Choosing a study overseas program that is the “right fit” for you is the best way to get your personal and academic goals for study abroad, as well as assist you with your long-range career plans. Therefore, it is important to plan carefully. However, when selecting the program, you are likely to get the most from involved careful planning. Hundreds of opportunities exist, more than ever before. They differ in location, duration, curriculum, degree of cultural immersion, verbal communication, cost, and many, many other ways. Because there is so much to consider, it’s smart to begin planning a full year before you want to depart. In some cases colleges and universities expect you to declare your intent to study overseas a full year in advance.
Start by realistically assessing your academic and personal preparation and objectives:
* What do you want or need to study?
* Do you need to earn credit while abroad, or would a work abroad program not for credit be possible?
* Are you fluent enough in a foreign language to take classes in it, or will it be necessary for you to take some or all of your coursework in English?
* How much time can you afford to spend abroad, in terms of academic time and economic resources?
* Where do you want to go? Why?
* How structured or open of a program are you looking for?
* Do you want to live in a dorm with other Americans, stay with a local family, or have some other housing option?
* How much money can you spend on tuition and fees? On housing and food? On international transportation?
* Will you need to apply for financial aid? Is it available?
This section provides information that will help you answer these questions.
Getting the most from any study abroad program requires open-mindedness, flexibility, dedication, independence, and above all, a spirit of adventure. Some programs, however, require more of these characteristics than others. Also keep in mind your adventure quotient when considering programs. Challenge yourself, but be realistic.
Housing Options
Your living situation will have a significant collision on your study abroad experience. Housing can be as grand as a manor house, as rugged as a tent in a rain forest, or as standard-issue as a university residence hall.
Many study abroad programs provide student housing. Some arrange home-stays, in which you live with a local family. Others provide housing in dormitories or apartments, where your roommates could be students from the host country, from other foreign countries, or from the United States. For short-term programs or those that require extensive travel, students may be housed in hotels, pensions, or student hostels.
Some programs offer a choice of housing arrangements. In most cases, however, the choices are few, as student housing is difficult to find almost everywhere. Dormitory space is often so limited that many foreign universities have strict quotas for the number of rooms allotted to international students.
Be sure to find out whether programs you are interested in arrange housing for participants; not all do. If it’s up to you to find your own housing, ask if the sponsoring institution will assist you. Request an estimate of costs for accommodations, food, travel and necessary living expenses.
Living in Dorms or Apartments. Most students live in dorms or apartments while studying abroad. Some single rooms may be available, but two or more students to a dorm or apartment are more common. Depending on the program you select, you may have a choice of the population of students you room with.
Living with other US students. Surrounded by experiences that are new, some US students are most comfortable living with students from their own country. However, if cultural immersion, cross-cultural learning, and/or an intensive experience of the host culture are high on your list of goals, you may wish to live with students from the host country.
Living with students from the host country or other foreign countries. You may opt for this if you consider your living situation to be part of your overseas learning experience. If you want to live with local students, be aware that, in some countries, local students live in dorms only for their first year, then move to apartments.
Many universities abroad put all foreign students - including those from the US - in a special dorm for foreigners. While, you are unlikely to meet host country students in these dorms, you will be surrounded by other students sharing the experience of being new to a country.
Homestays. Homestays usually provide the greatest immersion in the host language and culture, giving you the opportunity to experience how local people really live. This is especially true if you live with a family that treats you like one of the family, getting to know you and offering help if you need it.
In some cases, however, the host is simply someone with an extra room to rent out, and your relationship is strictly that of landlord/tenant, with little or no social interaction. In many cases, you will not know the name or address of your home-stay until you arrive at the program. This is a major difference between college-level study abroad programs and high school exchanges.
Smoking is far more common - and accepted - abroad than in the US. If a nonsmoking environment is important to you, find out if anyone smokes in home-stays you are considering, or ask for a nonsmoking roommate in dorms and apartments. But be prepared to learn to live in an environment where people smoke.
If you are a vegetarian or vegan, or if you have other special dietary needs, check to see if these can be accommodated. Vegetarian menus are not common outside of the United States, especially in Europe. If you are living with a host family, it may be perceived as rude for you to refuse the meals they serve.
In many cases, it may be a hardship for the family to provide separate meals for you. Please be clear about your needs before the program places you in a home-stay situation as it may not always be possible to accommodate your special requests. And be prepared to compromise with regard to your dietary choices. Remember, you are the guest. You may also have to bear the extra costs of special meals yourself.
Housing information
Get as much information as possible about housing. This can help you decide whether a program is for you, or at least prepare you for what to expect.
For programs in any country, ask:
* What kind of furnishings does a dorm or apartment have?
* Is there a desk or table for you to work at?
* Is the kitchen equipped with cooking utensils?
* Does a dorm provide sheets, blankets, pillows etc.?
* If not, Is there a service available to rent linens?
* Are there laundry facilities?
* If so, are these automatic washers or laundry tubs?
* Is there a limit on how often you can use them?
* What is the cost?
* Will you have access to a phone in your residence?
If you’re planning to study in a developing country, ask your program representative:
* Is there drinking water available?
* Is there hot water for showers?
* Is electricity always available?
Last, remember to verify all housing arrangements well in front of your departure.
