Official Study Abroad Transcripts

For a study abroad transcript to be considered official by the Rice Registrar, it must be received directly by Rice and not pass through possession of the student. In addition, the Registrar should not directly receive any study abroad credit materials (transcript, URTC forms) without them first coming through our office.

Please ensure that your study abroad transcript is sent to the Rice Office of Study Abroad (not to the Registrar):

Since transcripts are not always automatically sent out, you should check with your host institution/program and make the necessary arrangements.

You may also want to obtain personal copies of your transcript, such as for use with graduate/professional school applications. Obtaining official copies may be more difficult after the program's conclusion.

School of Record (SOR) Transcripts

For students studying abroad through a non-university program provider, Rice requires official transcripts from a School of Record (SOR). A School of Record is an accredited US institution that processes credit / transcripts coursework for courses taken abroad. While your program provider may distribute its own grade report, this is not considered accredited according to US higher institutions.

Some programs charge an administrative fee to order you an SOR transcript since they already provide their own report. If you will need to request an SOR through your program, you should do so before the start of your program and include this expense on your budget worksheet. As instructed above, please make sure your SOR transcript is sent to the Rice Office of Study Abroad, not to the Registrar.

Study Abroad Transfer Credit Posting Process

No study abroad transfer credit can be posted to your Rice transcript until we have received your official study abroad transcript. Please allow at least six weeks after your return for the Office of Study Abroad to receive your transcript (assuming you have taken steps to have it sent to us). An email will be sent to your Rice email account from the Office of Study Abroad once your transcript has arrived.

In the time before your transcript arrives, we strongly recommend that you work on getting all of the necessary URTC forms signed for your overseas coursework. Our office will be sending your transcript to the Registrar together with your URTC form(s) to be processed. If we have all of your signed forms ahead of time, then we can send everything to the Registrar as soon as your transcript arrives to post the credit.

Note that if the courses you end up taking while abroad differ from those reported on your pre-approved URTC form(s), it will be necessary to contact your transfer credit advisor(s) again and submit the updated form(s) to the Office of Study Abroad.