Okay, so I need some help from a different perspective. Basically, I currently plan on studying abroad in Dublin this upcoming spring semester. I’m an English major, my favorite author is Oscar Wilde, I’d be going to the university where James Joyce graduated from, and the school I’d be going to has the classes that I need. I can either study abroad, or I could stay where I am and participate in this program called Camp Adventure (which is where you’re a camp counselor to kids of the military/U.S. Embassy staff over the summer), but I wouldn’t be able to study abroad since the trainings are throughout the spring at my campus. It’s an all-expenses paid trip to Europe or Asia for the summer, and you’d be working for the Department of Defense. I’m studying to become a teacher, and this opportunity sounds like once in a lifetime. Then again, so does studying abroad (I don’t think I can fit it into next school year because of on-campus course requirements). The thing is with this one, it’s not guaranteed that I’d make it in. I’m fairly sure that I would, since I’ve recently worked as an assistant teacher at an elementary school this past year and have done years of jobs working with kids in schools, but I don’t know. Anything could happen.
I’m so torn. I have no idea what to pick. I’ve wanted to study abroad since I was in middle school, but this summer job sounds amazing. I’ve made so many pros/cons lists that my brain hurts. What are your opinions?
Also, I apologize in advance if this was confusing.
The summer gig w the Defence Dept can be better leveraged for future opportunities.
When will you know about the summer program? Can you find out more about the admission odds?
I think you can find a better time to study abroad. That summer program sound incredible good on your career. GIve us an update on your conquest
Sounds like the DOD job includes international travel. Not studying per se, but mighty internship like experience and a free trip.
So, have you decided yet?
studying abroad sounds fun since you’ll take the course and the school that you want. but summer job is also good since you won’t worry about being separated with your loved ones. you also said that you made a list of pros and cons, with that I believe only you can answer your problem. but if you want to ask my side, take the study abroad program.
Different perspective here: the fact that it is the DoD and in Europe is clouding the picture: the job is to be a camp counselor. More glamorous location perhaps than the mountains of your home state- though you are likely to be heavily insulated from the local community. But overall it is not better career-wise than being a camp counselor anywhere else. If you want to be a camp counselor outside the US there are many English language summer camps that want native english speakers for summer jobs. That’s not to say that Camp Adventure is a bad option, just that it is not quite as ‘once in a lifetime’ as it might seem.
Similarly, the glamor goggles are obscuring parts of the study-abroad option: James Joyce went to University College Dublin, which is actually in the underwhelming suburb of Belfield (super easy to get in and out of town by bus, but still…). If you are studying as a ‘regular’ student (ie, not taking special classes organized for study abroad kids) you will find that the system of teaching and (especially) marking is very very different. But- that’s not to say that it is a bad option either.
IMO, to study something that you have a genuine interest in trumps a summer job that can essentially be done elsewhere. You will be able to travel to Dublin at other points in your life, but unless you become an English academic, you are unlikely to ever be able to immerse yourself in your field of interest in the same way again.
But- that’s MY opinion. What matters of course is YOUR opinion!
I like all that premise @collegemom3717 
Surely it’s still your opinion that would have the more weight.
