. Olaf.\u00a0 You will have multiple assignments, exams\/quizzes, and projects throughout the semester.\u00a0 As such, you will likely have an ongoing sense of how you are doing in the course at various points in the semester.<\/p>\n

Assessment at universities abroad can be quite different from that of U.S. colleges\/universities and provider programs and is likely less transparent.\u00a0 \u00a0At universities abroad, it is not uncommon for students to be assessed on only a few things –most commonly one or two large exams or projects, with exams often being weighed heavily (for example, 60% of the final grade).\u00a0 Because students tend to have less graded homework, they typically have more independent studying to do in order to receive good grades on the few heavily weighted assignments they do have.\u00a0 Under this model of assessment, students often do not have a solid sense of how they are doing throughout the course –they’re not receiving any formal grades or feedback from week to week– and are instead only made aware of how they’re doing or did at the end of the term once final assessment has taken place.<\/p>\n

Additionally, it is important to note that exams at direct enroll universities abroad rarely involve short-answer or multiple choice questions and are more likely to require long essays. Furthermore, expectations for papers\/essays and other assignments may be quite different from what’s expected at St. Olaf.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t

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Classmates\/Peers<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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You your classmates and peers are will vary depending upon your program type.<\/p>\n

Faculty-Led Programs<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While studying abroad\/away as a member of a faculty-led, your classmates\/peers will be other St. Olaf College students.<\/p>\n

Direct Enroll Programs<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When studying abroad\/away with a direct enroll program, your classmates will likely predominantly be students who are degree seeking at your host institution.\u00a0 These degree seeking students may be nationals of the host country or international students.\u00a0 Other study abroad\/away students may also be your classmates.<\/p>\n

Provider Programs<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Provider programs are designed for students coming from U.S. colleges and universities to study abroad\/away.\u00a0 As such, your classmates will be other students who are degree seeking at another U.S. college or university.\u00a0 \u00a0Program taught courses will not be with local students.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t

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Subject Specialization<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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Many undergraduate students at universities elsewhere in the United States and abroad specialize in one or two subjects.\u00a0 It is common for students at these institutions to take fewer “general education” courses from multiple disciplines and more common for them to have only taken courses from within their major or related subject fields.\u00a0 In some countries, students’ final years (equivalent to high school) are spent focusing on academic areas of interest.\u00a0 These years of study may be called “college” (not to be confused with college like you’re attending now — they call their B.A. years “university”) and may be used to determine what they will study when they attend university.<\/p>\n

Additionally, if you are studying with a Provider Program<\/em> where you’re , some of your classmates may come from a college\/university where they have focused their studies.<\/p>\n

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Tips for Academic Success<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
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    \n
  • Understand the academic system of the program you’ve chosen:<\/strong>\u00a0 Is the program based more on a U.S. system or the local system?\u00a0 What are the key differences between St. Olaf and the program’s academic system?<\/li>\n
  • Pay attention to correspondence from your program:<\/strong>\u00a0 Depending on the level of support of the program you choose, you may receive many messages detailing important academic information like registration processes and deadlines and you may even be assigned to an academic advisor, OR your program may send you few to no messages and instead be expecting you to seek information out on your own.\u00a0 \u00a0Make sure to read all correspondence and reach out to your program for any clarification early on so that there’s plenty of time.\u00a0 If you don’t know when you’re registering for courses, how to register, who to go to for help if you’re struggling with a course, etc., you will need to ask for and seek out help!\u00a0 Your program may have a strong expectation that you are acting independently.<\/li>\n
  • \u00a0Connect with instructors, tutors, and support staff early on:<\/strong>\u00a0 We encourage you to make a connection with your instructors, tutors, and support staff during the first few weeks of your program to make sure that you are clear on expectations and assignments.\u00a0 This can be important even if you seem to know what’s going on.\u00a0 It may simply be good to meet them.\u00a0 It is extra important to make these connections if your status as a study abroad\/away student requires you to need to make special arrangements for your participation in the course (such as an alternative exam from what’s required of degree seeking students).<\/li>\n
  • Familiarize yourself with the support structures of your program:<\/strong>\u00a0 Have you been assigned an academic advisor?\u00a0 A local peer student guide?\u00a0 Are there tutoring opportunities?\u00a0 Is there an academic support center?\u00a0 Are there study sessions\/review groups?\u00a0 Note what your support options are, where they’re located, and how you can access them.<\/li>\n
  • Remember, you also have the Smith Center and St. Olaf’s support:\u00a0<\/strong> We’re happy to connect with your program to help support you, but we also want you to make the connections too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    If you need help of any kind, ask!!!<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3511,"featured_media":0,"parent":183,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8610,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/227\/revisions\/8610"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/smithcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}