<p>Felt like old times again this week. Daughter’s last chore before returning to college was to complete her application for study abroad next fall. Ah…the memories. Early decision deadlines. Application forms. Transcripts. Recommendations. Multiple essays. Activities and awards lists. Proofreading, stapling, assembling packets…</p>
<p>It’s a lot less stressful when the odds of admission are a bit higher!</p>
<p>My heart goes out to the jmmom and the other Tulane engineering folk who are having to do college apps for the second time!</p>
<p>…And just think, there may eventually be grad school applications, credit card applications, mortgage applications, and <em>gasp</em> - maybe even job applications!</p>
<p>My D is also going through the study abroad process (provided that she opens the link and actually begins the application). </p>
<p>She called so proud last night stating that she spoke to 2 professors who old her they would be happy to write her recommendations ( I had only been giving gentle reminders since december. I did wait until she started talking about it before I started nudging ) I asked her did she actually start the application and she resonded “I’m going to look it over this weekend. Beside’s it’s not due until Feb. 1” She is really milking the concept that juniors in the major will have first preference in the study abroad and her professor this term /recommender is the department chair (can you hear my brains rattling as I shake my head?).</p>
<p>Yes it’s a little like the admissions process all over again except:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You are now grateful that you don’t have to actually be there because now your child is procrastinating from miles away.</p></li>
<li><p>The worse thing that can happen is that she takes the courses on campus</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Yeah. I don’t think these study abroad programs are that competitive, especially once you get away from the English-speaking world and a few of the top language-immersion programs in Europe. Some of these programs are so expensive that it’s probably not that easy to fill them. Pretty much limited to expensive schools that transfer financial aid.</p>
<p>My D wanted to force herself to meet the early decision deadline just to avoid the possibility of having all the slots filled on a rolling acceptance basis beforehand. Otherwise, I’m not too worried. Swathmore typically sends a student or two a year on this program and, by all reports, “they like Swatties”. Plus, the program makes sense with her major and her EC interests, so her app won’t be coming from left field.</p>
<p>Yeah. The student journals from past trips are full of air travel marathons, sleeping in airports, etc. A journal from last year’s trip ended with the following “stats”:</p>
<p>Hours spent on planes: 69 hours, 48 minutes
Miles flown: 33,250
Kilometres flown: 53, 509
Hours in airports (approximately): 54
Hospital visits: three
New relatives from host families: over 20</p>
<p>We pulled out the trusty globe and looked at the Buenos Aires to Beijing leg. Talk about being literally on opposite sides of the world! Checking the airline schedules, the travel times range from 26 to 36 hours, depending on whether you connect through LA or Europe. </p>
<p>I thought flying San Francisco to Japan was bad, but imagine getting off that flight and immediately boarding another plane to do it again!</p>
<p>An auxiliary iPod battery is definitely on the shopping list!</p>
<p>The program is called “Cities of the 21st Century”. The itinerary varies a bit from year to year. Next fall is currently scheduled to be:</p>
<p>New York City: 1 week
Buenos Aires: 5 weeks
Beijing: 3 weeks
Shanghai: 2 weeks
Bangalore, India: 4 weeks</p>
<p>Other cites that have been on recent itineraries include Capetown, Rio, Paris, Mumbai (Bombay), and Aukland. The umbrella organization, International Honors Program, runs a couple more programs – one that visits similar countries concentrating on indigenous cultures in rural areas and one concentrating on health-related topics.</p>
<p>The “Cities” program is a group of a couple dozen students. As they travel, they take four courses related to urban issues (roughly corresponding to political science, economics, sociology, ecology) in rapidly developing mega-cites taught by travelling professors and local professors, focusing heavily on the tensions of poverty, urban development consuming traditional agrarian cultures, and explosive growth rates. All of these cities feature extreme contrasts. They break up into small groups for fieldwork case studies on neighborhood associations, government agencies, businesses, and NGO service agencies.</p>
<p>In each city, the students live with homestay families and travel to a central location for their classes and guest lectures. It’s described as academically rigorous, “for a study abroad program”. The concensus from the participants my daughter has talked to and from reading the student journals is that it is a grueling, but life-changing experience. It is intense because everytime the kids get settled enough to adapt to a very foreign environment, they get blasted with a new round of culture shock. They describe the first day or two of jet lag and disorientation in each city as “inferno”. On the plus side, there would be very few opportunities in life to compare and contrast huge cities on three or four continents in such rapid-fire succession.</p>
<p>What time of year do most people go abroad? My school is a bit different, but I was curious about other schools. Is summer usually when people leave?</p>
<p>It varies from school to school. At my daughter’s school, students mostly go abroad for a semester during junior year. It is fairly evenly split between fall and spring semesters. Spring semester abroad used to be slightly more popular, but in recent years, it’s swung the other direction. </p>
<p>One of the reasons it varies from school to school is payment policies. At schools where you just pay the school’s tuition (and financial aid applies), it’s pretty easy for students to go for a semester. Conversely, if you are paying in-state tuition at a state school, a semester abroad can be much more expensive, so summer programs (or even winter term programs) may be more popular.</p>
<p>Because of the time table of some overseas schools, often the choice is between year-long and second semester only. For example, schools in Germany often start much later, and first semester ends in February. A student who wants to do first semester only ends up coming home too late for second semester at home school. </p>
<p>This is true in both universities and public schools. My D will finish her 11th grade year here on July 28, and start her school in Georgia on August 14.</p>
<p>My son has been filling out grant and internship applications for summer programs. One asked the applicant to revisit his/her college application essay and to explain how the college experience has changed his/her outlook. That was really resurrecting the ghosts of the past!</p>
<p>At the risk of temporarily derailing the exciting travel portion of this thread, jmmom thanks interesteddad for the empathy. It is well appreciated and much needed. andi and I have determined that we are in the same - how do we call it - godforsaken boat in the dejavu all over again application process, and have been holding each other’s hand PM-wise. It all helps.</p>
) I asked her did she actually start the application and she resonded “I’m going to look it over this weekend. Beside’s it’s not due until Feb. 1” She is really milking the concept that juniors in the major will have first preference in the study abroad and her professor this term /recommender is the department chair (can you hear my brains rattling as I shake my head?).</p>