First Semester Abroad?

Parents Forum
21

A more likely motivation is to balance the enrollment between fall and spring semesters, since colleges usually have higher enrollment in fall than spring (students who graduate one semester early or late will typically attend an extra fall semester). But ranking conscious colleges may not mind the side effect of moving the students at the margins of admission out of the reported incoming frosh stats (although this effect is probably small).

The study abroad programs offered to spring admits may be a way of making spring admission a somewhat more enticing choice than if the options were just to take a gap semester, attend a community college in the fall, or attend a special limited-offering extension program in the fall. The study abroad programs for spring admits are also likely to have limited course choices which may not be suitable for all students.

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@colfac92 NYU did this to me. Admitted to the Core Liberal Arts program and required that I spend the first year in France. I declined for the reasons you state (though I must admit the poor FA was also a factor).

23

Thank you all for your comments – keep them coming!

In our research we have found that there do seem to be some valid intellectual/academic reasons for sending first-years abroad, both for the student and for the impact they have on the school when these students do eventually join it, but that such a program is really best suited for students who are already fairly mature and adaptable.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/23/freshmen

http://college.usatoday.com/2012/05/05/first-semester-study-abroad-gaining-in-popularity/

http://college.usatoday.com/2015/02/14/should-you-study-abroad-as-a-freshman/

As for the institutional motivations, besides the intellectual broadening of its students, they don’t broadcast these, but our hypotheses are that there is the filling of vacancies in the first-year class created by fall-to-spring attrition of students, and the filling of vacancies in housing created by the above attrition and by more students going abroad in the spring – also, if the school maintains staff and facilities abroad, and not enough juniors choose to go abroad in the fall, the schools can boost their fall enrollments at these places in order to justify maintaining staff there by “forcing” some first-years to go… (again just hypotheses)

For our son, the school in question is a top-20 highly-selective LAC. Based on test scores it was a reach. He applied ED1 but was deferred. He didn’t pay attention to the part in his deferral letter where this program was mentioned as a possibility – if he had been paying attention, he could have opted out at that point, but then he might not have gotten in!

So now: “Congratulations, you have been admitted to (very desirable college)! Unfortunately the main entryway is already full, so you will have to come in through this backdoor.” (No, they didn’t actually say that in the letter, but that is what it comes down to…)

The school has apparently been running this program for decades, and has seemingly well-established programs for helping these students integrate and acclimate when they return to join their “regular” classmates. While abroad, the students live in a homestay situation with a local family, and their classes are both through the local university as well as with staff from the sending school. The curriculum is prescribed though, no choice to speak of. It’s a small school and the number of students in the first-semester-abroad program represents something like 8% of the entering class (so not insignificant). All of the “blogs” and other reports that we have been able to turn up from students who have done this program in the past are for the most part pretty positive (one student didn’t really have bad things to say about the program, per se, but felt like the school took advantage of him through this program).

For our son, he really wants to go to this school, so it is a matter of him wrapping his head around the idea of this program, and deciding to go into it with an open mind, positive attitude, and determination to make the best of the experience. For both Mom and Dad, we think if he can do that (go into it in the right frame-of-mine), it could be a good challenge that would really broaden him.

But we both, especially Mom, would have a hard time sending him far away and not being able to see him for 3-1/2 months (it is unlikely that we would be able to scrape together the cash to fly over there to visit on one of his breaks). As a family, he has never been apart from us (or us from him) for more than about ten days at a time, but he has a good head on his shoulders, is pretty mature, has good situational awareness, and has traveled on his own within the United States.

In terms of his alternatives, he has been offered a very generous merit scholarship package and invited to join the honors program at a small less-selective LAC with a religious affiliation (not our religion) – it’s a good school, but definitely not on the same tier as the first choice college. There is also the University of State (which he really does not want to attend).

Financially, either of these latter two options would be relatively painless (its all relative). The first choice school does guarantee to meet demonstrated need, but coming up with what they will likely think we can won’t be painless (haven’t seen the financial aid offer yet). We are committed to doing whatever we have to in order to make any of these choices happen.

So we continue to gather information, and develop questions for the school. We will try to take maximum advantage of the Admitted Student days to suss out this opportunity, too.

Further insights, thoughts, or experiences from you all are most welcome!

24

Just be sure to check that financial aid is available. My daughter has been accepted to a college’s spring admit program and no financial aid is available (and no use of 529 plan funds) until she begins in Spring 2017. Your son’s program may be different if he is considered a student at that college in the fall semester while abroad.

25

Is this student good at languages and also good at advocating for himself? Host families can be amazing. They provide a fully immersive language and cultural experience like no other. However, there can be problems. The first is that they may speak no English. As this student apparently hated French, this may be an issue. Can he communicate in the language at all?

