Foreign Travel as Admissions Currency?

Archive Ask The Dean Archive
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<p>Question: I’m taking a trip to Europe this summer through one of my teachers with other classmates. Can this exposure help in any way with admissions? Or is there anything I can do to make it matter? College officials are quite accustomed to seeing all sorts of overseas travel on application forms, so you […]</p>

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<p>How would your answer change, if at all, if instead of a summer trip to Europe, the student lived in Europe for two years during middle school?</p>

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<p>Having lived overseas myself and taught middle school in several different European countries, I personally appreciate what this can bring to a young person’s life. But at the more competitive colleges, it will provide only the most microscopic tick in the plus column. That little tick may get a tad bigger if the student’s application highlights some significant way that the experience had a lasting impact … e.g., if he or she returned home with a particular passion for Flemish art or became an expert in Elizabethan history. Also, the more exotic the country, the more admission committees might pay attention. But, even so, as important as this experience might be to the student, it probably won’t make waves in admission offices, at least not at the more sought-after schools.</p>

<p>Again, I think it’s a terrific opportunity, so don’t shoot the messenger!</p>

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<p>I am philosophically opposed to messenger-shooting anyway, and appreciate your straightforward response!</p>

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<p>There are actually lots of things that admission committees seem to devalue, which I wouldn’t … if I ruled the world.</p>

<p>Just out of curiosity, where in Europe did/do you live?</p>

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<p>

Some examples of things the adcoms seem to devalue?</p>

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<p>“Devalue” probably wasn’t the best choice of word, but there are lots of things that admission officials certainly respect but don’t accord the same “Wow Factor” that I would.</p>

<p>Most are off-topic for this thread, but a couple are actually sort of related.</p>

<p>I put a lot of value on students who have studied several foreign languages and have some competency in each, even if they haven’t taken four years of any single one. Admission folks at the more selective colleges prefer four years of one language.</p>

<p>I put even more value on study-abroad experiences when a student has spent an entire high school year (or even just a semester) living with a foreign family and attending high school in an unfamiliar culture. Sometimes I feel that admission committees don’t make enough of a distinction between the kid who has spent all of 11th grade in Turkey and the one who spent spring break in Montreal with the high school French Club.</p>

<p>Admission officials put little or no weight on anything an applicant achieved in middle school. (Some exceptions, of course.) </p>

<p>There are lots of other things too, but those are a few examples.</p>

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<p>Thanks again for your response and your interest! I’ll PM you with the details.</p>