Attend Summer School

The level of care and expertise put into a course’s design and delivery can vary greatly across institutions and instructors. As a student in the College of Arts & Sciences, we want to ensure that all of the courses that make up your undergraduate degree are of the highest quality – including those completed outside of Georgetown.

Here are some tips to help you identify a high-quality summer course. Your dean will make the final call on whether or not it meets our Course Design expectations (see the Course Design expandable section below for details) and is therefore approved for transfer.

• Look for evidence in the syllabus that the professor has an active presence in the course and teaches it dynamically using a variety of teaching methods. For example, does the syllabus mention lectures, moderated discussions, class activities, and office hours availability? For online courses, is it clear that the professor will be actively delivering course content, not just providing powerpoints or other passive media for students to consume on their own?

• Look for evidence of significant learning goals. The learning goals of your summer course should be more challenging than “learn the basic elements” or “develop an understanding” of a broad topic. Here is an example from one of Georgetown’s summer courses, which demonstrates the deep examination and analysis you should be looking for in a summer course: “This course will examine the scientific process, principles, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships of the natural world; we will identify and analyze environmental problems and evaluate potential solutions for resolving or preventing these issues.”

• Look for meaningful assignments and activities in which you will demonstrate your learning and receive feedback from a faculty expert. For example, this excerpt from one of Georgetown’s online summer course descriptions: “Though lectures and discussion will focus on particular topics, there will also be labs with class exercises, assignments, and readings that will allow instructors and students to explore how historians identify, define, and employ primary sources of all types…” Some lower-quality online courses, in particular, place students in a silo, requiring them to complete auto-graded assignments, which don’t offer the substantive feedback and guidance a subject-matter expert can give. Look instead for mentions of an engaged faculty member, such as “The instructor provides written feedback on assignments throughout the term” and  “I provide feedback on assignments within 24 hours and grades within 72 hours.”

• Look for evidence of appropriate assessments tied to the learning goals. High quality courses, whether online or in-person, should require students to complete work that demonstrates investment, engagement, and opportunity for thorough assessment. For courses in the humanities, appropriate assessments must be the creation of significant and substantive work, mostly likely in formal writing. For other courses, quizzes, exams, research-based assignments, and substantive projects connected to the learning goals of the course are all appropriate assessments. Auto-graded quizzes that students can take multiple times and papers that require summary, not analysis, are examples of assessments that are lower in quality and signal that a course will not be transferable. 

• Look for evidence of peer-to-peer engagement and collaboration (especially in online courses). Discussion, debate, and group work should be a significant part of the learning experience for both classroom and online courses; high quality online courses don’t isolate students – they use technology to connect students to their peers. If required discussion board posts are the only way peers interact in an online course, student discussion posts should make up a significant percentage of the class grade. For all courses, statements such as “your preparation and participation in class discussion is essential” or mentions of peer feedback on assignments and/or group assignments are good evidence that peer engagement is built into the course.

Applications must be submitted at least two weeks before the start of the course. This deadline gives your dean the time to review your application carefully, requesting additional course information and/or discussing with you how the course fits into your academic program (if applicable). Your dean reserves the right to deny any application that is submitted less than two weeks before the start of the course. No application may be submitted later than Friday, July 19. Courses cannot be submitted retroactively for approval.

Seniors who are planning to graduate in August 2024 must complete their courses, have final grades, and have their final transcript sent to the Dean’s Office by Monday, August 19, in order to meet the August degree conferral deadline.

A maximum of four non-Georgetown summer courses may be transferred to the Georgetown record. Transfer students may not transfer more than 60 credits total to the Georgetown degree.

Students may submit no more than four applications per summer. Students should pay close attention to the College’s policies, detailed below, for the transfer of non-Georgetown coursework and take care to only submit applications for courses that clearly adhere to these policies.

Students may enroll in no more than two classes which meet concurrently.

Overall, students may take no more than 4 courses in one summer.

Courses must meet for a minimum of three weeks and may not overlap with Georgetown’s spring or fall semester.

For classroom courses, credits are evaluated using classroom hours and session calendar. A 3-credit course must meet for a minimum of 36 hours over a minimum of three weeks.

Online and hybrid courses will be evaluated by the student’s dean to ensure that the minimum standard of instructor/student/class contact is met. Self-paced courses or independent studies will not be approved. The course must meet for a minimum of three weeks, with fixed start and end dates.

