ses

Such a good movie.

jyber209

Post #71 reminds me of my reaction as I tour prospective colleges with my senior son. So many schools tout the abroad programs and brag about the percent of students who study abroad (typically 60-70%). My reaction is, "We are here to learn about THIS school and what it offers here, not about programs my kid could take at other places and other schools." Since most colleges will allow students to enroll at any "approved" abroad program, my kid could attend certain programs whether he enrolls at Penn State OR U Penn, etc. In any event, this overfocus on abroad programs is curious to me -- and makes me wonder if it is part of the agenda of marketing these profit centers.

And yes, I had heard that at certain Ivies semesters abroad are not encouraged as they are at so many other schools.

MotherOfTwo

I have two unrelated comments to make about study abroad.

1. My daughter will be studying abroad this fall in China, but her situation is a little different from much of what is under discussion here because learning Chinese is essential to her course of study (Asian Studies). She will be in an intensive Chinese language program where students pledge to speak no English (even to Chinese students who are eager to do "language exchange" with Americans). Even though she will be living in a dorm with other non-Chinese students in her program, she will be totally immersed in the language and will be assigned to a host family to spend time with on weekends. The experience she will get by living in Beijing could not be replicated at her home university.

As far as the fees, she does have to pay the full room, board, and tuition to her home university (Swarthmore). Swarthmore has issued her a check to cover the typical air fare from her home to Beijing and another check to cover food (not included in the program - to be purchased at campus cafeteria or in nearby restaurants). Even counting these two checks, the total cost to Swarthmore is still less than what is being paid to them for this semester. As others have mentioned, if she is to receive credit for the coursework this semester, she is required to pay the normal Swarthmore room, board, and tuition. If she had enough credits/AP credits/etc. to graduate in 7 semesters, she could have withdrawn for the semester and done this less expensively.

2. Totally unrelated to above. Attending a school with a trimester or quarter system can be advantageous for students who desire a study abroad experience but do not want to miss too much time at their home college/university. This can be especially good for science or engineering students with many requirements. A quarter away is only one twelfth of the total length of college (counting 3 quarters in a normal school year), as opposed to one eighth for a semester away. My son (a Stanford graduate) spent a quarter in Washington DC (a sort of "domestic study abroad"), and would have had much more trouble fitting a whole semester away into his schedule.

NJ113

The NY State Attorney General has opened an inquiry and has issued subpoenas to several study abroad providers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/ed.../16abroad.html

warblersrule86

About the Columbia-Oxford thing...I think I can shed some light on that. Neither of the two Oxford colleges Duke has an agreement with offers the subject I wanted to study (ancient Near Eastern studies), so I applied to another college through Butler-IFSA and the Washington International Studies Council. I was accepted to both programs, but Duke refused to give credit for the WISC program. After a lot of beating around the bush, the study abroad office told me that they had had considerable problems with the program in the past. The director of WISC didn't take my "no" for an answer and tried to plead my case, get me interviewed for the NYT (this article), etc. Apparently WISC is pretty sketchy, and I'm willing to bet that's the program the Columbia student went through, in which case Columbia's reaction is understandable. In any case, I'll be studying Egyptology at Wales-Swansea instead (half the cost of Duke!).

anair

Check out FSU Panama. My friend said it was great. If you complete the FSU panama year long program, you qualify for instate tuition at any florida university. It costs 19000. You get a townhouse that you share with kids from other US colleges. The campus is right on the canal. My friend got his diving lisence for 200 dollars! Students get to go on great trips. There were students from many US schools. Mainly FSU and UFL.