Can courses I take while studying abroad count for the major?

The answer to this question will always depend on the details. We’ll need detailed information on the courses you’ll be taking – including readings, assignments, methods of assessment, etc. These will be reviewed by relevant Yale faculty, to determine whether they meet the standards of the analogous courses taught on campus. If they do, then the DUS will determine whether the courses can count for the major based on their fit and overlap with your course plan as a whole. (Note that it sometimes requires some initiative in order to gather this information, since not all study-abroad programs make past syllabi available – and some courses do not even have syllabi. In these cases, you’ll have to try to get the information from past years or past students, and we may be able to approve the course provisionally, as long as it does not deviate significantly from the past syllabi.) In any case, if you’re planning to study abroad and would like to receive course credit for some of the courses, you should always talk to the DUS ahead of time, and you should never assume that a course will count until it has been reviewed.