Again, thank you all so much for your thoughtful responses and advice. I do have an update - my daughter decided over the weekend not to participate in this program next semester. I’m both disappointed and relieved. I was very excited for her to have the opportunity and hopeful that it would be a great growth experience for her, but I was worried about the distance and the length of the course. She says that she’s had a harder time the past week or so since fall break and is afraid of what might happen if she got sad and isolated while far away without any friend or support other than people she would meet when she got there. She also said she realized that she is currently relying a good bit on her roommate, classmates and professors she’s gotten to know and might miss that support more than she anticipated. Even though her current situation isn’t ideal, she has built some connections and she apparently decided she didn’t want to cut those quite yet.
So, even though part of me hates for her to miss this opportunity, my husband and I are 100% behind her decision. Plus, there is a major-specific 2 week study abroad program in June that is through her college specifically and she’s decided to apply to that program. I think in the end the distance and the semester long period of time scared her. I’m glad I left it up to her rather than making the decision for her. Hopefully she knows now that we trust her to make smart decisions and that we believe she could have handled the experience if she’d decided it was the right time to go.
Thanks so much again to all of you. I didn’t respond too frequently, I know, but I read every response and they helped tremendously.