<p>Some study abroad programs offer very little in the way of real interaction with the culture or foreign language immersion. My daughter studied in France last year and I believe that her program was one of the best because she lived with a French family and took all her coursework in French. Her family was great–they spoke no English, and they made a real effort to introduce her to French life through their own family and friends. </p>
<p>However, some of my daughter’s friends’ experiences were hardly different from American university life. They lived in dorms with other American students, took classes in English (taught by American profs transplanted from the home university), and didn’t interact at all with the local culture. In some of the programs the courses weren’t challenging at all and the students spent their time traveling around the continent because the school didn’t have classes on Mondays and Fridays (so that the kids could travel). Which leads me to…</p>
<p>Your daughter’s expenses will almost certainly be higher in Europe despite the recent strength of the dollar. That is because a significant element of study abroad is weekend travel. Even with lots of planning and budgeting, my daughter spent a lot on trains, planes, hostels and food. We didn’t begrudge this because we felt it would be a shame not to take advantage of the relative proximity of Barcelona, Prague, etc. (And she was very careful with her money, using some of her savings). With your own financial issues right now you should be aware of these added costs.</p>
<p>My D was offered a study abroad internship for 3 weeks during winter break (also an LAC) 2 years ago, however when offered it, it also came with a scholarship and therefore she “only” needed to come up with a small amount of spending money. Her program included about 15 from 1 or 2 other schools (plus hers). She worked at the Georgian Fine Arts Museum, in Tbilisi. The school arranged for home stay (which she shared with another student). </p>
<p>I am a fan of study abroad, especially if it provides a location that one wouldn’t “normally” visit when traveling abroad. Something off the beaten path. She is now investigating 2 programs, teaching art to kids in Sri Lanka, and the other is also art related, in India (both are on indefinite hold due to strife in both countries). She knows she will have to earn scholarships and the money to go, and if she wants it bad enough she’ll put it together.</p>
<p>I agree with tango and europa – immersion programs work really well. D#2 spent five weeks in Ecuador with a host family. Terrific experience for all parties.</p>
<p>A four week $3500 trip to Italy sounds more like a vacation than “study abroad.”<br>
Will she be taking courses relevant to her major? Why only 4 weeks? Most study abroad programs are a semester long, and include classes with grades and a structured program.</p>
<p>My junior son will be studying abroad next semester for six months at the University of Capetown. Because the program has an arrangement with his college, tuition will stay the same, including board, and he received a travel stipend to cover airfare. Any travel he does within the country he will have to pay for, but he has some savings that he’ll tap into for these expenses. He won’t be able to work while he’s there, which he normally does during the school year, so I imagine he’ll come home with a much emptier bank account.
His program is directly related to his major field of study, and he’s an A student but has very little international travel experience, so we feel the trip will be valuable- at least as valuable as staying at his college for the semester. Actually, I think he will come back a changed young man. Six months is a long time, and South Africa is not California. While I will miss him terribly, I think in making this trip he is taking advantage of everything his LAC has to offer.</p>
Good point. my D’s school has several opportunities for shorter overseas trips to everywhere from as close as Mexico to as far away as China. To me they sound like vacations - and rather expensive ones. Now if we had money to spare they would probably be fun experiences, but we don’t. I think there is an immense value in actual study abroad where they go to a local University for a semester or more, live with local and other International students, and take the same classes (that will apply to their degrees) as local students. If they can do this at little or no additional cost then I would encourage all students to take the opportunity if it arises.</p>
<p>It can be any of those, depending on the program and the student. Without knowing any of the details, my hunch is that a 4 week program would most likely fall under the “European vacation/party” category.</p>
<p>We were all for study abroad for our daughter, but had some heart to heart conversations about expectations in the selection of study abroad. We weren’t interested in funding a European vacation type semester at private college prices. We suggested that, if that’s what she wanted to do, fine. Take a semester leave from college, buy a backpack, and have fun. You have to evaluate not just the merits of the program, but the cost arrangements viz-a-viz your home college. A semester abroad that might be good value at $5000 might stink at $22,500.</p>
<p>For the record, we never gave our daughter one cent in spending money during college. She never asked, figuring it was her responsibility to work and earn spending money above and beyond our contribution to tuition, room, and board. She saved her summer earnings and always had some kind of workstudy job during college for incidental spending money.</p>
<p>One of the reasons university-sponsored programs are so expensive is that you are paying for a faculty member’s salary, travel, perhaps office space in the other country, and maybe support staff. This adds tremendously to the cost. </p>
<p>Some questions to ask for a long-term (one semester minimum) study abroad experience:
What is the support like there?
What credits will be transferable (it’s wonderful to have coursework in the foreign language, but sometimes the transfer credits will then only count as foreign language credits)? Make sure that a history course taken in the language will count as history credit, for example.
What provisions are there for separating students and getting them out in the community (homestays, volunteer work, signing a pledge not to speak English)?
