Office of International Programs

At the conclusion of your study abroad program, you and/or your program director should arrange to have an official transcript of your course work sent to the Office of International Programs for review. Princeton credit is awarded for all preapproved courses taken and passed with a grade of C or better. Credit is not given for courses taken on a pass/fail basis. There is a limit to the number of courses that can be transferred during a semester or year abroad: no more than five courses for a semester or nine for the year. Credit for your semester abroad cannot be given until the transcript is received and duly processed. A copy of your transcript from abroad is then sent to your academic department.

Once your Study Abroad Evaluation and Peer Advising and Consent Form are received, your transcript will be processed for Princeton credit and a copy forwarded to your department. Your record will be updated to reflect courses that fulfill departmental requirements.

Your Princeton University transcript records the program or university you attended, its location, and the courses for which you earned Princeton credit. The grades for Junior Independent Work and for courses completed on the Tropical Biology Program in Kenya and Panama and the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies are recorded on the transcript and are included in the calculation of your departmental grade point average. Grades for courses in other programs and foreign universities do not appear on the Princeton transcript and are not included in the departmental grade point average (a "T" appears on the transcript to indicate transfer credit).

Note: Princeton courses taught by Princeton faculty abroad during the summer do result in grades that appear on the transcript and are calculated in your GPA

Please be aware that graduate and professional schools, fellowship programs, and employers regularly require the original transcript from your study abroad provider  to determine how well you fared in your courses abroad. Therefore, the grades you earn abroad, although not included on the Princeton transcript or factored into your departmental average, are likely to be taken into consideration in graduate admissions, scholarship competitions, and employment decisions.

We recommend that you order extra copies of your transcript while you are still abroad. You may need them as you apply for jobs and graduate school, and it can be time-consuming to order them once back in the U.S.