AMCAS study abroad weird situation help?

[sa876]

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Hi all,

So I have a bit of a strange situation (I think?) regarding study abroad courses. I thought I understood this correctly, but after reading the guide more, I'm a bit nervous I may mess up. I have two courses from undergrad that were taken at a foreign institution. The courses appear on my domestic undergrad's official transcript in the summer semester they were taken as institution credit. They do not appear as transfer credit under my "Transferred Credits Accepted by Institution" section which includes AP credit and CC transfer credit. The only notation that appears different is it includes a line saying "University in Country" (the study abroad name, they do not have a foreign campus), but the grades and credit appear as normal. I understood this as only needing to list them in my undergrad courses under the single domestic university entry as there doesn't seem to be any transfer of credit? Would anyone have experience with this? I'm intending to call AMCAS and my pre-prof advisor on Monday, but would appreciate any guidance in the interim.

Thanks!

 

[sa876]

Thanks! They were part of a study abroad for the home school. It seems to be an odd mixture of the faculty-led/home university hosted, and third-party organized options based on AMCAS descriptions. My confusion is around the transcript exemption request. Would I still need to enter the courses under the foreign institution and say no transcript is needed/request the exemption? Or are they lumped with all undergrad courses?

 

[candbgirl]

The foreign institution didn’t give you grades or credit, right? Your home school did, right? You have no transcript from the foreign school, right? It sounds like your home school used classrooms at the foreign school but really had no academic affiliation other than that, is that right?

 

[sa876]

It seems like a weird combination of that perhaps. For my 2 classes, I had instructors from the foreign institution, however our home college faculty leader also taught a class on the study abroad. The overall study abroad was somewhat coordinated (homestay, other "in country" needs), by a third party that is not one of the typical big ones like CIEE or IES. But yes it seems like there was really not an affiliation with the foreign institution other than us having their student ID cards or using their instructors. My home college gave me the credit and grades, and that's the only credit or transcript I received. I never had to do a transfer process. Unfortunately due to COVID cancelling all our study abroads, my specific study abroad page isn't up for me to gain more information anymore.

 

[DigNewton]

I had a similar study abroad situation – took 2 summer courses in another country, but the credits were issued by my home institution. When I applied last year, AMCAS told me to list my home institution twice, specifying that one was study abroad, and request a transcript exemption for the study abroad entry.

My list of schools attended had two entries:
- University of X
- University of X - Study Abroad

You can always call or email AMCAS to ask how they want you to handle it. In my experience, emailing was much more effective (and gives you a written record of their answer).

 

[sa876]

I meant to update this yesterday in case anyone has a similar scenario in the future. I called AMCAS who was also slightly confused after looking at my transcript and confirmed it was a weird situation. They recommended I still do the dual school entry mentioning the study abroad and do a transcript exemption request.

 

[sa876]

I had a similar study abroad situation – took 2 summer courses in another country, but the credits were issued by my home institution. When I applied last year, AMCAS told me to list my home institution twice, specifying that one was study abroad, and request a transcript exemption for the study abroad entry.

My list of schools attended had two entries:
- University of X
- University of X - Study Abroad

You can always call or email AMCAS to ask how they want you to handle it. In my experience, emailing was much more effective (and gives you a written record of their answer).

This written response is a good point! I'll send a message to have a record of the response, thanks!