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Study Abroad and the English major

Study abroad is a great opportunity to experience new things in new places.  With a little planning a summer, semester or year abroad can fit easily into the four year undergraduate experience. 

Study abroad options can vary in length from a week to a year.  There are also programs for internships and work experience abroad.  The UW Division of International Studies is an excellent place to start researching any type of program abroad.

For UW-Madison students it is important to keep in mind that program content aside, there are two main types of programs: UW-Madison sponsored programs and everything else.

UW-Madison Programs

Programs sponsored by UW-Madison will carry UW-Madison credit.  This means that the grades that you earn while in the program will appear on your UW-Madison transcript and will factor into your GPA.  The credits are also considered “in residence” which could be an important factor if you decide to study abroad during the last 30 credits of your undergraduate program.

Non-UW-Madison Programs

All other programs fall under the category of transfer credit.  While you are participating in a program you are enrolled through that program/university and at the conclusion of the program you would submit a transcript to the UW-Madison Office of Admissions and the courses and credits (but not grades) would be posted.  If you are gone during a fall and/or spring term you would also need to apply for re-entry in order to return to UW-Madison. More information is available on the Office of Admissions website.

Students interested going on a non-UW program should also keep in mind the 30 credit residence requirement.

 

Taking courses toward the English major while studying abroad

Major requirements are 31-33 credits of the minimum 120 credits needed to complete a degree.  It is very possible to simply not take courses for the major while abroad.  Most study abroad programs will have numerous courses that count toward the 120 minimum and fulfill level (60 credit rule) and/or Breadth requirements.

However it is perfectly acceptable to take courses that would count toward an English major while studying abroad.  Realize that depending on the program, offerings in the area of English language and literature may be limited or non-existent.

In order for a course to count toward the English major it must be about English literature, language or writing.  For example, “Masterpieces of Russian Literature: Great Novels of the 19th and 20th Century” is a course taught in English at the University of Copenhagan.  Although the course it taught in English, the content is Russian literature and thus it would not count toward English major requirements.  However a course about E.L. Doctorow’s Fiction would count because he is an American author (original language of the book is English) regardless of whether the course taught at the University of Copenhagen is taught in English or Danish.

The easiest way to determine whether a course might count toward an English major is to make sure that is assigned the subject code of ENGLISH and has a level of I, A or D (Intermediate or Advanced).

If you are thinking about studying abroad and are majoring in English or are planning to major in English you should make an appointment to talk with an advisor early on so that you can plan which requirements you will fulfill while in Madison and abroad.