Are the benefits used to promote the program realistic? (Students will not gain fluency in the language in less than a semester, and not even then if they are always with other Americans).</p>
<p>Cost of study abroad cannot really be addressed without the context of a student’s home college policies. For example, my daughter’s college expects you to continue paying regular tuition, room, and board with all financial aid still in place. The college then pays the study abroad program directly for all costs and sends a check to the student to cover airfare and incidentals. This approach is highly advantageous to financial aid students. However, it may or may not be advantageous to your situation.</p>
<p>Here’s an excellent introductory primer on study abroad programs from a college that has one of the more complete pre-approved lists of several hundred good study abroad programs around the world:</p>
<p>We told our daughter that we would only pay for a study abroad program that met at least one of the following criteria:</p>
<p>*a) Language immersion such that she would be fluent at the end of her return (homestay, classes in the foreign language, etc.).</p>
<p>b) An exceptionally eye-opening cultural experience. This ruled out non-immersion “island programs” of American students dropping into familar Western cultures such as Europe or “Euro-vacation” programs as I call them.</p>
<p>c) A program that kicked the can of her major and/or career path signifcantly and distinctively down the road.*</p>
<p>She ended up doing a program that took her to Buenos Aires, Beijing, Shanghai, and Bangalore with month-long homestays in each country and four courses of credit towards her major on a topic (globalization and urbanization issues) that had potential career implications or at least an interesting topic of conversation during job interviews. I believe that her program was more valuable (and more challenging) than a semester at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>My son did a study abroad for a semester. He earned a full semester’s worth of credits during that time. Will this four week trip abroad come with credits? If not…it is discretionary spending, as far as I would be concerned.</p>
<p>One other question to ask- how do the units transfer- the program my DD is considering is not run by her school, but one of her profs pairs up with another prof from a small school and runs it. I am sure part of the cost is his cost, but one advantage is that the classes are outlined and you know going in that the credits match specific needs</p>
<p>One of my Dds did a study abroad and talked to profs ahead of time, took science classes and needed them to fulfill requirements, it was an incredible amount of work to get them ‘pre-approved’ and then actually applied once she returned. This was a program through her university and they say all units will count, but it is getting them to count for more than just extra units, but to check actual specific requirement boxes that is the challenge.</p>
<p>These are on the approved programs list for almost all of the top colleges and universities and pull most of participants from those schools (my daughter’s trip had Swarthmore, Williams, Wellesley, Vassar, Harvard, Penn, Berkeley, Barnard, and some others represented). Cost is a factor, no doubt, but it’s also a very demanding semester. The academics are rigorous; the schedules are grueling, and the homestays require being “on” 24/7. The Harvard kid almost backed out when he got to orientation in New York and figured out how hard the program was going to be.</p>
<p>We almost overlooked it because it doesn’t fit into any of the neat categories on college’s lists. I can’t recommend the IHP programs strongly enough for a student wanting to push themselves, but with the support of a travellling group. There is a very strong bond among the students who have done these trips.</p>
<p>Our D did a semester with [CUPA</a> - Study Abroad in Paris](<a href=“http://www.cupa-paris.org/]CUPA”>http://www.cupa-paris.org/), arranged through her school. She got full academic credit for the semester, tuition was a bit less, expenses were a bit more (but she is frugal, e.g., she never went to a restaurant when she had to pay, and bought hardly anything). The flight was clearly an added expense. She was pleased with the CUPA organization, as were we. CUPA makes sure the kids see much of Paris and northern France, in addition to classes. Paris universities are free (she was at Nanterre for psychology), so the tuition paid for most extra expenses, like an all-expense-paid trip to Mt. St. Michel on the north coast, Metro passes, museum entrance, etc. Overall she had a great time, and wouldn’t have missed it for anything. We had to visit, of course. I should add that all classes were in French, so fluency is a requirement.</p>
<p>Here program was largely field based, visiting sites with government, industry, and NGO leaders in each city – for example, visiting the UN for presentations by the global development office and going to the New York City planning department for lectures by the city on the planning process in a megacity during the first week in New York.</p>
<p>Other programs, headquartered in a university, resemble more closely standard college courses.</p>
<p>That’s part of what you want to consider when evaluating programs.</p>
<p>Your Dd might also look for free or cheap study abroad opportunities on her own. My DD managed to go to Brazil for free in high school (complements of the state), China (free roundtrip ticket, room and board, plus stipend and a week of free travel at the end; she taught english 24/7 for three weeks prior to the free travel portion), Nicaragua for a month (with her college, free except she had to chip in about 50$ for food), Mexico, Chile semster abroad for 5 months (this cost us- but only as much as we would have paid for her home university so it was a wash), Armenia (free paid by the gov), and California (not very far abroad - but still, out-of-state) free 6-week language program including room and board, Turkey for 9 months (free, paid for by post-graduation travel grant from her college). There are programs out there and work opportunities out there that provide great travel abroad for little or no money. :)</p>
<p>So what does one study when abroad? And if you do study, when do you have time to do other things?</p>
<p>Our D’s courses in Paris:</p>
<p>18th century French literature: Views of the other (“Regards de l’autre”)
Modern art history
Advanced French composition and grammar
Stress and emotion (psychology)
German (taught in French, quite challenging!)</p>
<p>The academic load was less that back home at Reed, but being all in French added to the stress.</p>
<p>She had plenty of time to see the city and socialize.</p>