Guidelines
Outlined below is a summary of rules and restrictions to keep in mind when assisting students participating in international experiences. Note: departments and colleges might have additional rules. If in doubt, please consult your education abroad college liaison or the Office of the Registrar for assistance.
Guidelines for All Students
- Degree-seeking students at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Galveston, and the Texas A&M Higher Education Center at McAllen must register their international experience with Texas A&M Education Abroad for risk management purposes and to facilitate the course pre-approval process.
- To receive transfer credit from other institutions, whether domestic or international, the institution issuing the program transcript must be accredited. In collaboration with the Office of Admissions, institutions granting program transcripts are vetted.
- For any transfer credit program, transfer credit refers to the act of being enrolled in another institution or provider course whether the credit counts towards the student’s degree plan or not. No credit means the student is not enrolled in any course on their experience.
- For provider programs, students must allot 2 – 3 months after the program for the transcript process. Therefore, participating in these experiences during the final semester to fulfill any remaining degree requirements is strongly discouraged.
- For exchange programs, students are not permitted to participate in their final semester.
- For internship, volunteer, and/or research experiences granting pre-arranged Texas A&M credit (e.g., 484, 485, 684, 685, etc.), students must work with their academic advisor to enroll in these courses for the same term of the experience abroad.
Guidelines for Undergraduate Students
Program selection (travel dates, locations, and other concerns)
- Student Rule 7 (excused absences and attendance expectations)
- Travel rules
- TAMU Extreme Risk List
- Aggie Ring (overall total completed and institutional credit requirements)
- Credit hour rules
- Required institutional hours (25% of course work must be completed at TAMU, TAMUG, or TAMUQ)
- Excess hours exemptions
Before departure (course approval)
- International and Cultural Diversity (core curriculum requirement)
- Student Rule 9 (further transfer course evaluation on an individual basis)
- Student Rule 10.22 (courses with repeat numbers and titles taken abroad must differ in content to transfer)
- Credit from foreign universities (restrictions for English composition, American history, and American political science courses -- scroll to 4th to last section at the bottom of webpage)
- Student Rule 14.22 (addendum to 36 Hour Residency requirement for upper-level courses completed abroad)
- Online course enrollment
- Practicum education abroad courses are not transferable per the Office of Admissions
- The transferability of theology courses taught abroad depends on certain criteria: program structure, course context, the credentials of the instructors, reading list, assignments, and/or grading rubric. The course must be taught from an academic, scholarly perspective per standards for state institutions.
While Abroad (course changes or abroad final semester)
- Degree Audit: new courses must be approved
- Degree Requirement Verification (final semester)
Upon Return
- Program transcripts guidelines (Office of Admissions)
- For foreign universities, the official transcript must come from the host institution's Registrar listing courses, contact hours/credits, and grades. If the school does not issue the transcript in English, include an official translation from the program contact or a certified translation agency.
- For the U.S. universities, an official transcript is required from that particular U.S. institution's approved catalog of courses, credits, and grades.
- Graduation deadlines and clearance timeline
Guidelines for Graduate Students
Program selection
- Discuss plans with chair of graduate committee.
- Program courses must be applicable to degree plan to be eligible for transfer credit registration process with Education Abroad.
- Graduate catalog: additional rules might apply based on department, college, and/or classification (master’s student or doctoral candidate)
After the experience
- Must obtain final grade of ‘B’ or greater.
- Courses can only be listed once on transcript. Do not attempt to transfer credits for a course already taken.
- File a degree plan/petition
Course Approval Process
Please reference the instructions on the first page of the form and the video overview of the form embedded in the Education Abroad application to learn how to fill out the student sections of the form. When listing program courses on the form, group courses of similar disciplines together for reviewing ease.
Signatures need to be obtained one at a time in the order outlined below. When routing the form, which might take 3 or more weeks to complete, include the course description/syllabi.
