<p>Just looking forward - and wondering if anyone has experience with study abroad? Was it worth it? Where did you or DD or DS go? Positive experience? Would you do it again? What year in college did DD or DS go? Did it help the student gain employment? Thanks!</p>
<p>My son did Semester at Sea as a senior (summer before his last year as the last 30 credits earned had to be on the home campus) and still feels it ties as his best experience in life (the one experience that ties with this for first place was being a presenter at a conference where the current ticket price is $6,000 and it sells out over a year in advance each year, and being that he was so young at the time, we got three free admissions in addition to all travel expenses being paid). He was only 12 when he boarded the Semester at Sea ship and so he had to have a parent or guardian with him and fortunately, we got along well sharing a cabin. The voyage started in Vancouver (Canada) and then went to Sitka and Kodiak (Alaska), PetroPavlosk-Kamchatsky (Russia), Pusan (South Korea; we also took a train to Seoul and took a side trip to the DMZ and crossed the border into North Korea), Shanghai (China; we also flew to Beijing and Xian), Hong Kong, Vietnam (visited three cities there), Taiwan (flew from Taipei to Kaohsiung and back), and Japan (Kobe; took train to Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, etc.) and then had a 14-day sailing to Seattle. It cost us a "boat load" (or "ship load") of money, but yes, we'd do it again (if we had the money). Indeed, we gave our son a 21-day Panama Canal trip on the same ship as his college graduation gift the following year (this time, my husband was able to join us as he gets four weeks of vacation a year, not 10, and the summer Semester at Sea had us away for 10 weeks).</p>
<p>I don't know that it helped our son gain employment (it seemed to be more his GPA and internships since age 9 with a pretty well-known tech company that helped him with other employment), but we were told it helped him to be allowed to live on campus at age 14 when he moved out of state for graduate school (as the staff felt that he was well-traveled and would be more "worldly wise" to live on his own despite his being on the young side), and it was my seeing firsthand how he handled tough situations on travel that contributed toward <em>my</em> feeling he was ready to live on his own. </p>
<p>The idea of seeing if he was ready to live on his own or having people think he'd be ready to live on his own young in order to someday live on campus young wasn't on our minds at all when we booked that study abroad program, though - he just loved sailing/cruising and studying "world topics" (like Asian literature, world music, geography, etc.) and traveling to other countries and I happen to feel that travel is more educational overall than what is usually learned in lectures (and perhaps even labs), so it seemed to make sense to me to allow him to do that study abroad program along with two others he did earlier with the Honors College - one to Italy and another to France; both of those were also great experiences we would do again, but just not nearly as exceptional an experience).</p>
<p>I think in this day in age, some form of international experience is almost becoming a requirement to compete for top slots and positions. </p>
<p>Ideally that would be a longer term stay of at least 6 months (to actually integrate and become part of the local area) but even much shorter trips can be incredibly valuable.</p>
<p>Just want to say that if you sent your child abroad, please talk to them about alcohol before they go. US students in the UK, and probably other European countries, have a really bad reputation for binge drinking basically. Don't say "my child wouldn't do it". They probably would, because all of a sudden they're of age and surrounded by their peers doing just that. Most students do not binge drink, but those that do give the others a bad name. Many seem to do very little actual studying.</p>
<p>Three trips so far in our family, three excellent experiences. Highly recommended. France, Ireland, Ecuador. The only issues were the aforementioned alcohol, pickpockets, and youthful bliss ("I think I left my camera on the beach." or "you mean the trains don't run after 1:00 AM?"). But even those were positive learning experiences, sort of.</p>
<p>I just finished studying abroad with Duke University in Spain. (I'll be a senior at my university this fall.) It was amazing, and I learned a lot in the program. I'd definitely do it again. (I'm a Spanish major so the experience was very beneficial for me.) </p>
<p>I do have one warning though. Before I went abroad, I was warned several times to look into the programs in which I was interested. There are a lot of study abroad programs out there that are "jokes" (for lack of a better term). In other words, the students are there only to play and not to learn. My university warned me against this because the credits could potentially not transfer. This was one of the reasons why I really wanted to study with Duke. I knew that I would have a fantastic time (after reading about the program) but also learn something in the process.</p>
<p>Two experiences so far, both very positive. One S went to Santander, Spain the summer after freshman year, and the other to Aix-en-Provence, France the summer after sophomore year. Both kids chose to live with families rather than in a dorm or student apt and both were happy with their decision. S#3 (incoming frosh) is already looking at programs.</p>
