<p>Hey folks,
I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the Studying Abroad forum, but I think "Graduate School" fits a little better.</p>
<p>My question is basically: are there opportunities for going abroad during graduate school? I'm thinking along the lines of studying abroad or doing some kind of summer research...is this common, or does anyone know if it's even a good idea? If it helps, I am planning on studying computational biology.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, there definitely are opportunities for study abroad in grad school, especially at the masters level. It depends, of course, on your specific program and the specific school you will be attending, but as far as I know studying abroad during grad school is done by a fair amount of students.</p>
<p>Yes, there are quite a few programs I know about that allow you to do this. For example, [URL=<a href="http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5284%5DEASPI%5B/URL">http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5284]EASPI[/URL</a>] is a summer program that allows you to do research in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore or Taiwan. There are other programs such as [URL=<a href="http://www.iie.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Programs7/CESRI/Program_Overview.htm%5DCESRI%5B/URL">http://www.iie.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Programs7/CESRI/Program_Overview.htm]CESRI[/URL</a>] that allow you to study in Central Europe.</p>
<p>Besides programs like these (which I am sure there are many more) there are sometimes also collaboration opportunities to travel to a host lab that is doing research similar to yours, especially if they have equipment that you do not or use a special technique that you could learn from them. Sometimes your school might even be able to help with funding much like they would to send you to a foreign conference. </p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>If you're interested in going to Germany for a term, take a look at: [url=<a href="http://daad.org%5DHome%5B/url">http://daad.org]Home[/url</a>]</p>
<p>jpell, if you can, apply to EMBL, leading bioinformatics center in europe</p>
<p>That's interesting. I didn't know that any (let alone many) graduate students have studied abroad. I was under the impression that once in, for most people, grad school is one long haul to get out as soon as possible. That's just my impression though. Has anyone here had that experience or known someone who has?</p>
<p>What was the experience like? Is it fairly difficult to arrange? And did they have any time to see the sights when they weren't doing research? Was it productive or mostly for personal (rather than professional) development reasons?</p>
<p>How about an internship abroad (summer up to a year) between undergraduate and graduate school? Does anyone know about good opportunities for that? Is it even possible to land a paid research assistant / lab tech position in foreign (especially asian) biotech companies, research centers or universities if you've just graduated? I understand that most of the time you have to compromise between the job, location and compensation. Some people have suggested just teaching English (in Asia) instead since they think you would have more time to travel and get paid better. Although I would prefer, of course, to get more experience, it might not be reasonable to expect to find such a position.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'd be interested in any insight you guys might have. I'm a biochem major with research experience, graduating next year, but already applied to PhD programs in the biosciences - I'm wondering what would be a good option for me, since I feel that I need at least some life experience living abroad. Thanks!</p>
<p>If you need to get some life experience, put off those PhD apps, and take a year off. Simple as that. Profs will understand and they'll probably advocate the idea.</p>
<p>Here's why and what happens when you study abroad:</p>
<p>It's a fabulous experience to be living in another country with the locals. At UG level, not too difficult to arrange, and at grad level, you'll really have to check with your program. They have the connections and know where you might be able to go. As for doing something in a gap year, talk to your UG program (UCLA should have plenty of info) about taking some kind of research position/internship abroad. That might be a little more flexible than doing it as a grad student sincei t's more of a steady job, not the kind of job that requires you to spend hours and hours on your feet and never see the city.</p>
<p>As for time, it's VERY difficult to balance work and play, especially in a new, exciting environment (and especially if you've never actually been abroad). So if you see yourself spending time seeing the sights and you don't have a whole year there, I would arrive a week or so early before you actually start given that since you are expected to work, not play, once you begin your term. You'll have to have the willpower to say no to tourist stuff if there's a deadline coming up. But you might regret that you didn't get enough of "studying abroad" experience because you were really there to work.</p>
<p>No matter what you do, living in another country will be a great personal experience and you will be challenged in ways you thought you would never think of.</p>
<p>I'll add the caveat that most "study abroad" programs for graduate students are research programs that are designed to hone your research skills, not the traditional sort of study abroad. A lot of graduate students here go abroad during the summers, but it's usually to do fieldwork or to complete dissertation work. This is especially common in anthropology, sociology, public health, political science, international studies, but I do have a friend in environmental health who's planning her dissertation in Bangladesh.</p>
<p>I also know that my university has quite a few European students who are studying here for a month or a semester or a year. In my sociomedical sciences department, there's a French girl who goes to Sciences Po who's studying here, and in my psychology department, there are a lot of visiting German students.</p>
<p>If you're still in undergrad and you want to have an experience of living abroad, I suggest that you take a year off (or two or three) and get an international internship, apply for a Fulbright or for something like JET or EPIK. Unless you plan to make a career doing international research work, you most likely won't get a chance like that again, and you become ineligible for Fulbright fellowships after you earn your Ph.D (there are other kinds you can get, but you usually have to be faculty).</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice and insight, pink & juillet. I think I get the idea. It's like others have told me, I won't ever have more time and freedom to do these kinds of things than now.</p>
<p>It's too bad I only started thinking about going abroad so recently, since most of the deadlines have passed for next year's big programs (like JET or the Fulbright, which takes a lot of preparation). I want to try for an internship instead - has anyone had experience with that? I did talk to a school counselor, and she pointed me towards some programs that help match up students with internships, although they're usually short (3 months) summer jobs. I'm interested if anyone else has experience and perspectives on the matter.</p>
<p>I guess before I just didn't think it was an option in my field, unless I was willing to spend a quarter and a lot of money studying something unrelated to my major in another country. I've been thinking about graduate school longer, and have already applied. I'm under the impression you can defer for a year, which I would consider if I had the opportunitiy to go abroad and work, but either way I won't know my options until next year.</p>
<p>If you are just coming out of undergrad and want to work abroad for a bit I would also recommend looking into [URL=<a href="http://www.bunac.org/%5DBUNAC%5B/URL">http://www.bunac.org/]BUNAC[/URL</a>] . It has been many years since I did it and it appears you can no longer work in Britain, but basically it allows you to buy a temporary work visa for a number of different countries (for a few months up to a year (maybe more) depending on the country). Once there it's still up to you to get a job, but at least you would be legal to work and wouldn't have to go through that hassle. Hope that helps, some!</p>