In general, SUNY programs are designed for undergraduate students and all students who go on a program earn undergraduate credit. However, on some programs, you may be able to enroll in graduate courses, and these courses will show up on your Transcript Supplement with their graduate-level course numbers. If you have also registered for graduate credit, then you will earn graduate credit for these courses.

Beware: All college graduates are not automatically graduate students! You are not a graduate student unless you have been admitted by a university for study towards a graduate degree. Therefore, unless you have actually enrolled in an overseas program as a graduate student and taken graduate courses overseas, you will still only get undergraduate credit for any graduate-level coursework you take overseas.

To get graduate credit for graduate courses, you have to be a college graduate, be approved to take graduate-level coursework overseas, and be registered at Albany for graduate credit. To have graduate courses taken overseas count toward a graduate degree, you must also have permission from your department to have these courses count. It is hard to transfer graduate credits from one school to another, so even if Albany enrolls you in graduate courses, you must still get permission from your home campus to count them toward your degree.

Keep in mind that when you study abroad you are not enrolling in the host university for a degree. Therefore, even if you take many, many graduate classes overseas, you will not be earning a degree from the host university.

Graduate Credit for University at Albany Students

If you are enrolled in a graduate degree program at Albany, you may enroll in graduate coursework overseas and get credits toward your degree if your department approves the courses for inclusion in your degree program. Alternately you may, again with the permission of your department, audit coursework at the host university, and use what you have learned as an auditor to complete a directed study at your home department. In that case, you would register for a certain number of credits within your department, but you would have to pay all of the costs that other students on the program would pay, even though you were not getting credit the same way. There is one vital rule to keep in mind: all arrangements for graduate credit that will become part of your degree program must be made with the approval of your department and the Office of International Education at Albany before the start of the program.

Graduate Credits for Non-Albany Students

If you have a bachelor’s degree and want to take graduate-level courses overseas, you may do so provided the overseas university will allow you to enroll in them. You must first apply to Albany for admission as a non-degree graduate student. Ask us for the form and return it to us (NOT to Graduate Admissions, please!) for processing. Once you are admitted, we can register you for graduate overseas study. If you cannot find suitable graduate courses overseas on an Albany program, you may still participate by taking undergraduate courses and earning non-degree undergraduate credits at Albany. If you are enrolled as a graduate student anywhere but at Albany and you do register at Albany for graduate courses overseas, remember that only your home university can approve coursework for inclusion in your degree program. Check carefully on this before you go.