I am currently a senior and to be honest I haven’t gone into too much depth in regards to my college search yet. Although, I have always been interested in studying abroad. I do not have any preferences on which countries yet, but I would love to study in larger more modern cities as I am interested in studying business.
Which schools in the US have the best programs in which I could study abroad? Should I apply to international schools directly? How about the language situation, if I choose a country that does not speak English? Any other information I should know would be greatly appreciated,
Assuming money is no object, there are many UK schools that would be potentially good options. Look at Richmond, The American University in London (that’s their full name). I wouldn’t recommend LSE for a freshman, although study abroad there for a year is a very popular option available from many US schools - if feels a lot more like a grad school than an undergrad institution with many older wealthy Europeans attending and no ‘campus-type’ experience. University of Bath has a good business program. Check out Univ of Edinburgh and St. Andrews in Scotland. I know American students who have had good experiences at all these programs. Go on-line to figure out how to apply. St. Andrews actually has recruiters that come to the US - I’ve seen them at college fairs. Email them to find out if/when they will be in your area.
As for study abroad, providing this experience to American college students is a huge industry internationally. There are thousands of programs world-wide in every flavor and nearly all US schools have relationships with a number of them. Generally, if there is a country you want to go to, your school will have a relationship with a program there. If there is a unique program you’d like to attend that has been attended by others at reputable US schools, your school might be willing to consider establishing the relationship or may know of a comparable program. I’d therefore say that this is not a factor that differentiates schools any more. (The exception might be for schools that have their own exclusive programs abroad, like Stanford, for example). Verify by reading up about the options available at a specific school - generally they have all this info on line and if not, you can drop them an email and ask.
One last thought: There are many threads here on cc about students who have studied at all of these institutions. Do a search. A lot of your questions have already been answered there.
What’s your budget?
Schools that are known for study abroad include Goucher (it’s actually required and you get a grant to cover some of the costs so if you’re thrifty it is quite cheap), St Olaf and Dickinson (both are very selective so it’d depend on your unweighted GPA and SAT/ACT score).
You can find a study abroad program where the language of instruction is English in any country that you would like to study in. Don’t worry about that. However, if you want to focus your time abroad on learning or improving your skills in another language, then be sure to verify that the study abroad program does focus on that. Some only offer basic/survival courses in the local language.