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What school has the best Study Abroad Program?

By Hayden (Hayden) on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 11:35 pm: Edit

Check out Dickinson in PA

By Mini (Mini) on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 11:54 pm: Edit

Depends what you are looking for. If European, with a strong stress on language facility and culture, the best we saw -- by far -- was Smith. They have the oldest center (80 years old) in Florence, one 75 years old in Paris, one in Geneva, one in Hamburg. They've been there so long, they not only have a long history with families, but are really good at setting up internships while students are there. At Smith's own programs, you have to go for an entire year -- no one-termers.

Earlham's are also justly famous -- rough 70% of the campus goes abroad. The difference at Earlham is that the faculty go with the students. 10 students and faculty go to Vienna for their Vienna choral program; 12 students and two profs to East Africa, and they have a huge program in Japan..

Bard has a new and really interesting-looking program with the first liberal arts college in St. Petersburg, Russia.

By Palomino (Palomino) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 12:14 am: Edit

Colby,
middlebury

By Kk19131 (Kk19131) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 12:32 am: Edit

Dickinson has a great program.

By Mikemac (Mikemac) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 12:45 am: Edit

Kalamazoo in Michigan has to be at the top of anybody's list of good colleges for students interested in study abroad. According to their web site, 85% of their students will study abroad at some point in college!

By Bunmushroom (Bunmushroom) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 01:33 am: Edit

Stanford has a very reputable and established program. Many colleges just send you to another college. Stanford has its own established campuses set up with Stanford professors and Stanford advisors, so that you dont sacrafice anything by going. I think they have campuses in florence, paris, london, santiago, kyoto, Washington dc, berlin, moscow, austrailia, and they are making one in india and spain.

By Kk19131 (Kk19131) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 02:02 am: Edit

I would love to study abroad in Washington dc lol.

By Xiggi (Xiggi) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 02:07 am: Edit

Mushroom,

Stanford maintains "centers" abroad. You may call it a campus but that is a slight misnomer. In most cities, students attend local universities and are expected to be housed with local families and ride the metro to school. Visiting Stanford teachers might teach a class or two but not all classes.

Most colleges share access to overseas programs and they are rarely exclusive to a particluar school.

By Calimomx2 (Calimomx2) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 08:41 am: Edit

Tufts has an excellent study abroad program.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 08:49 am: Edit

Here are a few:

All the "usual suspects" (Ivy League, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Northwestern, Michigan-Ann Arbor, Cal-Berkeley, Amherts, Williams, Swarthmore etc...)

PLUS...

American U
Boston U
Carleton College
Colby College
Colgate University
Connecticut College
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Dickinson College
Earlham College
Georgetown University
Kalamazoo College
Lawrence University
Macalester College
Michigan State University
Middlebury College
Oberlin College
Pomona College
St. Lawrence University
St. Olaf College (60% of their students study abroad!)
Scripps College
Smith College
Tufts University

By Mini (Mini) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 10:57 am: Edit

All the "usual" suspects doesn't work in this regard. Other than its program at Oxford, Willians (for example) has NO sutdy abroad programs of it own, though many students join someone else's. Same is true of Scripps (which uses IES programs when they can), same (I believe) with Pomona and Amherst. (And I know that last year, Pomona made cuts in the programs that students could attend.)

Some of the schools on your list aren't particularly good at foreign language study (traditionally, for example, this is not Williams' strong suit), so you might find yourself behind once you got where you were headed. Still other programs have courses taught in English even though one is abroad -- you might like that, but you need to know. (as I remember, this was true of Duke's program in Italy.)

The percentage of students studying abroad doesn't tell you much either. At Williams, the precentage is high because they count those who go abroad for 3 weeks in their Winter Study session. Yale (and, I believe) Princeton make it rather difficult to study abroad -- it can be done, but it is not something they go out of their way to encourage.

Making a list of colleges without knowing what goes on "under the hood" is virtually guaranteed to mislead. I would completely scratch the list Alexandre posted, and start again. It certainly couldn't be the case that a college has the "best" study abroad program, if it in fact doesn't have any of its own. Most programs invite students from other schools to apply -- however, in some cases, they are rather restrictive, and accept such students only after all applicants from the home college are accommodated (I know for sure that this is true of Earlham and Smith's programs, which, because of their reputation, usually have a waiting list.)

If you plan to receive financial aid, make sure your aid will follow you. At some places (e.g. Smith), your aid will follow you in full wherever you go.. At some other places, only partially. At Bard, unless you are in one of their own programs, it will not follow you at all.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 12:28 pm: Edit

Actually Mini, my alphabetical list is pretty accurate. The "usual suspects" have good opportunities abroad because of they academic excellent and their wealth. My list is merely a starting point. A person must do her/his research to get exactly what she/he wants.

By Mini (Mini) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 01:00 pm: Edit

The question was which college has the "best study abroad program". Listing a bunch of colleges that don't even HAVE a study abroad program (though it they may allow foreign study) isn't particularly helpful.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 03:15 pm: Edit

Every school I listed in the alphabetical list (starting with American U and ending with Tufts) has study abroad program.

The "usual suspects" grouping don't all have them, but they are so wealthy that they have great alliances with foreign universities.

By Xiggi (Xiggi) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 05:33 pm: Edit

Help me out understanding something?

Why would classes offered through IES be viewed as a lesser program than a direct one?

It seems that the vast majority of schools wuth overseas study programs are members or associate members. Members and Affiliates of IES