Studying abroad will not alter GPA

Starting in July, students will no longer have to worry about how grades earned abroad will affect their GPAs. Currently, the Provost's Council on Arts and Culture has passed a portion of an initiative that will allow students to receive credit for international courses without course grades being factored into their grade point averages, starting in the 2003-2004 academic year. "The grades earned in courses abroad will not be calculated into the Penn GPA," Deputy Provost and Council Chairman Peter Conn said. While this portion of the policy has already been passed, Conn explained that administrators have yet to determine how grades earned abroad will be displayed on a student's transcript. However, they will reach a verdict before fall 2003 grades are released. When reflecting on whether such a move might only encourage students to neglect their academics while abroad, Conn said that grades don't necessarily motivate. While Conn admitted that this is "certainly one of the issues that is debated," he said he believes that Penn students are motivated enough to engage in immersion of the culture and academics and don't necessarily need grades as an incentive. "I think the new policy will better serve the academic needs of students and the academic mission of the University," Conn said. The move to alter Penn's policy began over two years ago in an initiative proposed by the Undergraduate Assembly. Administrators began addressing the issue about one year ago. According to UA Chairman Seth Schreiberg, the change in University policy is a "huge victory" for the UA and demonstrates the effect students can have on policy-making when working in partnership with University officials. To UA Vice Chairman Ethan Kay, however, the alteration in policy is merely bittersweet. Kay explained that while the administration's new policy will prevent Penn students from being "unfairly affected in terms of their GPAs," it also ignores the second part of the UA's original initiative, through which the financial policies related to study abroad would also be altered. As one of the original drafters of the study abroad resolution, Kay said that the initiative proposed to parallel the policies of peer institutions by allowing students to pay the tuition charged by the institution where they plan to study abroad -- which is usually much less than what Penn currently charges. "The entire UA is disappointed that the administration has repeatedly refused to deal with the inequitable cost structure of studying abroad," Kay remarked. While he noted that the new grading policy changes will probably result in more students studying abroad, he added that many more might opt to attend international programs if the financial policies were altered as well. Kay remarked that "it's surely a victory for the UA, but it's tempered by [the administration's] continued stubbornness" in not working to change such financial policies. Conn noted that these alterations will also benefit the administration by alleviating long-standing problems concerning the task of translating international grades into Penn equivalents. The deputy provost added that such problems mainly arise due to a lack of a universal grading system. Conn said that the University receives anything from an actual letter grade to an evaluative statement -- such as "trŠs bien" from a French institution -- by which administrators are expected to produce a Penn-equivalent mark. "Attempting to translate such grades is virtually impossible... due to the obscurity of the foreign grades' vocabulary," Conn said. Although such translations will most likely continue to appear on student transcripts, GPAs will no longer be hurt or helped through kinks that potentially arise in the translation process. Schreiberg explained that he believes the change in University policy will quell the worries of not only administrators, but also students with concerns about their language abilities. "I think it benefits students who are reluctant to go abroad who think their language skills aren't good enough," Schreiberg said. College sophomore Brittney Katsoff echoed Schreiberg's sentiment. Katsoff remarked that despite the fact she has completed Spanish 140 -- one semester of a language is needed to go abroad -- she doesn't "know the language well enough" to feel comfortable with a decision to study abroad. Though she has already resolved to stay at Penn for all of her undergraduate years, she said that the change in policy "would make [her] more inclined" to test her language skills and academics in an international setting.

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