Study Abroad

Honors Forum Credit for International Study

Honors Forum members may earn Honors credit while studying abroad, subject to the following parameters:

  • There is a limit of one Honors experience abroad per student.
  • One abroad Honors experience counts for three Honors credits.
  • The experience is associated with a specific course (not an independent study.)

Students seeking Honors credit must inform the Honors Forum Director of their intent to earn Honors credit abroad before they go abroad (see details below.) There are two ways in which students may obtain Honors Forum credit while abroad:

  • They may participate in one of the programs that have been pre-approved by Honors Council for automatic credit. (See chart below.)
  • Or they may submit a portfolio for review upon return from studying abroad. (See guidelines below.) 

Pre-Approved Programs

Students participating in programs that have been pre-approved by Honors Council will automatically receive three (3) credits toward the Honors Forum upon successful completion of the program. These credits will appear as part of one of the courses students take while abroad. For example, if a tutorial at Oxford carries six credits, three of those credits may be counted toward Honors credit. No portfolios are required for pre-approved programs, but the Honors Forum Director and the Registrar must be informed upon your return which course will be associated with the Honors credit.

The following programs have been pre-approved based on their academic rigor:

  • Oxford University Programme through SUNY Brockport (academic year or spring only)
  • Trinity College Dublin (full academic year only)
  • London School of Economics & Political Science (full academic year only)

This list is subject to change by the Honors Council in consultation with the Office for Off-Campus Study and Exchanges (OCSE). You can read more about these programs at the OCSE website.

Portfolio Review:

Students may receive three semester hours of Honors Forum credit for portfolios based on a course they have taken abroad. Prior to their semester of study abroad, students seeking such credit must meet with the Honors Forum Director to develop their portfolio, which must be submitted to the Director upon their return. Students submitting portfolios should understand that approval by the Director to create a portfolio does not entail automatic awarding of Honors credit. Portfolios will be evaluated after they are submitted, and if they are judged to reflect a sufficiently rigorous experience, three of the credits earned for completing the course will be designated as Honors credit.

In some cases, students will not know which courses they will be enrolled in until after they arrive at their off-campus program. In such cases, the student is still required to inform the Honors Forum Director of their plans to create a portfolio before their departure, and the Director must be informed of the course associated with the portfolio as soon as possible after the student is enrolled in the course.

Guidelines for Course Portfolios:

The course must be the equivalent of a Skidmore, 300-level course.

The course must present a sophisticated academic challenge (as evidenced by both the strong reputation of the program or university abroad and by the course content itself). The Honors Forum Director may consult with the Director of International Programs to determine sufficiency of a program’s or course’s academic challenge.

The student must secure the signature and support of a department chair or program director (when appropriate) as to the level of the course and its Skidmore equivalent. 

Portfolio Contents:

Contents will vary as appropriate to the discipline in question and in relation to definitions agreed to by the sponsoring faculty members and study abroad instructor.  Portfolios should include the following course-related material:

  • Course syllabus and reading lists
  • Individual assignments
  • Student notes
  • Papers or projects completed
  • Assignment assessments and commentary from the instructor at the host institution

As appropriate to the discipline, the portfolio might also contain the following:

  • works of art or photographs
  • musical compositions
  • taped performances
  • co-curricular activities related to the course
  • logs detailing internship activities or field research
  • laboratory reports