As you prepare to chose courses abroad, we recommend that you first refer to your BC department and school guidelines. You should also plan to discuss any questions with your assigned academic advisor as needed.
As a BC student, you are required to take a full load of courses at your host institution abroad—you should not overload or under load. BC program participants should refer to the course requirement table for course load guidelines, since what constitutes a full load can vary by program. External program participants should take the equivalent of 15-16 U.S. credits per semester. All students will receive a maximum of 16 BC credits per semester upon evaluation of their transcript. Please note that BC will not award credit for non-academic courses, for example any food, wine, yoga, or sports classes, and will not list audited courses on your BC transcript.
OIP Course Registration
When you finalize your course selections abroad, please complete the OIP “Course Registration” process. This will help us to process your transcript later.
Pass/Fail Courses
In accordance with BC policy, students abroad can take a maximum of 1 pass/fail course per semester. BC policy also stipulates that no CSOM course can be taken pass/fail, and a pass/fail course cannot fulfill a BC major, minor, or core requirement. OIP does not allow mandatory BC program courses (such as courses taught by a BC site coordinator) to be taken pass/fail.
If you wish to designate a course as pass/fail, send the title of the course to your ISA within one month of the first class meeting. No grade changes will be made after the pass/fail request period has ended.
Withdrawing or Dropping Courses
If you must withdraw from a course abroad, you will need to contact your ISA immediately (as it may impact your BC status). Follow your host institution’s protocol for course withdrawal—i.e., ‘officially’ withdraw from the course via the appropriate host institution office by their deadline, and ensure that the course will appear as ‘withdrawn’ on the host transcript (or if you withdraw during their add/drop period it may not appear at all).
For BC programs, courses designated as ‘withdrawn’ on the host transcript will appear as a ‘W’ on your BC transcript. Please note that if you do not follow the appropriate withdrawal protocol and a failed grade appears on the host transcript, an 'F' will be posted on your BC record.