<p>Hi, My daughter's college (holy cross) mainly has 1 year abroad programs and some summer programs. They feel the full immersion into a country and university is better than 1 semester.
Does anyone have any experience with that, we have read some blogs and she has talked to some students, but I have never known anyone who went for a year. I also wonder if it makes it easier/harder to get acceptance since there isn't a second chance to go the following semester. (she doesnt' think so)</p>
<p>It has been her dream for years to go to England or Scotland as a fallback and I hope ina year to be able to say she has accomplished that, but a year (for me anyway) seems like a long time to be away from campus. Fellow students have told her you are just adjusting when you have to go back with one semester and they valued the second semester very much. Has anyone gone abroad for a year and have any thoughts?
It will involve more spending money from us. : )</p>
<p>Yes, a year does seem like a very long time to be away. However, like other students have said, it really does take more than a semester to be fully acclimated and integrated into the new school. My S spent his junior year at Oxford. His undergrad school would only consider the full year program at Oxford for these same reasons. Initially he thought he might be “missing” something by being away from campus for a year. However, many of his friends were also going abroad (most just for a semester), so it was sort of a revolving door of on- campus friendships that year anyway.</p>
<p>In the end, his year abroad was one of the defining features of his college experience.</p>
<p>That’s my daughter’s dream, Oxford, but she realizes it’s hard and has alternative locations.
I just read a post from a student who went 1 semester in England, she said she was just liking it when she had to go home. I think, especially with language immersion for other locations, it is very good to go for the year. A gentleman I know had 2 daughters go to France, 2 different colleges, one for a year and one for a semester. He said you could definitely see and hear the difference with language skills and D2 who went the year is very comfortable visiting again after graduation.</p>
<p>Go abroad for the year if the finances and major/minor/gen-ed requirements allow for it. I can only really speak from personal experience and conversations I’ve had with people who are and have studied abroad, but the sentiments of myself and nearly everyone I know has been that a year abroad is the better option, due to obvious factors like the time it takes you to adjust, the ability to truly immerse yourself, etc. </p>
<p>I’m currently abroad here in Austria and, had I only been here for the first semester, would have left two months ago. In the last two months my language proficiency has skyrocketed, the amount of other international students and austrian/german students has doubled in that time as well, and there are still three months left. </p>
<p>That being said, most of the reasons for studying abroad for a year are to do with language study, which is not the reason to go to the UK.</p>
<p>In general my advice for studying in the UK whatever the length is to start in Sept/Oct. Most UK schools only have one intake of students per year. All the orientation events (known as “Freshers week”) happen in the autumn. If you start mid-year, very likely you will be the only new student. All friendship groups will already have formed and there will be no orientation events for you. It just makes it a lot harder to settle in.</p>
<p>I agree, they do start in September. Even though language skills are definitely better for a year, my daughter told me today that students told her when returning from UK and other English speaking countries, that there is culture shock and adjustment that does take time and you are just feeling like you are settled when it’s time to come back with one semester.
I was just wondering how it felt senior year, do you feel like it’s a well worn glove you put back on, or is it hard to acclimate back? I’m sure that varies greatly student to student.</p>