i feel like i’m spamming the Nu page atm but it would have been confusing to combine all these questions
I am very interested at studying abroad wherever i end up. two affiliated programs sound great, one is a tropical ecology program in costa rica with a lot of field work (if anyone on here did this trip please comment). the other is a more traditional college environment at the university of melbourne that would allow me to take some courses that NU doesn’t offer (evolutionary animal behavior, austalian ecology). they are both “semester” programs, so ideally i would go to costa rica fall quarter of junior year and then go to melbourne for the winter and spring quarters. would it cost a substantially more amount to do two programs? and my biggest concern is about credit transfer. since these are semester courses through an affiliated program, not on NU’s quarter system, would i be able to do these and still graduate in 4 years? I’m posting here to see if anyone has done this and can tell me their experience. I have heard horror stories of study abroad offices clearing people for credits and then having complications later (not at NU though) so I want to here personal stories before I ask NU about it. Thank you
The way to approach study abroad programs at NU - is to only go through NU study abroad programs. That way you won’t end up signing on to a semester program at a quarter system school.
You can use the Program Search (http://www.northwestern.edu/studyabroad/programs/index.html?) on the study abroad office’s website to find out a lot of info about study abroad programs affiliated with NU in some shape or form. One piece of information is the price of each program. The Costa Rica program costs around $38k (http://www.northwestern.edu/studyabroad/programs/americas/tropical-biology-changing-planet.html), and the University of Melbourne one, around $30k (http://www.northwestern.edu/studyabroad/programs/oceania/university-of-melbourne.html). This puts the total amount for a hypothetical year in both programs and not at NU at $68k, comparable to a year at NU.
How much credit you can receive depends on the programs and institutions at which you will be enrolled. I am currently enrolled in a year-long study abroad program (though only one program, in one location) where the local universities function on a semester system. However, because the typical student takes more than four classes per semester here, I am able to do so as well and (hopefully - haven’t received grades for a few courses yet and have not transferred any credits at this point) receive credit for twelve classes.
An aside: how credits are transferred depends on the college (I think), as well as the type of credit you would want for the course you took abroad. You will want to talk with your academic adviser before you go abroad about course selection and credit transfer, to make sure you can get enough of the right type of credit while studying abroad. A general credit transfer rule is if there is a course like the one abroad, then you can get credit for that at NU.
However, even if you can receive credit for no more than eight courses, there is a large chance that you will able to graduate on time, if you are either coming in with AP credit or are able to take five courses in some quarters at NU or enroll in some summer courses. Northwestern also requires that students who matriculated as first years study for a total of nine quarters at NU; for transfer students that number is six. If you’re gone for only those three quarters, you should be able to satisfy that requirement and graduate on time (unless you’re transferring in as a junior).
Despite all of that (probably) being technically possible, I would highly suggest that you talk with someone at the study abroad office to see if what you have in mind is a good idea for you as a Northwestern student.