Going abroad is the perfect chance to shake yourself out of that comfort zone and belly flop into another culture. Even the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution in November 2005 hailing 2006 as the "Year of Study Abroad."
Nearly one-fifth of current University of Wisconsin-Madison bachelor's degree recipients have studied abroad, putting UW in eighth place in a national survey. With Wisconsin's groundhog frozen in its burrow and the annual Polar Plunge cancelled because of dangerous wind-chill, more UW students than ever are likely to snowshoe their way out of Madison.
In a perfect world, everyone would have the opportunity to spend time abroad. In reality, however, many college students either cannot afford or don't have time to fly to Tokyo or Rome for a semester. Students enrolled in engineering programs, for example, follow a strict sequence of classes that for many all but eliminates the possibility of going abroad in college.
"I would guess that five percent or so of students in our department manage to get a semester abroad," said UW associate professor Thatcher Root from the department of Chemical and Biological Engineering via e-mail. "This is a great immersion experience, but difficult to fit in without adding to the time to degree, since some courses may end up being free elective and they make less progress on requirements than they would if they stayed here."
Because most schools divide the topics and levels of engineering programs differently, freshmen and sophomores might have an easier time finding courses that transfer, Mr. Root said.
If your major makes it tough to go abroad and graduate in four years, don't despair. While university study abroad programs usually single out junior year as the time to travel, there's no reason you couldn't samba your way to Brazil after graduation. And by doing so, you might actually save yourself a hefty wad of cash.
When I studied abroad in Perugia, Italy, in the summer of 2003, I was stuck paying tuition to UW and to the local Universita Italiana per Stranieri, where I was taking classes. My friend from Florianopolis, Brazil, paid substantially less, because she didn't go through a university; she paid tuition to the Italian university, and then had only to cover the cost of a tiny apartment (shared with a woman from Japan) and morning cappuccinos. You have to ask if getting credits isn't a priority, and you want the life experience going abroad provides, why not lose the university as middleman and go post-graduation? It might require working to save money for your trip, but it's well worth the effort.
UW does try to accommodate students whose majors make a junior year abroad seem unfeasible. Mr. Root observed that despite the difficulty many engineering students face in planning trips abroad, the College of Engineering encourages studying in a foreign setting. He also said that enrollment in the Overseas Summer Lab is quite high, with roughly one-third of graduating seniors opting to spend five to six weeks at a foreign university.
"We now send groups of students (with an accompanying faculty member) to the University of Oviedo in Asturias, Spain, and to the Technical University of Vienna in Austria," Mr. Root explained. "Instruction is in English, with staff from the host university polishing their language skills. However, the students live in the host city and interact with people from the local culture outside of the course and during their travels before or after the course. It is very popular."
The New York Times reported that a record number of American college graduates are grabbing a suitcase and heading overseas for a few years. Employers appreciate people who have worked abroad, because if you've successfully navigated another culture and language, you're likely to be curious and flexible by nature. (Your sense of humor develops, too, as your mouth spasms in an awkwardly unfamiliar tongue.)
If going abroad isn't an option, meeting some of UW's foreign students — students for whom Madison is an exotic locale — is a good way to open your mind. The International Student Services group on campus serves "the nearly 3,800 international students on the campus at any given time," according to its website, and hosts a range of events for foreign and American students.
Why limit yourself to sushi at Takara?
Cynthia Martens ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in Italian and European Studies.
