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Study-Abroad Programs

© ML Arthur

Many people choose to spend all or part of a year during their time in college or graduate school living and/or studying in another country. There are many options and opportunities for those who are interested in doing this. Students usually study abroad in their sophomore or junior year of college, and most colleges are ready to accept transfer credits from recognized study-abroad programs. Your college may even sponsor a program itself, in which case the credits will be treated just like those from classes you take on-campus. Do be aware that not all programs transfer and that most colleges require you to spend at least four semesters "in residence" (taking classes on-campus), so check with your school before your plan your program.

Programs for undergraduates may be as short as a week during spring break spent exploring Costa Rican rainforests or as long as an entire academic year learning Japanese in Tokyo. The most common programs are semester or yearlong. However, some students choose summer or January programs. If you are majoring in a department where it is easy to find coursework abroad (like language, literature, or history), you will have an easier time finding a full-year program that suits your needs than if you study something like physics or engineering.

Some students also study abroad as part of a graduate program. These options are most common for law and business students as part of international concentrations, but educators, health sciences students, and social sciences students also do find programs. Some consist of formalized coursework and language learning, much like an undergraduate program. Others focus on fieldwork and internships.

Another option, which is growing in popularity, involves students who spend time in another country working or volunteering. The most well known program of this type is the Peace Core, a post-baccalaureate time spent working on development projects in third-world countries. But Non-Governmental Organizations of all kinds are sponsoring internships abroad in fields like education, environmental conservation, and family planning. Students can get paying jobs abroad as well, though this is more complicated due to visa regulations.

One important choice that the prospective study-abroad participant must make regards the language content of the program. The easiest option is to choose a country where the language spoken is one that you are comfortable with. Many students from the United States choose to go to the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or English-speaking countries in Africa. For students from Quebec, Haiti, France, or Senegal may be an attractive option. Students who grew up bilingual may choose a country that speaks their second language. When availing yourself of this option, do remember that the dialect spoken in the country you are travelling to may actually be almost a different language. Countries separated by time and distance have languages that develop differently over time. A French speaker from Paris and one from Haiti may not be able to understand each other at all, and there are hundreds of dialects in Chinese (some of which even have different writing systems)!

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