Study abroad

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 team determines on a case-by-case basis what courses count for CS concentration credit (and if so, for which requirements). 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.

Programs

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.

• Aquincum Institute of Technology (AIT) in Budapest

• Chinese University of Hong Kong

• CIEE Madrid: Engineering & Society

• Consortium for Advanced Studies Abroad (CASA) in Barcelona

• DIS Copenhagen

• Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France

• Oxford University

• King’s College, University of London

• 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!

Course Examples

Please note that we review courses each semester as courses change over time; no courses abroad (other than a few courses at AIT Budapest and Oxford University, listed at the bottom of the tags page) are approved without review of a year-specific syllabus. These are examples of some of the courses where Computer Science concentrators have received concentration credit while abroad.

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.