Though proposed courses do not need exact Georgetown matches to be approved, we do limit our approvals to courses and areas of study contributing to the aims and spirit of a Georgetown liberal arts education. Courses offering non-academic training (paralegal studies, EMT, word processing, etc.) and that prepare students for college work (pre-calculus, expository writing, grammar) will not be approved or transferred.

Students are generally expected to fulfill major, minor, certificate, and core requirements at Georgetown. The following core requirements MUST be completed at Georgetown: HALC (Humanities: Arts, Literature, and Culture), HIST-1099 (History Focus), and Science for All. No more than half of a core requirement may be transferred from outside Georgetown. All language credit at the learning level is subject to the results of a department-administered placement exam upon return.

Department approval is required for major, minor, and certificate courses and is recommended for prehealth courses. You will need to obtain approval from a faculty member in the relevant department in the form of an email. The email will then need to be saved as a PDF file and uploaded to the application.

The McDonough School of Business (MSB) does not permit the transfer of non-Georgetown business courses. College of Arts & Sciences students who are pursuing minors in business studies may not take business courses away from Georgetown and apply them toward the minor. Overall, College students are limited to a maximum of six business courses toward their degrees.

Students must upload a syllabus (PDF format only) confirming that the course they are proposing contains the following:

• Evidence that the professor has an active presence in the course and teaches it dynamically using a variety of teaching methods.
• Evidence of significant learning goals
• Evidence of assignments and activities that give students practice and meaningful feedback in meeting the learning goals.
• Appropriate assessments tied to the learning goals. For courses in the humanities,  appropriate assessments must be the creation of significant and substantive work, mostly likely in formal writing.
• For online courses, the course must require regular peer-to-peer interaction.

The syllabus must be current and match the course format. That is, if you are submitting an application for an online course, the syllabus must be for the online version of the course for Summer 2024 and must be prepared by the instructor of record.

If a Summer 2024 syllabus is not available, students may submit a Summer 2023 syllabus along with an email from the professor confirming that they will not make significant changes to the course design or content in Summer 2024. Syllabi for previous versions of the course that were taught in a fall or spring semester will not be accepted. By nature of the difference in length between semester terms and summer terms, it’s not possible to assess a fall or spring course that will be adapted for a summer term.

If no syllabus (not even a Summer 2023 syllabus) is available, please do not move forward with your application. Instead, contact your dean to discuss the possibility of provisional approval until such time as a current syllabus is available.

Students who plan to complete courses at universities located outside the U.S. and transfer the earned credit back to their Georgetown degree must follow Georgetown’s International Travel Policy. The policy requires all GU undergraduate students to submit their university-related international travel plans for a review of local and regional safety and security concerns. Safety and security approval is required in addition to academic approval in order for credit to transfer.

Note: You should allow at least four weeks prior to your departure for the safety and security review process.

Additional information:

All undergraduate students must have their travel plans authorized by the Travel Committee. As part of the travel authorization process, students will be expected to confirm health insurance coverage, sign an Assumption of Risk form, and submit a safety plan. All travelers are strongly encouraged to enroll in the U.S. State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP).

The policy and all related forms are available on the Office of Global Services website.

To be eligible for transfer, coursework must be at an accredited college or university, accepted towards an undergraduate degree at that institution, and represented on that institution’s transcript. For summer programs abroad through third-party providers, such as DIS, CIEE, and CET, students must request a transcript from the university of record aligned with the provider and this may require an additional fee. Transcripts from third-party providers will not be accepted, as they are not degree-granting institutions.

All courses must be taken for a letter grade; no other grades, such as “pass” or “S” will be accepted for the transfer of credit. A letter grade of C or higher from the host institution is required for the course to be transferred to your Georgetown degree. However, the grades for courses taken away from Georgetown will not appear on the Georgetown transcript and are not computed in your Georgetown GPA.

After completing the course, students must ask the summer college or university to send an official transcript to Georgetown.

If your host institution provides electronic delivery of official transcripts, please submit your transcript to: collegedeans@georgetown.edu. If your host institution does not offer e-transcripts, you may request for it to be mailed to:

Claudia Estrada
ICC 303
College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Office
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057-1003