#traveltuesday How to Get Started Studying Abroad
For many people, it’s often hard to travel. With work, school, and other social responsibilities, traveling for a long period of time doesn’t seem possible. However, as a student it is doable through study abroad. If you want to travel, I am here to talk to you about options that you have to travel through studying abroad. We will first talk about the benefits of studying abroad, how to choose a program, and planning early.
There are many benefits to studying abroad. Some of the most obvious are being able to learn a new language and explore different cultures. By being able to be immersed in a country, students are able to pick up how language is used in daily life. In Kristen Kennedy’s article “What we don’t learn in the classroom: the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence during study abroad,” she found that students improved in their sociolinguistic competence over time. Now what does this mean? Students are able to learn how a language is used on a daily basis. Compared to in-class learning through textbooks, students can more easily communicate with locals with casual rather than formal language. Another study by Christine Lee, “One the Cognitive Benefits of Cultural Experience: Exploring the Relationship between Studying Abroad and Creative Thinking,” has shown that studying abroad helps broaden perspectives. It supports students in creative thinking in culture specific and general settings. This is especially important in today’s day and age because as America grows as a mixing pot of different cultures and ethnicities, needing to understand broader perspectives is essential.
Now that we’ve seen some of the benefits of studying abroad, let’s move onto how to choose a program. Many schools have partnerships with other schools abroad. This means that the schools have a predetermined list of classes that you can take that will be applicable to your degree at your home university. You can scroll through the list of programs that your school offers. If none of the programs match your ideal place to study abroad, don’t worry. There are many third party organizations that you could apply to or you could even apply to the school directly. Although applying to the school directly to study abroad may be more work, it is considerably cheaper than applying from your home university or a third party organization.
To start choosing a study abroad program, consider
What language do you want to learn?
What specifically do you hope to gain out of this experience?
Besides learning a language or immersing yourself in the culture, do you want to gain knowledge, technical skills, or volunteer?
Will this experience help build on future career options?
Does this program offer classes related to your major or only GE credits?
Is the course credit transferable?
Now that you have your program chosen for you, it’s time to start planning. First see if you could go to the advising center or find someone that you know that has studied abroad. See if they have any tips on how to study abroad and the steps that you should consider. Next see what classes you have remaining that you need to take to complete your degree. Are these remaining classes GE credits or are they major credits? It’s often easier to see if GE credits transfer instead of major specific credits, however there are some programs that are major specific. Depending on if and where you’d want to transfer, some schools may take major specific courses taken abroad. Plan out the classes that you can take abroad and plan the rest of your schedule during your other quarters around those that you can take abroad. Next it's time to plan for room and board. Does your program come with room and board? Are you staying at an exchange program? Do you have to arrange off campus housing like an apartment? These are important questions to consider since there are times when housing is not included with the program. Now moving onto the most important aspect of planning early, is the tuition. There are many scholarships available for people who want to study abroad. After writing the first couple of essays, it’s easy to reuse and recycle those essays to apply for other study abroad scholarships. Other ideas are interning abroad or working before studying abroad. Interning abroad is an interesting experience because it gives people work experience while broadening their possible work environments.
Now that I’ve discussed the benefits of studying abroad, choosing programs and how you could start planning early, I hope that you will consider studying abroad in the future. Take this chance and go study abroad and travel while you have the opportunity in school.