<p>cellardweller - your comments about study abroad need a little updating.</p>
<p>To follow up on one of your examples: Like most “elite” universities and contrary to your argument, Yale is aggressively pushing study abroad. From their website:
“In recognition of the value of international study, Yale College encourages students to spend a term or an academic year studying in an approved program abroad.”
They had listed among a series of priorities for the 2009-2012 school years expanding and encouraging opportunities in international study.
From their own “Factsheet” - “915 students (regular and summer term) studied abroad in 2010-11.” Not exactly an insignificant number, especially taking into account the fact that 10% of undergrads there are not US citizens but internationals and - here I do agree - the difficulties often associated with some STEM fields/scheduling issues (certainly engineering, chemistry less so, bio/physics/geo/CS even less so, math generally not an issue).</p>
<p>Remember too that many students on campus do not qualify for study abroad. A minimum GPA is usually required knocking many out of contention. Quality internationally certainly varies, but directly sponsored programs (including those at HYP), often run by in-house faculty, are quite strong. Few would argue with the rigors of competitive programs at places like Oxford, Cambridge and LSE which can command GPAs at your home institution as high as 3.7 to qualify. </p>
<p>All US schools have woken up to the value of study abroad. Opportunities are generally plentiful and, for this reason, this won’t generally factor in to a decision about where one attends.</p>