I want to go abroad again! Should I try?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I went to France for a year and now I want to go abroad again....this time, just for a summer session in Sicily. I didn't get a chance to go to Italy while I was in Europe and would love to finally get to go there now. Sicily is particularly fascinating to me. At the end of the spring term, I will have 5 semesters of Italian and I want to continue with it and get better at it.</p>

<p>The thing is....money is a HUGE issue for me. I tend to get discouraged when it comes to applying to scholarships because I normally do not get any. The program that I want to go on will cost, at the most, about $4300 including everything except flight and if I choose to live with a family, I'll have to pay extra (details on that should be available soon).</p>

<p>My thing is, should I begin the application process right now and just kind of apply for whats out there and see what happens? I seriously cannot go if I don't get some serious money. Plus, I will have to pay a non-refundable $200 fee to "confirm" my participation and I do not know if that will be due before or AFTER scholarship notification.</p>

<p>Anyway...do you think I should even bother?</p>

2

<p>Are you working part time during this school year? If you work 10hrs a week @ $10/hr, that pays a big chunk of the cost already.</p>

3

<p>I say go for it.</p>

<p>It's funny, but I've almost the exact same experiences abroad you have had/are interested in. I went to France for three months in grade 9, and the summer before grade 12 I took a bio course (taught in English) in Italy. The application process, or at least the one I went through, wasn't very time-draining. I would think the possibility, if not the certainly, of going to Sicily would be enough incentive to spend a few hours working on the app. Then again, my program didn't offer scholarships, so I never had to deal with that, and I don't know how time-consuming that would be, in addition to the app. Still, I think you should definitely try.</p>