Help! I posted on the Study Abroad forum but no responses there at all.
How do you know which third party study abroad partners are solid and reputable? Do we just trust that if the university lists them they’re fine? DD’s school has 1500 study abroad options and I just doubt the s.a. office is keeping up with the quality of them all. Are there rankings for third party s.a. providers somewhere?
My daughter told me the s.a. office won’t recommend the kids towards one or the other and when I questioned that, she told me to call and find out for myself. Sure enough, the s.a. counselor I reached on the phone said they can’t recommend one program over another. So no help there.
Our SA office had countless reports from students about their experiences abroad on file, and I read them all…doesn’t her office collect those and make them available? How about posting on the schools net bulletin boards or whatever they do have? The recommendation ,or not as the case may be, of a student who has gone before should be compelling.
My S talked to older students at his school who had done study abroad in the country/language he was interested in to help him decide where he wanted to be. The one he went with was IES Abroad and it was fine - they communicated frequently and send lots of support materials.
I can only vouch for the great experience my daughter had with the School for Field Studies in Turks & Caicos. The accommodations were a bit austere (on a sparsely populated island), but her education and experiences there were fantastic.
You might want to also consider programs offered by top colleges, many of which have professors and staff working in the location.
I can second the SIT rec. My daughter went to on their program in Rwanda and it was great, and the daughter of a friend went to India. Both had wonderful teachers, great support, and an experience that was far more about learning about and accommodating yourself to the local customs and environment that being a student/tourist with few goals other than drinking local alcohol and shopping, as I have seen from many others. And all of her credits transferred back with no problem!
1500 programs does seem more like an easy way for the college to offer study abroad without the control and management of those programs. An institution that offers it’s own study abroad programs with it’s own professors and students from the institution has a great deal more control over the course study, course integrity and ability for the students to bring back the experiences and knowledge from the program and integrate it into study once back in the college.
@docmom If there are specific programs that are of interest to your daughter, post them here and maybe some of us will have feedback for the specific programs.
I agree that this is an issue. Honestly, sticking with a program run by her university is probably best – they going to hold that program accountable for a safe® experience and you know the credits will transfer back.
And a program run by her university may allow the same financial aid to be used for study abroad as for on camps terms. That’s a big factor for us. The school has quite a bit of financial aid just for study abroad, but if it is an exchange rather than a separate program, it is much easier to handle the credits back to the school and the financial aid. Not as exciting as ‘create your own experiences’ but easier (especially for the parent).
It depends on what kind of experience your student wants - some of my S’s friends at other colleges did study abroad through school programs, where they went (with their school’s faculty) to the foreign country, and all stayed together the whole time. Not exactly adventurous, but if a student isn’t the adventurous type, it would be better than not going.
Making sure courses transfer/count toward degree requirements is important, as is financial aid. Both of my kids attend schools that meet full financial need (and we receive a lot), and it was less expensive for us when they did study abroad. Their grants applied but the cost of their program was lower.
My S is a double major in History and German. He took history classes in Germany taught in the German language during his study abroad, but they only counted towards his German major. But he knew this in advance and it was one reason he decided to double-major in German.
My son had a pretty terrible experience with SIT’s summer language intensive program in Jordan. He was promised homestays with family meals etc. The first family spoke English at home. The second put him up in the attic and fed him separately from the family with pita bread and jam. That was quite a while ago - apparently they really had trouble that summer finding host families, but since that was a big attraction to the program we were extremely disappointed. He had a pretty good experience with CIEE where he did their Diplomacy themed study in Jordan. The program he liked best was run by CET and had an intensive language program based in Irbid at the time. He loved the location because no one in Irbid speaks English and it is not at all Westernized, but they have since moved the program to Amman.
Read recent reviews, see if you can find students from your school who have been to the program. If you are there to pick up the language make sure there is a language pledge (that people honor), that you can take classes in the native language, and that there is some sort of organized way to meet locals - homestays, university roommates etc.
My D went on a program co-sponsored by her college. There was one professors from her college on site. There were similar programs elsewhere, but H and I felt that this was the best bet. And a bonus was that the grades automatically went to her college transcript.
Your best bet is to send your child through another college or university’s program if yours doesn’t offer the type of study abroad experience your daughter wants. Universities with their own long-standing programs have great support systems in place, with local administrators, and can more easily vet host families for a home stay experience. And most of these programs, even the highly competitive ones, accept students from other universities. My daughter is studying in France through a program run by her college, but there are several students from other colleges on the same program. Years ago, when I was a student at Mount Holyoke, I went to France on a program run by Hamilton College.
While there are some good non-university affiliated programs out there, I’ve heard more negative stories about these than about the ones that have been well-run for years by reputable universities and colleges.
I can say that my D had an excellent experience in Copenhagen with DIS - The Danish Institute for Study Abroad. She had a cousin there at the same time. They were in different classes and chose different types of living arrangements - there are several options - but they each had a wonderful semester.
D’s college has student reviews linked to their web site for all the programs they’ve done, students have to fill these out when they return and they’re pretty comprehensive with program descriptions, costs beyond the program, surprises, best thing, worst thing, etc. Is there something like that on your D’s school site that isn’t obvious? At D’s school they’re behind a login wall, viewable by college students/faculty only.
Also in D’s college’s case, if a program is on the school web site, it’s been approved. Financial aid goes with the student to any of them (and others if the student can get them approved). If that is a factor look into that also, it’s not always the case that finances are the same.
Finally, some majors have to choose some SA programs and not others. At D’s, neuroscience majors who want to do a full year abroad have to choose one of two programs that offer approved courses for that major. There are surely other situations that are similar for students who plan to fulfill some part of their major requirements while abroad.
Very helpful; thanks so much to you all! She’s a Tourism Management major at the University of South Carolina. It’s a great program there - she just got done working the Master’s for the second year - and she’s thinking Scotland, England, Ireland - British Isles. All of your advice feels invaluable.
I would agree that a college-affiliated might be the most reliable in terms of FA and assurance that it’s a quality program, but neither of my sons wanted a program through their school with a bunch of classmates they see all the time. They wanted to not be with their classmates, wanted a homestay rather than college-dorm experience, wanted places that were more off the beaten path.
In order to do that, they went with consortiums with which their schools partnered. Their respective offices of global studies were wonderful, and there was no problem around class credit or FA transferring. They got to meet kids from several other colleges, which they both loved. Another thing they really wanted was internships, and they both got that desire met as well.
Admittedly, ds1’s trip gave me a little pause because it was literally the first time his particular trip was offered, but his college had been partnering with this particular consortium for more than 30 years on many other trips so there was a lot of trust there with the college.
Both boys had great experiences. They did almost all the legwork themselves. Don’t be scared off if your dd picks a program not directly run by USC. Good luck!
One CIEE and one SIT. Two great experiences. That said, if you are looking at UK there will be lots of good choices and likely even programs offered direct by local universities.
If she wants to go to the UK or Ireland, a lot of factors (advice, language barriers, home stays) are irrelevant. What counts is finances, quality of the academic offerings, and credit transfer. Why not try for a paid internship?