My son was in a study abroad program through Boston University at the Royal College of Music.
While my DD didn’t do a study abroad, I think she did the ultimate study abroad…as a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years after her bachelors graduation.
Even the Peace Corps shows the lopsidedness in the gender ratio:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/fast-facts/
Gender: 62% female, 38% male
Some majors may encourage or discourage study abroad. If the former are disproportionately female and the latter disproportionately male, that could explain the discrepancy.
D1 did a program in Ghana concentrating on art and culture. D2 did a program in Vietnam concentrating on economics. Both were English-language; both had at least 75% women, I think.
“Some majors may encourage or discourage study abroad. If the former are disproportionately female and the latter disproportionately male, that could explain the discrepancy.”
I kind of touched on that in my OP, @roethlisburger, but even my kids’ LACs where there is no engineering and they aren’t CS heavy (predominantly male areas of study) and where all majors are encouraged to study abroad with programs geared towards different majors, I see the same lopsided gender balances.
YMMV, it’s often cheaper or the same cost.
There already is, especially at private colleges. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/30/achieving-perfect-gender-balance-on-campus-isnt-that-important-ending-private-colleges-affirmative-action-for-men-is/
Regarding the OP - I would think this varies by program?
But overall your observation seems to be correct: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/09/why-do-more-u-s-women-study-abroad-than-men/
From the helpful link above:
"There is also a perception that majors with large number of male students such as business and STEM fields are not represented abroad. But nearly 49 percent of all U.S. college students who study abroad are in business or STEM related majors, far outpacing social sciences and humanities.
Others have suggested that men have less interest in leaving their peer groups on campus, they have lower GPAs than women, they avoid studying foreign languages, and simply view study abroad as something which is frivolous and will not benefit their long-term professional goals."
“men who do study off-campus are drawn to programs in English-speaking cities and countries, such as London and New Zealand. Two of these have strong internship components in finance, none have a foreign language requirements and only one has a home-stay.”
@MassDaD68, we paid the same exact tuition for our daughter to study in France for a year as we did at her college. The program was run by her school.
My son-in-law paid less to study in Russia (direct enrollment in St. Petersburg State University) for a semester than he would have paid for a semester at Tufts. D went to a non-Tufts program in Madrid, which was about the same cost as a semester at Tufts. Not sure of the ration of men to women at either of their programs. Younger D studied in Moscow where she enrolled in a very specialized program that had slightly more women than men.
I did notice more females than males in my son’s study abroad photos. Always thought it was because of his boyish charm and good looks.
There are nearly 200,000 more college-aged males in the military than college-aged females according to a 2008 report. My estimate is around 60,000 of these males were stationed overseas. Maybe that is where some of the males are going who desire “to see the world.”
How much of a factor is maturity?
My son would definitely love to go overseas. When the opportunity comes we will sit down and run the numbers given the exchange rates at the time. if they are favorable and the cost is less then he would be able to go. If not, then he will have to stay stateside.
From what I have seen so far, a trip overseas to study exceeds the cost of being stateside. He will have to inquire at his school and see. I am glad many of you had the opportunity to save money by sending your child overseas.
@MassDaD68 have your son sit down with the study abroad office at his school and discuss the options. There are a number of different kinds programs, including some where you pay your usual amount to his school and he studies abroad for that semester. The extra cost is just airfare. We also discovered a summer program run by D’s college that is costing us less out of pocket than a semester on campus (including airfare) and is saving us a semester at the end as it’s allowing her to graduate early. She also got a scholarship which brought the cost down even further. We had assumed a summer study abroad was out of the question but it’s working out for her.
We have two daughters and a son. One daughter and one son are very interested in study abroad. The other daughter not at all, but she is taking an opportunity to travel to Europe with some friends this summer. I’ll have to ask D again if her summer program has more women than men, but i think she said it was more men.
It was much cheaper for my son to be in Jordan than at Tufts. And that includes the airfare!
When the female/male ratio of students is close to 60/40, it is no surprise that more females study abroad too. Our older son did a year in the UK, and our younger son is doing summer in Spain. And @mathmom is right, it costs less than in the US especially because housing and food are cheaper (but jobs are harder to find!), even if tuition is paid to your home uni.
I assumed the imbalance had something to do with female students being more inclined to seeing the possibilities of adventure and romance in exotic foreign cities than their male counterparts would. Most foreign colleges are in cities of significant size. If the study abroad locations were coastal fishing villages with lively pubs, mountainous areas with ski slopes, or woodland locations with lots of outdoorsy activities, the ratios might be flipped.