Recent reports from Barnard’s Dean of Study Abroad Advising, Gretchen Young, indicate that more students will study abroad in the upcoming spring semester than in the past.
This increase is a relief to Young, who had expressed some concern based on the number of students studying abroad in the fall. “Fall numbers were down and we were worried students wouldn’t get this experience they really need,” she said.
From Barnard, the 53 students studying abroad this year represent only half of those who filled out “intent to study abroad” forms last year. Young suggested that the threat of a crushing economic downturn prevented families from allowing their children to study abroad. However, it appears that this panic was short-lived.
Excluding sizable drops in 2003 and the early ‘90s, recent decades have yielded a steady increase in the number of students choosing to study abroad for a semester. Young said it has “become more mainstream, an integral part of the liberal arts education.”
In recent years students have also been choosing to study in more diverse destinations. While the ideal of a year abroad in Paris or Rome are still popular choices, more students are choosing universities in less traditional places in Asia or South America. Suzanne Arrington, BC ‘13, is currently studying Spanish at Barnard and plans on studying in South America. “I’m excited,” she said. “It’s also probably less expensive, compared to other parts of the world.”
Another student, Aviva Hamavid, BC ’13 said, “I actually studied abroad in high school and I am thinking about the Chung Hua University in China for junior year.”
While the perceived cost may have driven students away from studying abroad at first, Barnard and Columbia assure students that, even abroad, they will continue to receive their full financial aid amount. Because the student continues to pay the same tuition to her school, the sticker price for a study abroad program may be misleading.
Barnard students, for example, pay the semester’s tuition and then, regardless of the cost, Barnard pays the tuition to the university abroad. If the financial aid a student receives exceeds tuition, then the student gets written a check of the amount of the surplus to take with them. Since many places have a lower cost of living than New York, students may even save money.
The interval of time spent abroad continues to vary. German professor, Richard Alan Korb, remarked, “It’s been my experience that students with study abroad experience always demonstrate an increased sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. I definitely recommend a year-long experience over a semester since it takes some time to acclimatize.”
According to the Open Doors 2005 Report on International Educational Exchange, only nine percent of students studying abroad chose to go for the full year. This percentage is actually down from 14 percent in the early ‘90s, indicating that although more students are leaving the country for educational exchanges, they are only opting for semester-long programs.
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