<p>It’s a tricky calculation because students study abroad at various points: spring semester sophmore year, fall semester junior year, spring semester junior year, fall semester senior year. The way the enrollment data is reported, you have be really careful not to double-count a student who spends a full year abroad. That’s before we even start thinking about summer abroad programs, winter term abroad programs, and so forth. The best way to get an accurate number is to actually add up the graduating seniors each year who have studied abroad…but you seldom see things reported that way.</p>
<p>By the way, the cruise ship is not urban legend. There is a Semester at Sea program where 670+ college students board a cruise ship (drinking age 18 in the ship’s bars) and sail around the world. It is considered to be a joke of a program academically (aka “Kindergarten at Sea”, “The Floating Mattress”, “The Booze Cruise”) …although not without merit as a fun travel experience.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.semesteratsea.com/[/url]”>http://www.semesteratsea.com/</a></p>
<p>BTW, women study abroad at much higher rates than men. Science majors study abroad at the lowest rates: it can be a challenge to fulfill graduation requirements when the courses are laid out in a fairly strict sequence as they often are for science and engineering majors.</p>
<p>The most heavily endowed schools probably get under-counted a bit. These schools often have a significant amount of money available to sponsor summer research abroad, both as part of quasi-merit “scholars” programs and as funded thesis research for rising seniors. None of this is counted in “study abroad” statistics.</p>