<p>Studying during the academic year is, IMHO, better. Even if you don’t go to a regular university at the program, if you study abroad during the academic year, you can take your financial aid with you in most cases. If you study abroad during the summer, you will have to find your own finances for the endeavor.</p>
<p>You don’t lose time getting credits – most study abroad programs will give you credit. You just need to arrange your classes so that if you can’t take any major classes while you are abroad, that will be okay.</p>
<p>Personally, I strongly recommend studying abroad for a full academic year. Most people go for a semester. I only went for a semester, and that is my one regret about studying abroad. Just as you are beginning to get used to a place, you have to leave. I’ve heard from students who stayed a whole year that the real learning begins during the second half of that year, after they have gotten over the initial culture shock. If you decide to only stay for a semester, though, that semester doesn’t really matter. IF you go to a European university or universities that are on the same schedule, the spring semester is longer because it really spans two terms. The fall semester is much shorter, because it’s just one term.</p>
<p>You don’t have to take languages. I went to the Netherlands and needed absolutely no language skills, which was actually disappointing to me (I wanted to go somewhere where few people spoke English, so I could experience the frustration of attempting to communicate and really learn the language. The Netherlands wasn’t my first choice of countries). Obviously, if you go to an English-speaking country like Australia, the UK, South Africa, or Jamaica, you don’t need any language. Also, some programs where the host language is not English require none or very little of the home country’s language, particularly if mostly everyone speaks English or if most of the university’s classes are in English, or if you are going through an independent program that teaches all of their classes in English. Most Spanish-speaking countries require a certain level of proficiency in Spanish, I’ve noticed, because it’s taught so prevalently here; however, there are intensive Spanish programs that don’t require any prior knowledge.</p>
<p>I also second the advice to start early. Not just on thinking about where you want to go, but how to make it a reality. I daydreamed forever about wanting to go to Japan, and I even attended my college partially because it have an exchange program with a women’s college in Japan. Unfortunately, I went to talk to the director of this program during the first half of my sophomore year (which you would think was early enough!) and found out that you needed two years of Japanese before you could do it. Had I known that during freshman year, I wouldn’t have finished my French during first semester; I would’ve taken Japanese 101-102 freshman year and 201-202 sophomore year so I could be ready to go! Then after that, I assumed that the other Japanese programs I wanted were too expensive and ended up going to a program that was far more expensive than those – because I got lots of scholarships.</p>
<p>I highly recommend going to your study abroad office at your school and talking to the director. Our study abroad director was an excellent, excellent woman – she got you where you wanted to go and she found you MONEY. I didn’t have to borrow a dime to study abroad.</p>