Study Abroad frustration over hype and cost

<p>OP, there are many posts here explaining individual experiences with study abroad. If you read these and decide that study abroad could be valuable for your child, that’s cool - there are opportunities to defray the costs, as some have pointed out. If you read through the posts and still feel that study abroad is not something you support your child doing, then simply tell her that. In the end, you are the one who will make the choice. Whatever you decide is best for your family.</p>

<p>Also, keep in mind that only a few percent of college students overall study abroad, even though it may be offered at many colleges. Unless study abroad is required or done by most students (relatively uncommon), it probably is not a reason to exclude a college based on that if the student is not interested in doing so.</p>

<p>“Vocabulary is the easy part. It’s learning to follow conversations between native speakers at natural speed in informal environments that’s hard.”</p>

<p>Vocabulary isn’t easy if you don’t know it!</p>

<p>And understanding is usually the skill that comes first - because it only demands a passive knowledge of the language and a degree of inference, something people learning languages get good at pretty quickly out of sheer necessity. </p>

<p>Look, we can go on and on about languages, and what’s fluent. If you’re trying to argue that people can’t become fluent after two years of decent college-level instruction followed by a year of intensive, full immersion study, you’re simply haven’t met those kinds of linguists. I went to a university renown for its language programs and did. And you should hear what people who study at, say, Monterey Language Institute can do! Woo-hoo!</p>

<p>But you and I can both agree probably that those are not the average college kid who does semester abroad. Which, while valuable and enriching, isn’t much more than an extended vacation.</p>

<p>My S a senior now was very happy and lucky to do 3 travels during HS. 2012 to China (Beijing, Xian and Shanghai), March 2013 Eastern Europe (Germany, Check Rep, Hung and Pol), July 2013 Japan. Those trips were not vacation, yes they were fun. What was important was for him to immerse himself in so many different cultures, languages to understand what’s out there. If there’s anyway you can send your child out in the world and experience what’s out there, I’d do it. Don’t be scare, it’ll be ok:)</p>

<p>The kinds of parents and students who wind up on College COnfidential are not typical, as you may know. They’re usually more academic, more motivated, more ambitious, etc. Parents like us might think that a study abroad program which consisted of a month or less in a Western European country where classes were taught in English and there was lots of sightseeing was a waste of time. </p>

<p>However, there are lots of different types of universities and colleges in the US. For a kid in a very rural, isolated part of the US who has never been abroad before and who will likely never go abroad again, that month in Western Europe may end up being a very significant part of their college experience and end up being something they refer to again and again in the course of their lifetimes. There are still places where people get married right after their senior year in college, move back to their home towns and teach gym. STudy abroad is for everybody.</p>

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<p>Damn. I wish I had known that BEFORE I sat a full year’s worth of British university finals. Oh well, at least I finally learned to speak English.</p>

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<p>Oh I <em>highly</em> disagree with this. One of the ways you can fulfill the language requirement in my RC was to study abroad and I’d say at least 60% of us did. It was not an extended vacation for the vast majority. </p>

<p>A week or few week long program? Yeah, sure maybe an extended vacation. A few months to a whole semester? Absolutely not.</p>

<p>It might have been mentioned above, but some colleges offer quick trips for study abroad (or to big cities, such as NYC or LA, that might be relevant to a certain major) during January/winter break interim. Some are part of spring’s semester tuition and some aren’t. The students study/learn, not vacation. Also, students can travel abroad independently without any formal school program - during summer, for example. In some cases, a summer season of independent travel can be arranged into an independent study for credit (but then you’re back paying tuition). - Just some thoughts.</p>

<p>Those of us who think study abroad is mostly a vacation don’t mean that it has no value. Vacationing can be of immense personal value, and it can help someone learn about other cultures and develop a large degree of independence. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the kind of thing that should get academic credit.</p>

<p>I worry that study abroad ends up being bad study combined with bad vacation. Not much learning, and without the freedom and independence of a real year or summer spent backpacking. The worst of both worlds.</p>

<p>At my most cynical, I think that study abroad is a great wheeze for using financial aid (grants, scholarships, and subsidised loans) to pay for a vacation.</p>

