should i attend college abroad? if so, any advice?

I’m finally getting ready for college, but i was wondering if i should study abroad . i’ve heard a lot of advantages about it and i want hear what you think. i’ve also applied to a community college and i’m not sure which to do first.

You can study abroad as part of your 4 years. Some colleges are especially known for their study abroad programs (Dickinson, Centre, Kalamazoo…)
Starting in a community college will make study abroad a bit more difficult.
Finally you could start right after graduation but it’s more difficult to organize.
Have you ever lived abroad?
Will you have AP level in any foreign language?

no i haven’t lived abroad. i’ve recently been studying other languages (mostly french,german,and japanese)

community college will make abroad more difficult?

Yes, because you will have more constraints. You’ll likely only be able to apply Spring of Junior year for Fall of senior year, (because you won’t have grades at the 4-year college yet to apply for junior year abroad) and only if you ever completed all clases you need whereas not all CC’s offer all classes and not all classes they offer transfer. (it depends where you attend).

The big problem with graduating from a college abroad—as opposed to just studying abroad for a semester or two or three—is the lack of access to career services, job fairs, etc., that you would have at an American school. If you do not intend to get a regular job straight out of college, because you want to go to graduate or professional school, take a gap year, apply for a specific fellowship, etc., it is nowhere near as big a deal; for the most part, you can manage applications like that from abroad with maybe a trip home or two for interviews. Most graduate and professional schools will not be prejudiced at all toward an American applicant who attended abroad.

Some large community colleges have excellent study abroad programs, which are run by the same companies as those programs at public state universities. So it can be considerably cheaper to enroll in community college but actually do a semester (or two) abroad, then transfer to a 4-year school. Look at the larger community colleges in your area and see if they have that as an option.

There are two options, which are quite different.

One is to study at a university in the US, but take a semester or a year abroad. I am a big fan of this approach. However, if you spend two years at community college and then two years at a US university I am not sure whether it will work out (I like the suggestion above that you see if your community college has a study abroad program, I had not been aware of this as an option). You need good grades at the university to apply to take the semester or year abroad. In some cases taking a semester abroad might cost a bit more, but in many cases there may be no additional cost or it might be possible to get a scholarship to cover any extra cost. We had a daughter do a semester abroad in high school and the only extra cost was the cost of the airplane flight plus a very small fee for a student visa.

The other option is to get your degree from a university abroad. I have a daughter who is doing exactly that. The main downside that I can see is what was mentioned above: The university where my daughter is studying will not have many US companies working with their career services. Since she is intending to go on to graduate school this is not an issue for her – the admissions staff at graduate schools in the US will know how strong the Canadian universities are (which could also be said of many other universities in several other countries). Depending upon where in the US you live and where you go to university, studying abroad might involve additional travel.

Some advantages that I see of studying abroad: First of all there are very good universities in the US and very good universities outside the US. It just brings in a few more options. In many cases (including ours) universities outside the US can be significantly less expensive. Admissions is predictable and based largely on grades (and to some extent references and test scores). Living outside the US for a few years will give a person a broader perspective on the world.

You might want to consider both universities in the US (including but not limited to in-state public schools) and abroad, and see what options you come up with.

Also, in my experience, the study abroad programs aren’t as competitive to get into at CCs as they might be at universities. CC staff often struggle to get enough students to make the program happen, and they aren’t particularly choosy about who goes, so long as the students have will be reasonably successful living on their own in a foreign country.

so i should just not go to cc if i want to go to school abroad?

that sounds problematic because i’m still not exactly sure what i want to major in

maybe i just shouldn’t go. this all hurts my head

At most 4-year colleges you don’t choose a major until your sophomore year, unless you specifically know you want to major in nursing or engineering (and sometimes teaching).
If you don’t know what to major in, you can 1) attend a LAC (Liberal Arts colleges - undergraduate-focused institutions such as Ohio Wesleyan, Skidmore, Gustavus Adolphus, Whitman, UPuget Sound, St Mary’s California, UScranton, Truman State, NCF…) where classes and majors aren’t restricted; or 2) choose a university where you can apply as undecided without being barred from any major if you have the grades in various classes (such as Penn State, Appalachian State, WWU…) Both LACs and research universities are 4-year universities, not community colleges.

Doed the cc you applied to offer study abroad programs ? What sort?

OK, deep breaths.

Put “study abroad” as one of the things you’re looking for in a college. Not the only thing on the list, but one of your priorities.

Look at CC’s. Look at state schools. Look at other schools. Make a list of schools that tick all the boxes of your priorities.

You don’t have to decide this this week.

deleware county community college had abroad programs, but they only last between a week to a month. i was more looking for a semester.

i kind of know what i want to major in. (art,film making,programming, creative writing, not sure if video editing is a part of a film making major) but i know i can’t make the same commitment to all of them so that’s kind of why i wanted to go to a community college.

If those are your interests, cc doesn’t make a lot of sense. Strong writing programs will be a must have, as well as communication programs with video emphasis.
You will have to take a variety of classes within the field in addition to Gen Ed classes and don’t really specialized till senior year (junior year if you have AP credits).

What are your stats?

Look into University of Iowa, Denison University, Eckerd for instance. All three have very strong programs in what you’re interested in.

I respectfully disagree with the above comment. CCs can have excellent art and film programs, and if you’re interested in a creative career, minimizing debt is particularly important.

Maybe, but what about abroad programs. I was thinking about doing a semester in another country, and unless if there’s another way, then cc may not help me much.

You don’t have to go through a college or university to do study abroad. There are language immersion programs in various countries that you can apply to independently. You could spend a summer or a semester or a full year in one.