Off-campus study preliminary applications were just due and that means that the sophomore class is frantically trying to plan for study abroad. Between fulfilling major requirements and maneuvering semester choice so that you and you friends can go abroad the same semester, study abroad requires a lot of complicated planning. Fortunately, here are some tips to help you prepare for your important study abroad decisions:
Meet with your advisor: Meeting with your advisor is tremendously beneficial so that you can map out the remainder of your time at Colby. Your advisor can show you how to fulfill all of your requirements on time, which will inevitably ease your stress about studying off-campus.
Meet with the Off-Campus Study Office: I know that you have probably heard this over ten times by now but the OCS Office is extremely helpful and they will help you to narrow down locations that make sense for you given your area of study.
Do some research: If you are having trouble deciding where you would like to study, I cannot stress the benefits of thorough internet browsing enough. Reading about different cities can give you a taste of the culture and help you to narrow down your choices. Wikipedia and Wikitravel are great sources to learn about life in various locations. Another great source is Abroad101, a website that has reviews of thousands of different study abroad programs along with many useful tools to help you navigate the endless choices. The website has a manageable search engine that helps you to narrow down the choices by location and program length among other things. It also has study abroad rankings that lay out the top ten programs or cities for various categories such as Top Programs for Language Lovers and Top Foodie Cities.
Organize your information: Once you’ve narrowed your choices down to a few programs, it’s helpful to make a chart so that you can more easily compare programs to one another. Add any categories that you think are important such as housing or cost of living and fill in the information for each program. A clear chart should help you to weight the pros and cons and further narrow down the endless options.
Ask around: The best thing that you can do when researching study abroad programs is to hear first-hand from the students who have already studied abroad. Ask anyone who you know who has studied abroad about their experience. Even if they went on a program you aren’t interested in, you could be surprised by how eye-opening their advice could be. You might hear all about a great program that you weren’t even aware of.
Photo Credit: http://blog.aroundcampus.com/j…