All BOSP participants are subject to and will be held accountable for the policies in this section.
Step 1: Determine Eligibility
All Stanford undergraduates, with the exception of freshmen, who are in good academic standing (not on provisional registration or University suspension), and have met the minimum academic or language pre-requisites for the program, are eligible to participate in a Bing Overseas Studies Program.
Seniors or coterms are eligible as long as they do not confer their undergraduate degrees before they go abroad; students must keep an undergraduate status until and while they are abroad to remain eligible.
Previous Overseas Seminar participants are not eligible to apply to another Overseas Seminar. Students can, however, apply to as many quarter-length programs as they wish. International students should check with the Bechtel International Center whether or not their status will allow them to be enrolled in summer courses.
Step 2: Choose Your Program
The Bing Overseas Studies Program encourages students to explore all the possible program options available to them and to think thoughtfully about their academic reasoning for wanting to participate in each individual program. We encourage you to visit the study abroad advising website to find more information about studying abroad with BOSP, comparing our programs and other factors that might influence your decision such as Faculty-in-Residence, language background, internship opportunities, courses offered, quarter or simply look at a comparative summary of all of our programs.
Resources are available to assist you with the application process. Undergraduate Advising and Research advisors are available to meet with students to review application essays and assist with academic planning that incorporates overseas studies. Please contact a UAR advisor to schedule an advising appointment.
Step 3: Review Application Policies
You will need to review the Bing Overseas Studies Program (“BOSP") Participation Assumption of Risk, Release of Claims, Indemnification and Hold Harmless Agreement before you apply.
To determine an applicant’s qualifications, standing at the University, and readiness to participate in a program, the following offices may be consulted:
- Office of Residential Education
- Office of Accessible Education
- Undergraduate Advising and Research
- Office of Community Standards
- Vaden Health Center/Counseling and Psychological Services
NOTE: Vaden will not share confidential health information with the program, but may identify a concern with an applicant’s readiness to participate, to be further addressed directly with the applicant.
BOSP reserves the right to revoke admission at any point prior to the program should there be any changes to a student’s qualifications, standing at the University, and readiness to participate in the program. BOSP will notify the student should there be any concerns, or if the student is no longer eligible to participate in the program.
Keep the following in mind when applying for a Quarter-Length program:
- You will need to apply two quarters in advance for all programs (this does not count the Summer quarter).
- There are two application rounds, both with different deadlines. Programs oversubscribed after the 1st round will not accept applications in the 2nd round. Students are encouraged to apply for their desired program in the first round since the program may not be available in the 2nd round. During the 2nd round, all students (including students who did not apply during the 1st round) are eligible to submit an additional application for another program.
- You can apply to one program in each application round.
- Results will be announced two weeks after each deadline, which gives students waitlisted in the 1st round an option to apply in the 2nd round.
Keep the following in mind when applying for an Overseas Seminar:
- You will need to apply to a Summer Overseas Seminar three quarters in advance (during Autumn quarter).
- There is only one application round, so students must apply for their desired program.
- Results will be announced three weeks after the application deadline.
Applying for Multiple Quarters
The Bing Overseas Studies Program strongly encourages students to spend more than one quarter abroad, if possible. Students interested in spending multiple quarters abroad at different locations must apply for a program during the application round for each individual quarter he or she wants to spend abroad. For example, if a student wants to attend Berlin in Autumn Quarter and Paris in Winter Quarter, he or she must apply for Berlin by the Autumn Quarter application deadline (in the winter quarter prior), and for Paris by the winter deadline (in the spring quarter prior). Students may participate in an Overseas Seminar after a Spring Quarter abroad or before an Autumn Quarter abroad providing that there are no overlap in program start or end dates. Students must apply for both programs separately.
Students already enrolled in a quarter-length program interested in extending their stay at a single location must submit an Extension Request Form.
Late Applications
Students interested in submitting a late application should contact us at bospapply@lists.stanford.edu. We want you to go abroad and would love to discuss your options with you.
Step 4: Apply
View our current application deadlines as well as future application deadlines, and then log in to the BOSP Application System to apply. The application consists of multiple essay questions so we advise you not to wait until the last minute to submit an application.
Step 5: Confirm your Accepted or Waitlisted Status
You will receive an email if you are accepted or waitlisted for a program. You must confirm or decline your accepted or waitlisted status by the confirmation deadline stated in the email. Log in to the BOSP Application System to confirm or decline your accepted or waitlisted status.
Accepted and Waitlisted Students
It is your responsibility to ensure that all prerequisites and participation requirements are completed before you go overseas. Please visit the Participation Requirements page for detailed information about participation requirements, study abroad preparation checklist by program and other helpful information. BOSP will continue to monitor your progress. If you do not complete all prerequisites and participation requirements, your admission will be withdrawn.
Waitlisted Students
There is no financial commitment to remain on the waitlist, though, we do expect that you be ready to go abroad. Only students on the waitlist who have completed all of the necessary items above will be accepted into the program as soon as space becomes available, even on very short notice. Please understand that it is impossible for BOSP to predict whether you will be accepted into the program. Waitlist rankings are often not available. You may remain on the waitlist for as long as you wish.
Extensions & Withdrawals
Please visit the Extend & Withdraw section of the website to review the policies and download the required Extension and Withdrawal Request Forms.
