<p>anyone ever taken a semester at sea? and does anyone know how much it costs and what do you do exactly</p>
<p>I had a friend who did it and loved it. He said you basically visit a whole bunch of ports and take classes on the ship. It sounds like an amazing experience, but I have no idea how much it costs.</p>
<p>i know someone that's on it right now and their visiting like every part of asia right now, i guess you travel on a cruise ship and it takes you places, but i bet its expensive</p>
<p>Well, I've only looked into it for the summer because my college doesn't take any credits during the summer so whatever I do doesn't count, but it doesn't take Semester at Sea either. </p>
<p>Summer is $10,000ish (depends on the room you get) plus any activities at port. So like, say you want to go to the port orientation. That's $20-$40. Other trips are more, ranging from $50 to a trip to a nearby city or several hundred to $1000 for a multi-day trip. Also you have to factor in spending money and getting to and from the first and final ports. For the month and a half summer, I would budget $20,000 at the least. They also charge for internet usage on the ship.</p>
<p>There are scholarships but I don't know how plentiful or common they are.</p>
<p>There are two such programs- Semester</a> at Sea and SEA</a> semester. SEA semester, which runs out of Woods Hole, is definitely the better program. Semester at Sea has a bit of a reputation for being a slacker program, at least in my oceanography department.</p>
<p>Other good programs:</p>
<p>Duke Marine Lab (Bermuda, Panama, Hawaii, Trinidad, Singapore, France, etc.)
<a href="http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/marinelab/%5B/url%5D">http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/marinelab/</a></p>
<p>Williams-Mystic (includes 10 day voyage)
<a href="http://www.williams.edu/williamsmystic/%5B/url%5D">http://www.williams.edu/williamsmystic/</a></p>
<p>wow this sounds so fun! how does it work? is it like study abroad on a ship?</p>
<p>SEA program is more of an oceanography program. Semester at Sea is social science focused and geared more towards a politics or international relations type major. It was recently taken over by the University of Virginia so the academics have gotten more hardcore. Semester (and summer) at Sea programs have a specific country that is the center of the study. This summer is Russia and the West. You take one class based on that and 2 or 3 of their other course offerings. You go to class every day you are at sea.</p>
<p>Be forewarned that colleges don't always endorse or support these particular programs, which can complicate things.</p>
<p>For example, my college normally guaranteed transferrable credit from study abroad programs, and students paid normal tuition (regardless of what their program abroad actually charged). To participate in the above programs, however, students had to take a leave of absence and cover their own costs. The main reason given was that the purpose of study abroad, from our college's perspective, was cultural immersion, which isn't really possible in these programs.</p>
<p>Semester at Sea has also had some liability issues in the past.</p>