<p>D studied in Italy summer before junior year through Pepperdine. Her words, best experience and she made her best friends. She went through her own university, also as stated, to make sure the units applied, but also because they have a great reputation for their international programs. It was a bit of a stretch financially, but worth every cent. Be warned that it is extremely expensive overseas right now. The amount of recommended spending money may not be enough for the present exchange value.</p>
<p>S1 just got back today from an 8-week Portuguese immersion program (family stay) in northern Brazil, taken after his sophomore year in college. He did a 7-week Spanish immersion program (also family stay) in Lima last summer after his freshman year. The first program was through UVA and he got 6 credit hours. The second was through AmeriSpan. While he could have gotten college credit, he didn't bother to apply for it because he will have all the language credits he can use by the time he graduates. </p>
<p>Both programs were equally fabulous from his perspective, although he says he worked harder in the AmeriSpan program. That is probably because he had taken four years of Spanish in high school, so was able to gain fluency with ease in Peru, but was starting from scratch with Portuguese so had to study a lot outside of the four daily hours of class. In Brazil, he seemed to be comfortable talking to locals and could get along with ease by about week five, although he is the type to jump right in from day one even if he has to pantomine his thoughts. </p>
<p>He expects to go back to Brazil next May and stay through December, doing an engineering semester abroad and combined internship program offered through his college. He will take a semester of Portuguese at college this year as well. For next year's program, the students generally get an apartment on their own in Rio rather than live in a dorm or with a family and he will be ready for that.</p>
<p>For him, the experience has been invaluable as well as tons of fun (Foho dancing in the streets, surfing, playing soccer on the beach). In addition to other college students from all over the world, the AmeriSpan program had former Peace Corps volunteers, doctors who do volunteer work abroad, and a variety of other businessmen who needed to learn the language quickly. He seemed to just grow astronomically in his world perspective from this mix of ages and backgrounds. (Class size still never exceeded five people and one week he was the only student so was essentially tutored.) </p>
<p>Anyway, I am definitely a fan of studying abroad and I think his language skills and travel experiences will serve him well.</p>
<p>I studied in London my junior year in college. I was also able to travel around Europe for six weeks with two other guys, visit Scotland, and take day trips around England.</p>
<p>I would definitely do it again.</p>
<p>Thank you! I'd love to hear more - I'll keep checking back for responses.</p>
<p>After much thought, my daughter decided against study abroad, despite a strong interest in spending a semester or a year in the United Kingdom and the availability of many suitable programs there.</p>
<p>The reason? The U.K. academic calendar runs from October to July and consists of three terms. U.S. students studying in the U.K. either spend the whole year in there or go to the U.K. for the second and third terms (a kind of extended spring semester) after having spent the fall semester in the U.S. But there is a serious disadvantage to this schedule -- the late end of the school year pretty much precludes doing a summer internship when the student returns to the United States. </p>
<p>For students in fields where having a good internship in the summer after your junior year is important, this is a real deal-killer.</p>
<p>Marian, that's not the case with all study abroad in London. I know many students who have done the NYU program in London and it runs on the same calendar as American colleges, beginning the end of August and finishing mid-December. Spring semester is the same also, January through May.</p>
<p>My daughter did a study abroad program in the fall of her junior year that challenged her more than anything she's ever done. </p>
<p>IHP</a> Cities in the 21st Century</p>
<p>Starting in New York, for the rest of the semster, her spent four to five weeks each in Buenos Aires, Beijing, Shanghai, and Bangalore (India). In each city, they lived with local families and had to deal with commuting back and forth (subways in Buenos Aires, autorickshaw in India). Their coursework included a constant fieldwork, site visits, and seminars with local government, business, and NGO leaders.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that she came home a changed person with a comparative perspective on the world that few people are lucky enough to experience in a short period of time. There is no question that it has helped her in job hunting, if only because she has an instantly obvious topic of conversation on her resume.</p>
<p>My advice on study abroad: spend some time exploring the range of programs that are available and think outside the box when considering the options. This program was never on the radar screen for my daughter's first pass through her options. She dismissed it categorically when I mentioned it to her, in large part because she was only considering the standard study-abroad paradigm.</p>
<p>From a parents' standpoint (assuming you are footing the bill), I would have a conversation about goals and objectives for a study abroad program at the start of the selection process. Then, learn what makes a top study-abroad program. As the Foreign Study Office at my daughter's college writes:</p>
<p>
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A bit of background information: There are more than three thousand foreign study programs and/or other study abroad opportunities out there. The vast majority of them range in quality from so-so to unspeakably awful, and I suspect that a few of them may be criminal.
