Students participating in exchange, direct enrollment or affiliated programs must get courses pre-approved.

Pre-approval of courses ensures that the credits you earn abroad meet the necessary requirements to transfer back to MSU. It also helps you not enroll in courses that won’t transfer.

NOT completing the Course Approval Form prior to departure could also jeopardize your financial aid.

You should talk to your academic adviser to get a better understanding of how the courses and credits you wish to take abroad apply to your degree plan. Be sure to bring relevant information such as course syllabi when speaking with your adviser.

You can also email eacredit(at)msu.edu with questions about the process itself.

It is best to complete the course approval process as far in advance as possible. This will allow you to better understand how the program will fit into your degree plan.

You can begin researching courses at any time. You will gain access to Course Approval Worksheet when you are nominated to the program (some exceptions may apply).

NOTE: There may be some instances where you may not be able to submit course materials until very close to departure.

It’s preferred that you keep all the courses you plan to take abroad on one Course Approval Form. However, you can submit additional forms if necessary.

Courses that have been evaluated and approved for transfer credit will transfer back to MSU as the credit only – provided that the equivalent of a 2.0 grade is achieved on the Grade and Credit conversion chart for the program.

Courses that have been evaluated as graded credit courses will be transferred back to MSU based on the grade and credit conversion chart for the program. These courses transfer with the grade achieved at the host university and this means that they will impact your Grade Point Average.

All courses are reviewed and approved by the relevant MSU academic college and/or department.

Sometimes, a course can fit into multiple areas of study at MSU and in other cases, a course cannot transfer to MSU at all. The Office for Education Abroad will help facilitate this process, but all course decisions are made in the academic colleges at MSU.

You will receive an email when your Course Approval Form (CAF) is complete. Once finalized, It will be used to process your transcript at the end of your program (see Transcript Processing for more details). NOTE: You can always check the status of a CAF by logging into the Education Abroad Student Portal. Course approvals and denials, as well as any adviser comments, will be shown.

Yes, courses that do not have an equivalent course code at MSU may get denied. Courses that do not have an MSU equivalent course code should not be completed abroad! If a course is taken abroad that cannot be approved by MSU, the credits cannot transfer back to MSU. This means that general university credits also cannot be applied.

Sometimes a Course Approval Form may be returned to you for a number of reasons (missing the worksheet, incomplete syllabi, courses entered multiple times, etc.) If this happens, staff from the Office for Education Abroad will follow up with an email on why the form was returned to you.

Course Approval Forms must be complete to move forward in the review process. If your form was returned, none of the courses have been submitted to the academic colleges for review. You will need to make the necessary adjustments and resubmit the form for review.

It typically takes 2 to 4 weeks for approval. However, it can take longer. It’s hard to predict how much time a specific college or department approver will need – especially if a syllabus for a new course needs to be evaluated.

Final credit amounts for the courses taken abroad will be evaluated once your official academic transcript arrives at MSU from the host institution.

Course registration may continue into the first few weeks of your program. If you change your schedule on-site or register for courses not previously approved on a Course Approval Form, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to submit additional Course Approval Worksheets and complete the Course Approval Form in the Education Abroad Student Portal.

You may also want to check in with your academic adviser at MSU so that they can help answer questions related to your degree plan.

An academic transcript for the program you completed MUST be sent to the MSU Office for Education Abroad.

Physical Transcripts can be mailed to:

• Office for Education Abroad
• Michigan State University
• 427 N. Shaw Lane, Room 109
• International Center
• East Lansing, Michigan 48824

Electronic transcripts should be sent to eacredit(at)msu.edu.

The Office for Education Abroad will review the transcript, check the completed course approvals, and work with the MSU Office of the Registrar to get your student record updated.

NOTE: MSU course equivalencies (MSU Course Codes) are required for all courses listed on your official host institution academic transcript before the credits can be processed by the Office of the Registrar.