Application

Application

Off-Campus Study Application

Application to Bowdoin

After deciding which program makes the best academic sense for you, and declaring your major (if you are a sophomore), you should complete an application form, available from the OCS Office or here in PDF, for permission from Bowdoin to study on that program. Applicants for the Twelve College Exchange (including the dual degree program at Dartmouth) need submit to OCS only the 12CX application. You will need to provide the following information:

  • the program you wish to attend, and for what part of the academic year
  • the title and a brief description of each course you wish to take, as accurately as is possible at the time of your application
  • an indication of any courses for which you seek major or minor credit
  • the number of credits you expect to earn, in the system of the host institution
  • a statement (no more than one printed page) of why you want to study on the proposed program, including a justification of your choice of period

Please refer to the instructions on the form. Compose your statement of purpose with the care you would give any written work to be read by a faculty member. Write a concise description of the academic benefits of the program, rather than generalities on the benefits of living or travelling abroad. What academic possibilities does the program offer that Bowdoin cannot? Are the methods of instruction and learning different? How will the work relate to courses you have already taken and plan to take at Bowdoin, and how will it relate to your major upon your return? The more thoroughly you have done your research, the better the statement, and your chances of approval.

Ask your advisor, in the department in which you intend to major, to review and sign your application. You are expected to discuss your plans with your advisor before the application stage; but your application should be fully complete, including part 4, when you ask for your advisor's signature. If you intend to double-major, you should obtain signatures from both departments, whether or not you intend to take courses in both subjects. Be prepared to have course descriptions available if necessary. Do not leave the completion of the form to the last few days before the deadline, and do not expect an advisor to sign it if you have not discussed your plans, or if the form is incomplete. You may also wish to obtain the signature of a representative of a department in which you intend to minor, if you will seek credit toward the minor for any of the courses. Once the application is signed, your department may ask for a photocopy to be left on file.

If you are applying to study off campus in your sophomore year, you may ask your first-year advisor to sign your form. You should have a clear sense of what your major will be, however, and should consult that department on the requirements you will need to fulfil. If you are approved to study off campus in the spring semester of your sophomore year, you will also need to visit Student Records for advice on how and when to declare your major.

Your advisor's signature in part 5 indicates that the program and courses you propose appear to be appropriate to your course of study at Bowdoin. Your application then goes to the Off-Campus Study Committee for approval. Provided that your plans are approved and that you complete your coursework satisfactorily, you will be able to transfer graduation credit to Bowdoin upon conclusion of your program.

In part 3 of the application, your advisor may also sign preapproval of major credit for specific courses, up to a total number of credits fixed by the department. Final approval of major/minor credit, as with graduation credit, will come only at the conclusion of your program, upon arrival of your transcript and, usually, upon evaluation in your department of syllabi and written assignments or portfolio.

Applications may be submitted to OCS as soon as the major has been declared in February. They are due no later than 5:00 PM on 21 February 2008. Applications of students who, for reasons that they could not have foreseen, miss the deadline, will not be considered until later, and then only if numbers and the balance of enrollment permit. Students who wish to study away in their sophomore year do not have to declare a major, but should observe the same 21 February deadline as upper-class students. They are likely, however, be asked by the Off-Campus Study Committee to wait for a response until courses from two semesters are recorded on their Bowdoin transcript; in any case, priority will be given to students applying to study away as juniors.

Only in exceptional circumstances beyond the applicant's control will late applications be accepted or subsequent changes of program or period allowed. As a small college that sends over half of its students to study away, Bowdoin is unusually affected by fluctuations in OCS enrollment. Once the OCS applications have been processed in early March, the College starts at once to plan for the number of students it expects to admit and have on campus for the coming year. Those plans assume a certain percentage of attrition in the study away numbers. In order not to penalize those students who went through the advising and application process in the expected way, the only applications that can be considered after the deadline are those that combine an absolutely cogent academic rationale with a reasonable explanation for why the application was late. Please note that the Off-Campus Study Committee, which has the final say on all applications and petitions, meets approximately once a month, only during the College semester.