<p>Hi! </p>
<p>My school allows you to study abroad with the grades not transferring over - all the classes count as pass/fail. However, I hear the grades you actually get abroad will be recorded on a study abroad transcript somewhere. </p>
<p>The reason this concerns me is because I planned to do a lot of traveling and exploring abroad, spending less time on the classes themselves. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if the transcripts matter that much?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>yes i do believe they matter </p>
<p>i also spent a semester abroad, and as my school also allows the transfer of credits without the grades (pass if above C), I traveled around, I partied, I didn’t study, and as a result, only got Bs and Cs. </p>
<p>When I applied this season for phD, many of the schools required the transcripts of the actual foreign school I studied in, not just my undergrad transcripts. - and I do believe that hurt my chances more than I thought it would </p>
<p>The thing is,
a semester abroad is a great opportunity for new experiences, stressing less on studies - yet, some students do manage to get great results during that time, and at the end, when you guys all apply to grad school together, these students will stand out more than those who ‘enjoyed their semester abroad’ as I did. </p>
<p>At the end, it worked out fine - I am going for a Ph. D this fall yay - but I think I would have had more choices if I didn’t have such a horrible transcript from one semester. </p>
<p>Try to avoid Cs at least !! lol</p>
<p>Thanks for weighing in!</p>
<p>I did study abroad as an undergraduate. My home institution transferred my study abroad classes onto their transcript and ‘translated’ my UK grades into US ones. They treated the classes as if I had actually taken them at my US school, not as transfer credits from another school. Because the classes, credits, and grades were on my US transcript I didn’t have to send my UK transcript to grad schools. But I got actual grades, not just pass/fail. I also didn’t worry about the grades because the ‘translators’ were very lenient and I was only there for 1 quarter so I didn’t have to take the massive finals in May. I also found the classes to be much easier than my US classes, but I know that people in the humanities found their classes were a bit harder. </p>
<p>However, I went to a University of California for undergrad and they have a huge and very well established EAP program. In fact at the UK university I went to, by far the majority of US students were from the UC system. I don’t know how your school is going to treat study abroad classes, whether they treat them like transfer credits or not.</p>