<p>I will share my D’s experience: She studied at the University of Edinburgh for a semester. She took classes that were an amazing complement to her U.S. classes in health care … and the classes were HARD (no textbooks - suggested readings only - and exams are much different than U.S. exams). She learned a lot. All of her classes transferred to her home school (she made sure before she left, and she arranged to receive credit in her major for classes - not just “free credit”). </p>

<p>Aside from the school part, which definitely required studying, she traveled on weekends. She had worked 50+ hours a week the previous summer to save for her weekend travel. She set up the trips for herself and the friends she made (she did not go with anyone from her school). They only went where cheap flights took them (no trip to London!), and they stayed in hostels. She gained so much maturity and self-confidence that semester. It was so fantastic … and it cost less than if she had stayed at her own school (due to less expensive housing).</p>

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<p>Now THAT is goddamned insulting.</p>

<p>^^
Why is it insulting? I can see that in many cases it’s not, but I wouldn’t go so far and suggest that it rarely is.</p>

<p>I can totally see someone taking a rather light load during a semester abroad (12 credits of rather easy classes), and using much of their free time touring around. </p>

<p>Heck, my H has had some business trips like this. Some short meetings to attend in the mornings, and then spent afternoons touring around.</p>

<p>Has the OP ever come back?</p>

<p>I agree with consolation. It’s an insulting comment. The implication is this is often the case. </p>

<p>No, the OP is long gone.</p>

<p>The OP often starts threads and does not return. </p>

<p>It is insulting and I don’t really think it needs an explanation why.</p>

<p>I think the moral of the story is that if you’ve had an upbringing that is culturally and economically privileged enough to look down on most study abroad as a “wheeze,” it’s okay to have that opinion, but prudence may dictate that you keepittoyourself.</p>

<p>Do you really think that you’re the first person to make that joke about my username?</p>

<p>And I’m extremely willing to bet that my upbringing was less privileged than the vast majority of posters on here. Both of my parents worked unskilled manual labor jobs, before recently retiring.</p>

<p>There are far more insulting things that some thing about study abroad, by the way. But I find it hard to see how a faculty led summer trip that doesn’t involve taking real classes at a local university is anything other than a wheeze.</p>

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<p>I’ve found it’s mainly people who did NOT grow up privileged and traveled overseas that then study abroad is a vacation. </p>

<p>It really depends on the program. I wouldn’t call <em>all</em> study abroad programs a “wheeze” to get the money or a vacation, not even the short three week ones in the summer. But I value travel, so any chance I have I take. I will also give my children every opportunity to travel anywhere (the sole exception may be the arctics, but who knows?).</p>

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<p>The poster said that people were using FINANCIAL AID to finance a “vacation.” As someone whose kid did a term abroad on financial aid–taking a normal load of real classes–I find this insulting.</p>

<p>Furthermore, if you think that those on FA have the money to take a light load and jaunt around Europe before, during, or after their classes, you are sorely mistaken. </p>

<p>Think about it.</p>

<p>^^</p>

<p>The poster also prefaced his or her statement with a “at my most cynical!”</p>

<p>The reality is that the truth does not always sound pleasant. In this thread, the experiences with study abroad are as wide-ranging as education really is in our own country. There are incredibly hard programs and amazingly leisure-filled programs that coexist, and sometimes at the same university. </p>

<p>Study abroad comes in all kind of flavors and at all kinds of costs. For some full paying families, studying abroad should be and is less expensive – that is if the school does not grab the differences in tuition. For some students on full aid, the cost of studying abroad is identical to the cost of attending their alma mater. </p>

<p>The comment above is not insulting when considering that it is true that the student on full aid might not have been able to afford a lengthy stay abroad without being in college on financial aid. That is the part related to the cost. As far as the vacation part, that remains entirely in the eye of the beholder, and with the wide range of the programs, entirely depending on the program chosen. </p>

<p>There is simply no way to generalize as the individual experiences are a combination of exceptions.</p>

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<p>Frankly, I don’t care.</p>

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<p>The poster specifically said FA was being used to finance a vacation. Spinning it otherwise doesn’t work.</p>