Enrollment Options
About 72% of US undergraduates who end up studying abroad enroll in a study abroad program specially organized for students like them. The sponsor may be a US college or university (the student’s own, another, or a consortium) with which it has reached an agreement. Or the sponsor could be a domestic organization other than a college or university, or an overseas university or organization, often as part of its program for other international students. However, depending on your own institution’s policies with regard to transfer credit from other domestic or overseas institutions, a host of other options may exist for you. The below list moves from options centered in your own institution to options more centered in overseas institutions.
Enroll in a Program Designed and Overseen by US Colleges or Universities for American Students. The most popular choices of study abroad programs include those sponsored by a student’s own institution, by another US college or university, or by a consortium, or group, of US colleges or universities. Such arrangements make possible hundreds of academic year, semester, quarter, and vacation study program opportunities.
Programs sponsored by US colleges allow students to study in a foreign environment while remaining within an US academic framework. Even if the actual course work is taken at a foreign university, academic credit is arranged through the sponsoring US institution. In many cases, special courses in the language and culture of the host country are offered, and the language requirements may be relaxed. The sponsoring college usually also makes housing and round-trip travel arrangements for students, and may arrange cultural excursions.
Programs offered by US institutions basically fall into two main categories, though many variations exist within each:
* The “island” program: All courses are arranged for a group of US students and taught by home campus faculty members familiar with the host culture or by foreign faculty hired by the US school. Costs be often about the same as study on the home campus, and financial aid that you receive from your institution or from the government can typically be used. Some of these programs offer intensive language study for language majors. Generally, though, these program are taught in English, except for foreign language classes, which are taught in the language studied. This is a good option for students who don’t speak the local language. It may also exist a good choice if this will be your first time overseas. Be aware, however, that no overseas program can provide academic and social services identical to what you are accustomed to at home.
* Hybrid programs: Study in a foreign institution, combined with courses arranged for the group by the sponsor US institution: These programs generally require some knowledge of the host country language. Nonetheless, special university courses for US or other foreign students usually have less demanding language requirements than regular university courses. And some programs offer a choice of foreign institutions, depending on the level of the student’s language skills. One benefit of this type of program is that it lets you study at a foreign institution while meeting requirements for your US degree. Many of these programs also offer academic support services similar to those found on a US campus.
Enroll in A Program Sponsored by an Organization additional than a US College or University. Some not-for-profit and for-profit organizations in the US and overseas also sponsor study abroad programs. Of these, some have agreements with colleges and universities allowing students to be registered on their home campuses. Others indicate that academic credit is obtainable or transferable, but students must arrange or verify the credit themselves. If you are considering one of these programs, be sure to investigate your school’s credit transfer policy, as well as the policy of the program you are considering.
Enroll in a Program for International Students at a Foreign University. Some universities abroad offer language and culture programs to foreigners. These enable US students (considered ‘international students’ while overseas) to interact with students from several other countries. Some programs sponsored by foreign universities are especially designed to meet the needs of English-speaking students, with courses offered in English as well as the host country language. In addition, in the 1990s, as academic mobility and exchange in Europe increased, a number of English-language programs were designed for students from other countries. Some of these are available to US students as well.
If you want to enroll in this kind of program, be sure to discuss credit transfer with your advisor. In some cases, foreign schools arrange to transfer credit through an accredited US college. But credit doesn’t transfer automatically from foreign universities, and in some cases is not transferable.
Enroll in A Foreign University Via a US College or University. It is also possible to enroll in foreign universities directly by applying through US programs set-up for this purpose - e.g., Arcadia University’s Center for Study Abroad or Butler University’s Institute for Study Abroad. This intermediation can solve the credit transfer problem, as the overseas course work is placed on an American college transcript. Such a process can increase overall costs, but, in return, may also provide orientation, accommodations, excursions, and on-site support services not otherwise available to occasional or special students.
Enroll Directly in a Foreign University As a ‘Special’ Student. Many universities around the world are open to students from other countries who qualify for admission as ’special’ or occasional students. This is similar to taking regular classes in the United States as a non-admitted or part-time student. Credit does not transfer automatically from foreign universities and in some cases is not transferable. Taking classes taught by foreign teachers, alongside student starting the host country, can be very exciting and challenging. But it requires an extra measure of enterprise and resourcefulness on your part, since it’s up to you to make the arrangements and does the course work without support services from an US institution. You also must be fluent in the language of training to consider this option. And there can be difficulty with credit transfer as well with the transferability of your US financial assistance.
In many foreign countries, students can receive a secondary school education that is more advanced and intensive than what US high school’s or preparatory academies offer, with students graduating at the age of 19 or older, then sometimes waiting another year or so before beginning their university education. These students may have the same academic preparation as an American student who has completed two or more years of college. For this reason, even distant universities that accept American undergraduates into degree programs may do so only after they have completed their sophomore year.
If you are interested in this option, addresses of most overseas institutions can be found in World of Learning or the International Handbook of Universities, reference directories on higher education worldwide that can be found in many US college and university libraries. To ensure a response, enclose an International Reply coupon (available from any Post Office) with your inquiry. An easier way to find out whether you should even consider apply for admission to an overseas institution is to do a Web-search and pursue your interest through foreign university Web pages. Again, your study abroad advisor may also provide guidance.
Other Study Abroad Opportunities. There are yet additional options for acquiring overseas education. You can:
* Attend a branch campus of a US college or international university abroad.
* Set up an Independent project to be carried out overseas. Some, but certainly not all, US colleges and universities offer independent study arrangements in which qualified students carry out pre-approved research or in-depth study projects in a selected field or on a special topic. It is your responsibility to complete the study or conduct the research, typically evaluated by a faculty advisor when you return home.
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