The revered study abroad experience is said to change your life.
Rumor has it you’ll explore foreign places, immerse yourself in vibrant culture and rack up more experiences than your resume can handle; for many Northwestern students, the decision to study abroad is a no-brainer.
For others, it’s a little more complicated.
When time constraints and financial concerns come into play, some Northwestern students can’t make a traditional study abroad program fit. Sometimes students must choose between alternative programs or missing out on experiences abroad.
Medill junior Katherine Driessen can relate. She says she’d dreamed of studying abroad in Europe, but when she was accepted into Northwestern’s creative writing program she realized she had to stay on campus. She says she was “bummed initially,” especially as her friends made plans to go abroad, but she knew staying back was for the better.
“I felt like I wouldn’t get the same quality of classes [abroad as] I would here,” she says. “I just felt like the classes I could take here were probably more helpful in the long run.”
Driessen says paying to study abroad would likely have been difficult, too.
“I’m one of four kids…obviously money is tight,” she says. “The greatest payoff for how much we’re investing in the school for me [was] to be here on campus taking classes.”
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Driessen’s experience provides a glimpse into the struggles students face when trying to incorporate a study abroad program into academic commitments and major requirements. According to a Northwestern study abroad database, 743 students studied abroad in 2009-2010, while 91 students didn’t follow through after submitting an application to study abroad, representing a 12 percent withdrawal rate.
This rate is pretty standard, according to Alicia Stanley, Associate Director of Northwestern Study Abroad. However, in 2008-2009 the rate rose to 18.5 percent, likely because of the international financial crisis.
Missing out on a study abroad experience means different things for different people. For example, Driessen is sure Medill’s Journalism Residency will satisfy her desire to get experience off campus. But for others, studying abroad is a crucial aspect of a Northwestern education.
Weinberg junior Annemarie McDonald mapped out her study abroad experience in high school. Her choice was clear. “A big part of studying Spanish is your experience in a Spanish-speaking country,” McDonald says. “That’s how you really develop fluency. That was really important to me, and I was pretty much sure I was going to study abroad.”
“It was hard to say no,” McDonald says.
McDonald was accepted into her top-choice programs in Argentina and Barcelona during winter quarter of her sophomore year. That quarter, she also took an ecology class, anticipating a minor in Environmental Policy and Culture. McDonald “fell in love” with the class and decided to take on an Environmental Science major.
The additional major required she have a background in chemistry, physics and biology — classes she hadn’t taken. McDonald realized taking these classes and spending fall quarter abroad would keep her from graduating on time. Summer classes would be too expensive. Studying abroad was off.
“I actually put off telling them that I wasn’t going to go,” she says. “There’s a point where you sort of know you’re not, but you don’t want to say it. It was hard to say no.”
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As a Spanish major, McDonald says she’s concerned future employers will see her lack of experience abroad as a weakness.
“It makes me worried that I won’t be as qualified as other Spanish majors or that I’ll be lacking some important component,” she says. “When you’re looking for a job and you say, ‘I’m a Spanish major,’ they’re going to say, ‘Where did you study abroad?’ It’s sort of expected.”
But Stanley says where there’s a will, there’s a way. Study abroad credits can apply to degree requirements, and programs vary enough that there’s something for everyone.
“In many programs students can fulfill major or minor distribution credit while they’re abroad and apply that towards their degree program,” Stanley says. “We offer enough of a variety… I wouldn’t say there’s a student out there who couldn’t find a program that might be a great fit for them.”
Another option is studying abroad for the summer. Students can spend weeks or months taking classes, working or volunteering abroad, often earning credit as well. McDonald is considering a summer program in Costa Rica to combine her Spanish skills and topics in environmental science.
Weinberg senior Divya Sooryakumar found traditional study abroad programs weren’t a good fit for her interests and schedule. Instead, she opted for a summer trip to Uganda with the Global Engagement Summer Institute (GESI), working for a small microfinance organization while living with a local host family.
“I took it as it was…. If I can’t study abroad during the quarter it actually works well because I get to knock out some credits in the middle of the summer,” she says. “It seemed to be the perfect combination.”
Stanley suggests exploring different programs and options before getting your heart set on a particular country, especially if time constraints are an issue.
“I think sometimes students may be focused on one aspect of study abroad, whether it’s a particular country they’ve been dreaming of going to or a certain academic focus they want to have,” she says. “We try to get them to think of the big picture and consider all possibilities before narrowing down on a program choice.”
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McCormick and Weinberg junior Uzair Qarni says his heart was set on studying abroad in India with GESI over the summer after his sophomore year. Studying abroad during the year wasn’t possible because of Qarni’s strict double major requirements, and he was looking for an experiential program.
When he ran into issues securing a visit visa, GESI changed his program destination to Uganda, which was difficult to accept at first. Though Qarni had at first decided on India, he warmed up to Uganda soon after arriving and believes he took more from the experience than if he’d been on a traditional study abroad program during the year.
“You see more of the guts of the culture,” he says. “By the end of it, the family I was living with, they were like my family. The community I was living with, it was like my community. I don’t think you get that when you go to just [a foreign university] and live in the city.”
Qarni says he’s glad the trip was worth his while — especially since he took out a $6,000 loan to go.
“You can’t really do this unless you’re wealthy or you’re willing to take a loan,” he says. “It’s really unfortunate that something so substantial, that so many people want to do, is only available for the richest people.”
Financial considerations are important for many students looking to study abroad, says Stanley. According to the most recent cost listings on the NU study abroad website, the most expensive fall quarter programs are the British American Drama Academy ($32,130), an arts and sciences program in Tokyo ($29,160), and the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies ($29,060).
The least expensive programs include spring quarter in Uganda or South Africa, studying public heath or healthcare technologies ($12,696) and fall quarter at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea ($13,762).
Northwestern financial aid carries over to affiliated NU programs or programs the study abroad office has approved. “Usually it’s a mix of loans and grants,” says Sue Kwan, Senior Assistant Director of Study Abroad, Financial Services. “You’ll get usually about half and half for the extra cost of going abroad.”
For non-NU affiliated programs, students are mostly on their own, although scholarships are usually available through the study abroad provider. Students on unaffiliated programs are considered to be “taking a leave of absence” from Northwestern, so no financial aid can be offered.
“Since there’s no tuition generated, there’s no enrollment units,” Kwan says. “We can’t do aid for that student because, technically, they don’t exist here.”
According to Kwan, the cost of a study abroad program varies based on site, city or country — European countries tend to cost more.
If it were academically and financially feasible, Driessen says, she’d choose to study abroad. Watching her friends go abroad has been a reality check, but she’s happy with her decision to stay on campus.
“I think it’s a good experience and I know there’s value to it,” she says. “In an ideal world. I would love to be abroad.”