CMCI Education Abroad Guide
CU Boulder Education Abroad offers over 400 programs in over 60 countries! You can go abroad for a semester, year, and/or 2-12 weeks in the summer. Use the following information as a general guideline to plan your time abroad, and connect with your academic advisor as well. Work with Education Abroad advisors to get more details on how to get started, discuss your program options, and next steps.
Quick Facts
- It is best for CMCI majors to go abroad for a semester during their junior year. A semester during sophomore year and the summer after sophomore year can also be a good possibility.
- It can also be a good idea to save some of your minor courses to fulfill abroad. The following minors, however, are difficult to fulfill abroad: Business, other CMCI area minors, Education, English, science minors.
- Use the Course Approvals List to find programs that offer courses approved for the credit you need
Planning and When to Go
- First-year: Start making progress on lower-division classes for your CMCI major and perhaps also your minor. Consider saving some of your CMCI Core classes and general degree electives for study abroad.
- Sophomore: Finish any lower-division classes for your major and take CMCI Core classes that are less common to find abroad (see "What Kind of Credit Can You Earn Abroad" section below for more info). Also begin taking your secondary area of study courses, especially if these courses cannot be fulfilled abroad.
- Junior: Go abroad! Make sure you have started any major course sequences since many of them will be prerequisites for your subsequent required courses upon return.
- Senior: Education Abroad during your senior year is possible with careful planning. Plan for any specific CMCI classes that MUST be taken on campus during senior year and recognize that all prerequisites must be met. Prerequisites will not be waived and cannot be taken at the same time as the course for which they serve as a pre-req. Be sure that you know when the credits may be transcripted, as this can delay your official graduation date.
What Kind of Credit Can You Earn Abroad?
| Usually Doable | Tricky | Probably Not | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMCI Core | CMCI Major | CMCI Core | CMCI Major | CMCI Core | CMCI Major | |||
| People and Society, Humanities and the Arts, Historical Views | Upper-division CMCI major electives | Diversity and Global Cultures | Major-specific core curriculum | Writing Requirement | Capstone courses | |||
- Suggested programs for Strategic Communication
- Suggested programs for Communication
- Suggested programs for Journalism
- Suggested programs for Media Studies
- Suggested programs for Media Production
- Suggested programs for Information Science
CMCI Global Seminars
On Global Seminars students travel abroad in a small group with a CU Boulder faculty member. This is a great opportunity to study alongside faculty in their area of expertise. CMCI currently offers the following Global Seminars:
- Global Seminar: International Strategic Communication (Paris, France)
- Global Seminar: Consumer Insights (London, England)
- Global Seminar: The Ethnography & Design of Making Data Strange (London, England)
- Global Seminar: Communication, Culture & Sport (England)
Grading Systems & Earning Major Credit
Review the Academic Policies for information on how the coursework you earn abroad will convert to CU Boulder. Students will get more information on program-specific grade conversions in their MyCUAbroad checklist upon acceptance to their program. Courses must have formal approval from the relevant department, and coursework completed on Education Abroad programs are subject to the same grading policies as classes taken on Boulder campus (e.g. for students studying abroad in Fall 2024 or beyond, if your department requires a C- or better to complete a major requirement, you must have earned an SP+ abroad to complete that requirement).Additional Resources
Last Updated June 2024