Courses
Each course that your students take abroad is assigned a UW-Madison “equivalent” course. To establish UW-Madison course equivalents, students submit Course Equivalent Requests (CER) through their MyStudyAbroad account. We have designated individuals within each department on campus who reviews study abroad courses for equivalents.
Credit and Grades
Your students receive In Residence, graded credit for their courses completed on our study abroad programs. We establish credit and grade equivalent scales for every program and these are provided to students in their MyStudyAbroad account.
Course Equivalent Review
Department faculty and staff that review course equivalent requests can access new and pending requests here:
Advising Community
Course Enrollment
All participants on programs in the U.S. and abroad are automatically enrolled for a single “Study Abroad Course” for their program’s term. This acts as a placeholder and allows students to maintain continuous enrollment at UW-Madison. The placeholder will appear on their student record in a few different ways, depending on the type of program, but serves the same purpose regardless of the course number.
Students will see one of the following placeholder courses on their record:
- AdminUse 100 Study Abroad
- AdminUse 200 Exchange Program
- AdminUse 910 Graduate-Level Study Abroad
The following chart lists the amount of credits they will be enrolled for, varying by term.
| Term Abroad | Placeholder Credits |
| Academic Year | 18 credits per term |
| Calendar Year | 18 credits per term |
| Fall | 18 credits |
| Spring | 18 credits |
| Summer | 2-12 credits |
| Winter | 1-4 credits |
| Spring Break | 1 credit |
The placeholder is replaced with the actual course equivalents, credits and grades earned after the completion of their program, receipt of transcript, and course equivalencies have been finalized. When calculating remaining credits to graduate, note that students’ actual credits earned will vary based on the classes they take on their program, and in many cases will not exactly match the placeholder credits.
Program Completion & Final Course, Credit, and Grade Processing
We post courses, credits, and grades to your students’ UW-Madison academic record after their transcript/grade report is received. Additionally, students must have submitted all of their CER requests through their MyStudyAbroad account. Your student will be sent a final Grade Report before final processing of their courses, credits, and grades. They are asked to review this report with their academic advisor before approving the report. Students are given 30 days to review and approve the report. If your student fails to do so, we will forward the report to the Registrar’s Office for final posting.