Questions to ask yourself when choosing to study abroad.

1. Where do you want to go?

First and foremost, where in the world do you want to go? No matter where you choose, this experience is about to change your life forever.

Most Popular:

Barcelona, Spain; Madrid, Spain; Florence, Italy; London, England; Paris, France; Sydney, Australia; San Jose, Costa Rica; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tokyo, Japan

Less common, but awesome locations:

Berlin, Germany; Dublin, Ireland; Uppsala, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; Angers, France; Lyon, France; Geneva, Switzerland; Lucerne, Switzerland; Melbourne, Australia; Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; Cape Town, South Africa; Singapore; China; Granada, Nicaragua; Bogota, Colombia

2. Are there University programs there, or do you need to look into third party companies?

See a list of some popular third party companies below:

EUSA, CAPA, AIFS, AFS, API, CEA

3. What courses do you need for your Major and do these programs cover them?

Reach out to your study abroad office to make sure you are benefitting academically from studying abroad.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If choosing a third party program, make sure to check with your Study Abroad Office to see if the course credits transfer appropriately.

4. How are you going to afford studying abroad?

You may want to follow a couple of avenues here.

• Budget – make yourself a budget on how much the program will cost, flights, living, and extra expenses. Make sure to figure out exactly how much you ned before choosing your program.
• Federal Loans – Often you will find that government funding can be applied to study abroad programs. Make sure to look into your government funding to see if you can pull additional student loans for this (WORTH IT!)
• Scholarships – For many study abroad programs and offices, there will be scholarship opportunities for you. Check out grants and scholarships here to see if you qualify! Scholarships can also be found within departments, see if you can find any there as well.
• Languages – You can often find many scholarships for people studying languages.
• Less common places – Many uncommon study abroad places will likely have huge funding opportunities. For example, when I worked at the Study Abroad Office at my University, there was a donor willing to give full rides for all students traveling to South Korea – this averaged to about 3 students a year.

For more info on scholarships, check out my blog post here.

5. Read blogs from alumni of the program.

Make sure that is exactly where you want to spend a good portion of your year!

6. Apply for the program and let the process begin!