Secondly, host families usually do it for the money. The student is unlikely to be in a luxury villa in the centre of town. More likely he will be in (maybe social housing) apartment with a low income family far away, and it will be necessary to take public transport (probably alone) to class. The majority of American teenagers have no concept of how to do this and also tend to be young for their age compared to Europeans. Can he figure out a French bus timetable? Buy a transport ticket?

Finally, if there are any problems (with classes, host family, accommodation, illness, anything) it’s going to be up to the student to solve them himself or at least approach someone in authority to help him. Can he do this? Some of the posts on the parents forum shock me because apparently it’s normal for young American adults to be completely unable to do things like make doctors appointments for themselves. You know your student. He will be treated like a grown adult in France. Do you think he can cope?

26

My child was in a very similar position a few years ago. She was accepted into a first semester abroad program in Spain run by a top twenty LAC. She decided to attend, despite all of the trepidations that others have mentioned. She actually had a great time. She, too, had never loved Spanish in high school but was fairly fluent by the end of the semester. Her classes were all run through a university in Spain and were in Spanish. She found them to be interesting but not as challenging as classes she later took on campus at her LAC. She traveled extensively in Europe both with the program and independently with friends from the program. The home stay wasn’t ideal but also wasn’t terrible (her complaints were primarily about the food). She made great friends with others in the program, and they have remained her closest friends on campus. She roomed with friends from the semester abroad program when they got to campus. That worked out well. There are no dedicated freshman dorms at her school, so she was not left out of that experience. By far the biggest downside that she has experienced is that although the school did do a winter orientation and tried hard to integrate these ‘Feb frosh,’ many in the group (about 50 kids total, spit between a program in France and a program in Spain) didn’t feel truly a part of the class, at least for the next semester or two. I think it really depends upon whether your child dives into extra-curricular activities once they get to campus. This can be difficult, since other freshman are already fully involved, but if they do become involved, it seems there transition is much easier. Overall, my daughter had a good experience and is going abroad for another semester, but it’s certainly something to think very carefully about. As an aside, my daughter met freshman students from other colleges and universities while she was abroad who had much worse experiences, so I do think it matters which college your child is thinking of attending. My daughter’s LAC has been running this program for 30 years or so. I think they’ve worked out most of the kinks!

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@Figgy2, it’s the same college, same program (but the France version rather than the Spain version). Thanks for your report!

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OP, first off it sounds like you are doing all of the right things to investigate and make the best decision for your son.

Based on your previous posts I can tell which LAC it is and looked at the webpage that presents the program. In all honesty, the website information raises red flags in almost every matter of concern to me if my child were considering this opportunity:

-the proscribed courses, any of which honestly would be available to any high school student on any other study abroad program to France (so, they are nothing special from a pedagogical standpoint)

  • teachers being from a company that teaches French to foreigners (again, nothing special or worth the pricey tuition dollars)
  • only 2 weeks of hired assistance at the beginning by local 18-22 year olds who may or may not be college students (yikes!)
  • the warning about being placed in the household of a single woman with children (to me that says they are basically renting rooms in their house and not in it for the joy of cross-cultural experiences)
  • the statement that the students “are responsible for each other” (is the college trying to avoid liability??)
  • the list of cultural events of which only 50% will be reimbursed by the college

My sense is that they are needing warm bodies to go to it for their own institutional reasons and not for the benefit of the students. I am a very cautious person by nature and this program seems worrisome in a lot of respects to me, especially considering the current global climate.

It really boils down to how badly your S wants to be at the college for the 3.5 years starting in January. It could be a very positive life experience for him. It could be a disaster.

If he is willing to suck it up for the experience after the France semester he should go for it. But I think the blog you mentioned in which the student said he felt “used” by the college tells you what is really going on.

Just my $0.02 worth -

29

Here is a a perspective from a student who participated in in a first-semester-abroad program at a LAC:

http://colbyechonews.com/the-folly-of-the-feb-frosh-program/

The student points out: 1) the retention rate of students in the program is lower than the retention rate of students who started their four years on campus; and 2) the student felt permanent resentment toward the school for forcing this option as a condition of attendance.

30

I would think a benefit would be that your son would become more independent and have a more global view of things when he comes back.

31

One of my kids was offered this sort of program at Northeaster - NUIn they called it. He really wanted to go to that college, but was not that interested in the program and it appeared to cost even more than a semester at the college so we didn’t explore it further. No option to just start in January. My son did not write about overseas experiences or wanting to see the world. I got the feeling this was offered to kids that otherwise would have been rejected.

The host family thing would also give me a bit of pause, as it is so dependent on the family. That may not matter to an easy going, extrovert, but could be an issue for a home-body kind of kid.