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</p>
<p>Timing for London may be all over the calendar. D1 Spring semester was early January through late April. D2 Summer semester was late June through late August.</p>
<p>My summer studying in France got me to fluency level in the language. I also earned 15 hours of credit, which certainly aided my pursuit of a degree in French.
Fastforward 30 (AACK!) years, and looking back, my studying abroad had some of the biggest impact of anything I did. It allowed me to work abroad later. Some of our best friends are people I met that summer. Our kids have grown up together. My first teaching job was French (rather than math, which I had always assumed I'd teach some day).</p>
<p>But most of all it opened my mind to the reality that not everyone has the same worldview as we do in the U.S. And experiencing another culture has enriched my life tremendously.</p>
<p>GO FOR IT.</p>
<p>S was on an internship in India, sponsored by MS but with an association with his professor and school. All of the interns were academics either as grad students or some sort of sabbatical. His experience: Met a lot of people from all over the world, who were working on many projects (his project was not computer related but was communication related) visited a lot of places either sponsered by MS, by the interns themselves, or visiting friends (ethnic Indian roommate at CMU, attended the wedding of roommate's cousin, visited a high school neighbor who is now working in Singapore). </p>
<p>"Studying" in another country is not about the actual study but about the different cultures, and people. </p>
<p>But after 5 months being abroad, he was literally burnt out. He eventually landed in Switzerland and refused to leave the building for anything other than to get groceries. Now that he is back in the USA, we can be assured that every weekend, he is out exploring Seattle. Next week he's off to Vancouver BC to visit his best HS bud who he visited May, in Brussels, Belgium- UN.</p>
<p>He now has another MS internship working for a researcher who is an international. Another month will tell if S will be jetting off again. He is a proven traveler and more opportunities seem to have presented themselves.</p>
<p>In the 25 days he was in Europe, he paid for just 2 days for hotels and that was shared with a Toronto classmate when they were visiting Spain. Yes, OP, you can still visit Europe cheaply.</p>
<p>I’ve been in sydney for the past 2 weeks. My classes started today. I am keeping a blog here: [Chandler</a> in Sydney](<a href=“http://www.chandlerinsydney.com/]Chandler”>http://www.chandlerinsydney.com/) if you want to check it out.</p>
<p>A million years ago I took a gap year in France before starting college. Although I’d had four years of high school French, it was always my worst grade and it was a struggle to read or speak. I lived with a French family and took courses at an Institute for language study. By the end of the year I spoke French fluently and was auditing classes at the local university. My brothers followed in my footsteps and became even more involved with the local culture - one of them joined a chorus. </p>
<p>To me the most interesting thing about learning a language fluently was that it seemed to turn on some gene in my brain which made language learning much less of a chore. I took German in college and while it is not a romance language, it came much easier than French had. I was able to use both my French and German when I wrote an undergraduate thesis on low0-cost housing in Paris and Berlin. (And got a grant to spend the summer before my senior year doing the research for it in Europe.)</p>
<p>I’ve never had a professional use for French again, but ended up working in Germany for five years. I also picked up a fair amount of Italian while living in Germany which was useful for travelling there. So that one year in France did pay off in a roundabout way.</p>