Studying abroad can be a great way to broaden your horizons and get exposed to other ideas, people, and cultures. There are many strong programs around the world that offer term-long study-abroad programs. Depending on their content, study-abroad computer science courses can count for CS concentration credit, and satisfy requirements such as elective, breadth, theory or basic software.
If you are considering studying abroad, you should talk to the Office of International Education. The DUS make the determination on a case-by-case basis of whether a particular course would count for a concentration requirement (and if so which particular requirement). The information we’ll need from you includes the syllabus and the structure of the course, including the total number of contact hours. You should not assume that a course will count without checking it with us in advance.
In our experience, students studying abroad often end up taking somewhat different courses than initially planned. Enrollment might be capped, a new course might be offered, or you might simply change your mind. If your plans change, feel free to email us at any point. The final approval only comes after you have completed the term and we receive the transcripts from the institution you studied in.
The following are some examples of programs where Harvard students have studied in recent years and successfully received computer science credit. Note that this does not mean that every course offered under “Computer Science” in those programs will count. You can and should always ask us about specific courses, but the general rule of thumb is that if a course is similar in both level and scientific content to Harvard CS courses, then it is likely to count.
AIT Budapest
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Consortium for Advanced Studies Abroad (CASA) in Barcelona
Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France
Oxford University
King’s College, University of London
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)
University College London
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
This list keeps growing every year: the fact that a program you are interested is not here should not prevent you from pursuing it!
For summer study abroad funding, please check out this resource from the Office of International Education. You can also check in with your financial aid officer, who is visible to you in my.harvard.