The bottom line, after the financial aid comes through, is how much he wants to attend this college vs his second choice. Is it enough to go abroad and start in winter, when (unless it is a southern or western school), kids spend much more time indoors and there is a much more limited orientation. Clearly, if it has been going on for 30 years it must be working.

32

I would not predict he’d live with a low income family, doing it just for the money. Accommodations are usually vetted. And the guidebook introduces the program’s (apparently) American resident director, who is there for support. In part, it’s a historical town, a regional capital. And in general, this is a college that kids enjoy, lots of smart, empowered, friendly kids.

For all the kids I’ve ever known who did a homestay, back in my day or more recently, the vast majority were fine experiences. (Includes my own D1, one as a college junior and one post grad.)

Kudos, OP, for trying to vet what you can. (You did see the program guidebook, right?) Of course you run into occasional gripes. I balanced what those actually complained about versus what I knew about my girl.

It’s really about who you think your son is, what he can handle…by next fall. Best wishes.

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Yes, it is a known way to game the rankings, because the stats of spring admits aren’t tracked.

Had someone from a university volunteer this information when on an program accreditation tour.

34

You mean USNWR darling Northeastern?

“Aoun also began using spring enrollment to his advantage. In 2007 the school introduced N.U.in, a program that invites students with lower grades and SAT scores to spend their first semester abroad and begin their on-campus experience in the spring. U.S. News does not collect data for spring entrants, so those students’ lower grades and scores are excluded from the rankings. Editor Brian Kelly explains that U.S. News doesn’t require spring data because the federal government doesn’t either, but he concedes, “It’s possible that is a gaming window.””

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/3/

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^^^Was just gonna mention this one. Two students I know offered this option from Northeastern, neither went for it.To them, it seemed like a “consolation prize admission” that they couldn’t feel good about. They felt Northeastern was gaming numbers as article title implies. And didn’t want to start college abroad anyway. It may be great for others, idk. While some of mine would never have started abroad, I have one that is a maybe cause of her adventurous free spirit.

36

I hated French in high school. My parents encouraged me to take a gap year and learn French in an immersion program. I enjoyed every second of my time in France and ended up speaking reasonably fluent French which I was able to put to good use. I spent time in Paris for my senior thesis, and also translated a booklet about Senegalese ingenious architecture for one of my professors. Studying a language in the country where it is spoken is very different from studying it in an American high school.

I’ve heard from some CC students in the past who did these programs and my recollection was that they were well organized and large enough that they had a core group of friends with a shared experience. It was different from starting on campus in the fall, but it was not a bad thing.

37

The question of whether students participating in a first-semester-abroad program would be considered enrolled matriculated students at the college for that fall semester (i.e. the NUin case) is an interesting one, not because I care about incremental movement on some ranking system (I don’t), but it does raise questions about liability issues, student status for insurance coverage and scholarship eligibility, etc., etc… One would certainly hope that any college sponsoring such a program would take “ownership” of these students from the get-go.

38

Interesting thread for me. Still wrapping my head around the idea of being a member of a college “class”. I guess it is important for some people who attend a small enough school one expects to relate to the people one started college with as a huge part of their lives. This would be a distinct disadvantage if a student was away for the bonding- always the outsider.

Does that school have such superior academic offerings in his proposed major that he would do this? Discuss with him WHY this school is his top choice. If it is for perceived prestige and being a part of the group he will miss out on the latter. Finances count. You can influence your son’s decision with your attitude. Emphasizing the disadvantages can make turning down this offer more palatable and save face for him with his friends when choosing another school.

He can do a semester abroad from other schools so this does not shut the door on that experience. If he is less than enthusiastic he should NOT go there. He will miss out on too many first semester freshman experiences he can never get later.

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We essentially agree with you, @wis75, and I think our son does too. He should not choose this option if he sees it as a burden to bear in order to go to his college of choice. Rather he should only choose this option if indeed he is excited about the experience it offers in its own right.

So it has been about a week (only a week!) since we learned of this offer. In that time, we’ve found lots of additional information – for example, an interesting article from the college’s alumni magazine 8 or 9 years ago that was surprisingly forthright about the program and didn’t just picture it through rose-colored glasses. We had son look through the program’s guidebook (which I had seen, thanks @lookingforward), as well as several other resources.

He is both excited and full of trepidation – that latter has mainly to do with his lack of mastery of the language – despite 3 years of it in high school, and high grades, he doesn’t think he learned anything.

Next weekend we will be going to an admitted students open house at the 2nd choice college, and then the admitted students program at the 1st choice college the following weekend. Decision doesn’t have to be made until May 1, so there is still time…

40

My son had Northeastern up high on his lists for schools and scratched it off immediately when he got in NUin. I think it really depends on the student. I agree with a previous poster and the cost of 1 semester abroad was 36K and that did not include extra travelling expenses etc. Pretty steep price for 1/2 a year.