STEP 1: Office of Admissions (if needed)
Confirm which institution is issuing your program transcript. (This is especially important for students on provider programs, as it is not always the host institution being studied at, but sometimes a U.S. school of record instead.)
Check if the institution issuing your program transcript is on the list of previously approved institutions.
- If the institution issuing the program transcript is on the list, the Admissions signature is not needed, and you can skip this step.
- If the institution is NOT listed, Admissions approval must be obtained. Send the pre-filled pre-approval form to tcabroad@tamu.edu to facilitate the approval on your behalf. Do NOT send the form to anyone else until your form has been returned to you.
STEP 2: Subject Matter Expert Evaluation (if needed)
Depending on your course selections, this approval is needed in the event of pursuing courses 1) for language credits, 2) for engineering credits 3) to fulfill a core curriculum requirement, and/or 4) for courses outside of your college. As you route your form for the remaining signatures, attach the course description/syllabi for the academic departments to reference.
Subject Matter Expert (SME) Contact List Use the above list to direct your course evaluation request to. It is not an exhaustive list of every College/School as Education Abroad is working on obtaining more information. Please review the disclaimers at the top of each tab and see the template on the last tab for how to draft your requests to SMEs. Students may need to log in using their A&M Net ID to access the document.
Core Curriculum Courses and Courses Outside Your College
For evaluation of core curriculum courses and courses outside your college, if you are not sure who/which department should review a course, consult with your academic advisor to verify which departments to contact, if any. If your form needs to be reviewed by someone else, your major/minor academic advisor will sign the form after the subject matter expert evaluations are complete.
Note, if a course is going to count as a general elective, the SME signature may not be required at the discretion of your college/department. Check with your academic advisor to know if an SME signature is necessary.
STEP 3: Academic Advisor Approval
Your academic advisor(s) will determine if a course can be applied to your degree plan. If you have a double major or minor, you may also want those academic advisors to review and leave a comment on your form to know if courses can be applied to those degree plans.
Example: First Email to Academic Advisor
SUBJECT: Pre-Approval Form for Transfer Credit - [Student First and Last Name]
Howdy ____,
I am planning to study abroad [term name and year i.e. Fall 2026]. Part of my Education Abroad application is the Pre-Approval Form for Transfer Credit. Attached is my form and course descriptions/syllabi for the courses listed on the form I am asking you to review.
Please let me know if you need additional information to review my courses or if I need to contact someone else to review.
Thank you,
[Name]
STEP 4: AOC/GOC Dean
Texas A&M – College Station
Below is the list of AOC/GOC Deans. Points of contact and delegates are subject to change:
- Bush School of Government & Public Service, contact BushSchoolAdvisingUG@tamu.edu
- College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, contact Dan Putnam at daniel.putnam@tamu.edu
- College of Architecture, contact Dr. Holliday at sholliday@arch.tamu.edu and copy Megan Thatcher mthatcher@arch.tamu.edu
- College of Arts & Sciences, contact artsci-studyabroad@tamu.edu
- College of Education & Human Development, contact Dr. Chris Cherry cherry@tamu.edu and copy Kristy Anderson kanderson@tamu.edu
- College of Engineering, contact Leslie Donaway at Ldonaway@tamu.edu
- College of Medicine, contact your specific advisor in Student Affairs Office at the Bryan/College Station campus.
- College of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts, contact pvfastudyaway@tamu.edu
- College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, contact bims@tamu.edu
- Mays Business School, contact Dr. Katy Lane at cibs@mays.tamu.edu
- School of Public Health, contact Dr. Don Curtis at dcurtis@tamu.edu and copy cschumacher@tamu.edu
- Transition Academic Programs, contact Dr. Arthur Watson at acwatson@tamu.edu
Texas A&M – Galveston
- Texas A&M Galveston, contact Dr. Lang at langd@tamug.edu
STEP 5: Email the completed form to Education Abroad
Once all signatures have been obtained, email the completed form to tcabroad@tamu.edu. Education Abroad will upload the form to the student's application after we review it.