Top 20 Baccalaureate Colleges for Study Abroad Participation

Papa_Chicken
Thu, 16 Nov 2006 08:38:00 +0000

good points interesteddad…I learned much with this past summer’s college touring about the variety of qualities for study abroad options…many, many differences in financing, credit transfer policies, school sponsored programs vs other programs, approved vs non-approved programs, Jan plan vs full semester, individual vs group participation, etc…

To add, upon further inspection, the stats quoted in the linked study can be deceiving, as you alluded. Couple of examples (although the years don’t exactly match up):


Dickinson is reported above at 82%, but Dickinson’s own web page states that 58% of graduated seniors ('05 I think) studied abroad…although both are large percentages, 82>>58 is quite a difference. (source: http://www.dickinson.edu/admit/qfacts.html )
Colgate is reported above at 81%, but Colgate’s profile web page reports 68% (source: http://www.colgate.edu/DesktopDefault1.aspx?tabid=494&pgID=1020 )


Here are some stats from a few more LACs. Keep in mind that what is generally reported is % of a class or of the entire undergraduate student body that takes some kind of study abroad (some also include study in the US away from campus). There appears to be no standardized method of calculation, so consider these numbers only roughly comparable.

Williams: 40% (includes domestic) http://www.williams.edu/admission/life_facts.php

Middlebury: 55% http://www.middlebury.edu/NR/rdonlyres/D73A34E7-182B-4B76-A5F4-43AD5962F25C/0/studyabroad05.pdf

Swarthmore: 139/370 (~avg class size)= 38% Institutional Effectiveness, Research & Assessment :: Swarthmore College;
[note: that calculation is for school year 05-06; appears that Swarthmore’s fall 06 participation is way up, extrapolating to the 50-55% range.]

Pomona: (1548-1429)/(1548/4)= 31% (guess everybody doesn’t mind staying in sunny California) http://www.pomona.edu/ADWR/Admissions/Forms/2010fullprofile.pdf

Bowdoin: ~50% (guesstimate) http://academic.bowdoin.edu/ir/data/FAQs.shtml

Bates: 60% http://www.bates.edu/Prebuilt/bates.facts.05.06.pdf

Another note…based upon the Middlebury & Swarthmore information, which includes multiple years of data, one can see a fairly large variability of percent participation from year to year, on the order of 10+% sometimes. This leads me to conclude that one year snapshots (& I’m guessing that some of the other college-reported stats are just for one - perhaps favorable - year, but I have no way of knowing) can be deceptive especially trying to compare participation rates between schools…so beware.