My D22 was in tears because she realized she had a conflict for a very important career fair that instructors in her major urged her to attend. But we realized that she already attended events last year with the employers she cared most about and would have a chance at a different event this fall. (Mind you, no interviews happen at this fair.)
She ended up applying to a few internships that opened up before her classes started, was already interviewed by two of her top choices, and received her first offer yesterday! All before the important career fair even happened!
So I think there are workarounds in many situations.
study abroad near that side of the world (Ukraine/Israel)?
Anyone making changes to study abroad plans due to war concerns?
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Son is applying for Summer2024 study abroad/internship program and he gets to put down his top 3 choices for location (from the list of available options).
Since he’s minoring in Spanish (wants to practice/improve his Spanish) I defaulted to Spain (because it’s a great area to travel around/visiting nearby countries)
but now I’m thinking he should consider Chile or Mexico.
We have friends who live in Madrid and my son also studied Spanish and has traveled there in the past. He’s not doing an internship, but if he were wanting to travel or study abroad next summer, I would not hesitate to have him go to Spain with the current war. Just my two cents.
D22 is planning a semester abroad next fall. She had narrowed it down to two programs, Switzerland or Jordan. Needless to say Jordan is out of contention now. I have no problem sending her to Switzerland, probably one of the safest places on earth.
I would consider Spain safe as well and would send my kid there any time.
At the chance of offending someone’s understandable pride in their home country, but I would definitely consider Spain over Mexico, from a personal safety standpoint - especially when thinking about “exploring the country” during breaks.
This is accurate. I love Mexico, but it is definitely not safe to travel between various states in the country right now. And it can be unpredictable because the dangerous areas shift sometimes making it harder to know what’s okay and what isn’t. I lived near Guanajuato for 6 months after I graduated in the 90s and I’m so sad to know that’s not a safe area right now.
Definitely not Mexico. My husand is a pilot for a major airline and the country is on his no-fly list. They are allowed to choose. The pilots are escorted by armed guards to their hotel in Mexico City. There have been fatal shootings in the airport terminal.
No thank you!
Just to make sure your searches are relevant to the country you likely mean (rather than demonstrations at the Ivy League university in NYC) - it’s:
ColOmbia
FWIW, due to a lack of political commitment/integrity in this country, very many places in the world are many-fold safer for young people than the U.S. (especially with respect to violent deaths).
You can sort this list by the “Men” (25 years) column:
My mother lives in Argentina and things are terrible right now- elections going on, peso has devalued in crazy amounts. I was there in March and it was 370 pesos/1 USD. It is now >1,000 pesos / 1USD. Crime, unrest, etc. While I felt “safe”, I would not go anywhere alone, especially at night and was told by everyone not to ever pull my iPhone out in public because they are crazy expensive there and hard to come by and crime is rampant. MANY have fled to Uruguay. Uruguay is beautiful, safe. I would pick Uruguay hands down from that entire list, with Mexico/Colombia at the bottom (would not go at all) and Argentina just above those. So I would do Uruguay, then Peru/Chile, then Spain as top options.
I know there is a lot of crime/gang violence there. San Pedro Sula is known as “The Murder Capital of the World” which I believe is a very historical name. There are a lot of people who don’t think it is quite that bad now compared to Venezuela or Colombia, but it still is pretty bad.
It is a bummer because they are all such beautiful countries with beautiful people and so much to see. I of course have a place in my heart for Argentina and it was hard being there knowing how bad things have gotten. My mother tells me things are going to continue to spiral with the elections.
I would sort like this:
Spain and Uruguay
Chile (just slightly below the first two, because there has been some minor political protest in the last few years if I remember correctly, but it was minor and I would still send my kid there without worry)
Argentina
Colombia and Peru (Colombia had been safe for a while but lately there has been more unrest, Peru has had political unrest for a while now afaik)