<p>Mini, I think you make a number of good points about the potential relative merits of one school over another when it comes to study abroad programs, but i wonder if these merits might be limited to Western Europe. To many study abroad programs in Asia and Eastern Europe, it has become clear that it will be almost impossible to develop a level of language proficiency in Japanese, Chinese, Hungarian, etc. in two years of language instruction at the college level in order for students to take academic courses in the host countries’ langauge. Students who have prior exposure and fluency in these languages might be able to pull this off, but for the typical undergrad, trying to learn enough Chinese to function in the classroom (not to mention reading the characters), they will find regualr college coursework extremely difficult and the programs will have to make the academic offerings less rigorous to compensate for the language problems. Students who have taken 4-8 years of French, Spanish or Italian are in much better position to attend programs that are totally conducted in the native langauge, but I would bet that those who are learning these langauges for the first time in college will struggle if they go abroad to this type of program.
It seems to me that we need to rethink some of our tried and true notions regarding study abroad programs particularly as they apply to study in non-European countries and for students who could benefit from study abroad but do not have the fluency necessary to have a good academic experience. This is particularly so if educational globilism is to become more of a reality.</p>