OCS Policy

English Department Policy on Off-Campus Study

The English Department requires all students seeking credit in the English major for off-campus study to write a letter providing specific academic and curricular justifications for choosing any and every off-campus study program to which they intend to apply. The purpose of this requirement is to ensure both that English majors make the best possible academic decisions in choosing off-campus study programs, and that credit toward the English major is granted only for work accomplished in programs of high quality. The letter required by this policy simply represents a formalization of the discussion you should be having with your academic advisor or the English Department chair as you investigate your off-campus study options.

Letters should be addressed to the off-campus study committee of the English Department and should, in about a page, justify specifically your choice of off-campus study program(s), addressing all or most of the evaluation criteria listed below, as they are relevant. These letters will be due in Lentz House lobby by Friday, December 3, at 4 p.m. This letter to the English Department is an additional requirement (and an absolute prerequisite for those seeking credit in the English major) to the regular application process for off-campus study, which requires complete applications in the Center for Global Engagement by February 1, 2011. It will not be necessary for students to justify the choice of the Kenyon-Exeter Program, since this program has been designed by and is administered by this Department to meet the needs of our majors. If you intend to apply for the Kenyon-Exeter Program, please simply notify the department of your plans by an email to mcmullen@kenyon.edu by Friday, 3 December 2010.

Among the criteria we will use in evaluating your academic and curricular justifications for program choices are the following:

• How does each of the selected off-campus study programs specifically relate to the other choices you have made in your study of English at Kenyon? Does it expand opportunities for focus on a particular national literature, historical period, genre or methodology? Does it open up a cognate field or one that is not available in our department? About how much major credit will you seek from your study abroad?
• What is the relative ascademic quality of each of the selected programs? What is the academic reputation of the university or college with which you will affiliate? Will you be enrolled directly in regular courses (lectures, seminars, tutorials) at the university or will you be segregated with other U.S. JYA students in special sections?
• Will your courses be taught by regular professors in a Department of English, with whom you will have a substantial number of contact hours? If there is a "service learning" or "internship" component of your program, how will your work be assessed and who will oversee it? How will this be relevant to your English major?