An informal poll of 158 students who studied abroad conducted by The Eagle found that 15 percent of those students had trouble getting credit for classes they took while abroad. A further 15 percent said they felt misled by AU Abroad's policy on course credit approvals and transfers.
The study was not a random sample of AU students. The study polled students mostly from the AU Abroad alumni contact list, which is made up of students who are willing to endorse AU Abroad, said Kari Miller, associate director of AU Abroad.
Esther Brilliant, a senior in the School of Public Affairs who studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem last year, said she thinks credit transfer is a major problem with AU Abroad.
"My advice for people looking to go abroad is to get everything in writing, because [AU Abroad] didn't have a policy and no one knew what they were doing," Brilliant said.
Several other survey respondents who studied with Brilliant in Jerusalem said they encountered the same problem. Students at the Hebrew University partner program were required to take a 200-hour Hebrew course for which the Israeli university allots 10 credits (AU allots three credits for about 50 hours). The students said they received three credits for the Hebrew course from AU.
Brilliant said it was frustrating when AU told her it would only give her six credits for the Hebrew course if she paid more money. She also said AU wouldn't recognize and credit "active participation," which was what the Hebrew University considered "pass/fail."
Dana Tarley, a senior in the School of International Service who attended the Hebrew University last fall, said the main problem AU Abroad suffered from was "incompetence" during the entire situation.
"The office just started finger-pointing," Tarley said. "They didn't communicate effectively."
Some students said the issue of course credit transfers has even prevented them from completing minors and majors.
"AU told me I could take any German class and that would count for a 300-level [course], but the class I had was labeled differently and was a level two, so AU only gave me a 200-level credit," said Sarah Lander, a senior in the School of International Service who studied in Berlin during the fall of 2005. "I couldn't get my minor in German because of it."
Despite the problems Brilliant encountered, Miller said course credit situations work themselves out.
"All credits do transfer at some point," she said. "During the past two years I've been here, everything a student has submitted has come back one way or another."
However other respondents advised students to double check with both AU and AU Abroad several times before going abroad.
"If you plan to get credit from a specific school or department, double check with your academic advisor that you will get credit for the course," said Carrie McNeilly, a senior in the Kogod School of Business who attended the Madrid and the Mediterranean program in the fall of 2005. "If you are worried about whether or not your grades will transfer correctly ... make appointments with your academic advisor and the AU Abroad office before you leave - insist on having a set plan on what will happen with your grades upon your return."
Communicating with both the AU Abroad office and academic advisors is important, said Junior Leslie Norber, who studied in Madrid. Norber was told her Mediterranean Politics class would count toward her major before she went abroad. However, when she returned, she said it took three weeks of constantly e-mailing to AU Abroad and the Office of the Registrar to get the proper credit.
"It wasn't necessarily a problem, it was just a disconnect between AU Abroad and the registrar," Norber said.
John Riley, a senior in the School of Communication, agreed.
"For me it wasn't a matter of the credits counting, it was where the credits counted," he said.
In addition to credit transfer problems, other survey respondents said they encountered problems with outdated courses, lost paperwork and a non-responsive office.
"The AU Abroad office lost paperwork and allowed me to choose courses that weren't even being offered while I was in Australia, forcing me to have to re-do all the credit transfer paperwork," said Camille Castro, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, who went to Australia in fall 2005.
"When I got back and had problems with how the grades were transferred, it was very difficult to get a hold of anyone, and [it] took them days, even weeks, to return phone calls and e-mails," Castro said.
Tarley recommended that students who encounter a lack of response from the AU Abroad office to go see abroad advisors directly to get the appropriate changes made.
Despite the credit transfer problems, all those interviewed said their abroad experiences were priceless. Additionally, more than 90 percent of respondents who had problems with AU Abroad did not feel that those problems negatively affected their trip.
"I would definitely recommend going abroad at AU," McNeilly said. "Studying abroad in itself is an incredible experience that I would never tell any student to pass up."
Miller said that AU Abroad knows about these problems and to correct them has continually updated its policies and procedures since 2004.
"To provide more assistance and clarity for present study abroad students, our policies and procedures are updated and improved each year, based upon student experiences and feedback," Miller said.
For instance, starting this year AU Abroad gives students participating in Partner Programs (programs not run by AU that students have the option of studying abroad with) documents that inform them of the academic policies of the university where they have chosen to study abroad.
Additionally AU Abroad meets every summer with the undergraduate advisors of all the schools in order to fill them in on policy updates and new information, and this year has formed two new faculty oversight committees headed by AU Abroad Director Sara Dumont.
COMPARING AREA ABROAD PROGRAMS:
The following sentences come from the study abroad policies of American University, Georgetown University and George Washington University:
"All coursework for a major or a minor to be taken must be pre-approved by the department and the Dean's office." -Georgetown Office of International Programs
"Approval of a study abroad program assures the student that transfer credit will be accepted for completed work." -George Washington University Study Abroad
"Students take courses abroad that ultimately appear as courses on their transcript." -AU Abroad
