Registration & Credit

One of the most attractive benefits of participating in an international exchange program is the opportunity to take classes that are not offered by your home institution. This also poses unique challenges when talking about transferring credit and utilizing it in a student's degree plan back at home. 

Classes, Credits, and Transfer

All outgoing students will be registered for 12-15 hours of placeholder credits and charged tuition and fees accordingly (plus Study Abroad Health Insurance). Once each student's host institution transcript is received and transfer credits are approved, then the transfer credits and grades are put into Workday.

In order to facilitate the credit transfer process, students must fill out the Enrollment Verification Form (EVF) for LSU New Orleans International Exchange Programs. This form is meant to serve as a "launching pad" of sorts in order to inform the student and all academic (and financial aid) advisors about the anticipated credits that the student will earn, and how those are expected to transfer back to LSU New Orleans. If you plan to participate in the International Student Exchange Program in your last 30 credits before graduation, you must submit International Enrollment Approval Form for Last 30 Credits in conjunction with completing the International Enrollment Verification Form.

Students should start filling out the EVF once they have been accepted to the host institution and can get a list of the classes available to them. They should give their "best guess" as to what they anticipate will be the classes in which they will enroll on-site. Then they should try to discern what LSU New Orleans equivalents might be available for each course. If not, they may list the course as non-equivalent, but still should list the level of the course (i.e., 2000-level). Students may consult LSU New Orleans course catalog online, and should also consult with his/her/their academic advisor to find this information. 

Any direct equivalent courses require departmental approval. So, for example, if a student plans to take a World History course, we would discern whether it can be equivalent to HIST 1001 or 1002 here at LSU New Orleans by providing a course description and any other supporting information to LSU New Orleans Department of History. If the Department determines it to be equivalent, that approval is documented and the equivalency is granted. Of course, credits are not entered into a student's record until AFTER receipt of the official transcript from the host institution.

It is important to know that we expect that just about 100% of our students will finalize their registration after arrival in country,and that those courses may differ from the courses listed on the EVF. Once a student has finalized his/her/their enrollment, submission of the Enrollment Verification Change Form is required. 

Regardless of what approvals may be obtained ahead of time, students are ALWAYS advised to keep any relevant information about courses taken abroad (syllabi, completed assignments, etc.). These materials may be needed in order to support a student's assertions regarding class level and/or credit hours. 

Financial Aid

Another important factor to keep in mind is that if a student is utilizing any kind of financial aid (TOPS, federal financial aid, scholarships) that LSU New Orleans Office of Financial aid must be kept in the loop in order to assist with reporting and maintain the student's status in terms of keeping all financial aid in status (depending upon the requirements of the individual award, loan, scholarship, grant, etc.). 

Transcripts

After all courses taken abroad have been entered into Workday, students may view them in the transfer grade area.. This will also be the case when transcripts are issued. These credits are treated as transfer credits, and therefore will be in a different section of the transcript from LSU New Orleans placeholder hours. 

It is important for students to understand that transfer credits are not shown on official transcripts. Those must be sent from the original, credit-granting institution. So if/when students apply for graduate school, they will have to request the official transcript from not only LSU New Orleans but also the host institution in order to send a record of the classes taken while on a semester or year abroad.