Busting misconceptions about study abroad: evaluating CSB+SJU’s study abroad experience

Imagine stepping off the plane and walking around the beautiful city of Amsterdam. The city is known for its vibrant tulip fields, streets filled with bicycles, captivating and mesmerizing museums such as the Van Gogh Museum and, best of all, the delicious stroopwafels. Studying abroad is more than just a change in scenery from campus. It is an opportunity to immerse yourself in a new culture, language and create lifelong memories with your classmates.

However, studying in another country is not all sunshine and rainbows, as many CSB+SJU international students could probably tell you. Homesickness, language barriers and currency conversions that hurt your wallet are bound to come up no matter how long you study abroad.

For many students, these issues are dealbreakers that keep them on campus during their four years here, and the study abroad enrollment numbers are beginning to show it.

An article in last week’s edition of The Record, headlined “Study abroad numbers decrease,” outlined the numbers of enrollment provided by the Center for Global Education for past and upcoming programs. Prior to the pandemic, nearly half of graduating CSB+SJU students studied abroad at some point during their time here. The most recent numbers reveal that only 23% of the class of 2023 studied abroad.

This decline has a lot to do with overall enrollment decreasing, but it’s still a large drop and has led to some programs being adjusted or canceled due to low enrollment. Despite this, studying abroad at CSB+SJU is here to stay, as long as students continue to take advantage of it.

Before you immediately write off the idea of studying away from CSB+SJU for a semester, we implore you to consider putting your beloved weekends in Joetown aside long enough to hear us out.

CSB+SJU offers over 20 study abroad programs, from semester long programs including places like Spain, Greece and Ireland to short-term embedded programs such as Mexico and Amsterdam/Netherlands.

One common rationale for not studying abroad is that certain majors have stricter pathways to graduation and cannot fit in a semester long program. To counteract this, the Center for Global Education offers embedded and summer programs in various countries and studies, with more new programs to come. Currently, nursing majors are in Costa Rica learning how to implement community care as part of their embedded program.

Depending on your major, some study abroad programs can provide more flexibility in working with your four-year plan.

Take the fermentation embedded program in Belgium and the Netherlands for example. You would take the two-credit course in CD mod of spring and then the actual travel happens after the semester ends, so you’re still gaining credit and class time at CSB+SJU. This schedule varies by program, but the concept is the same and makes it easier to fit in an abroad experience.

The Integrations Curriculum is always a point of contention when registration season rolls around and may make it so that students feel they can’t fulfill their requirements without staying on campus all four years. However, many students who study abroad take classes that strictly fulfill their integrations requirements, and we think getting your art credit while exploring Rome or your upper theology while taking in ornate Greek Orthodox churches might be the way to go.

Another argument against studying abroad could be the desire to stay and hold a job or internship to network closer to where you may be living and working after graduation. Despite this, a semester abroad is shorter than you might think—you keep your summers for career building, and opportunities abroad can provide you with other resume building opportunities.

One of the many benefits of studying abroad is experiencing a new country. You get to meet new people and experience a bit of their culture, customs and traditions. This also gives you the chance to learn a new language or improve on the language you have been learning, especially since you will be surrounded by native speakers. By speaking and interacting with the locals, you not only improve your language speaking skills, but you get a deeper understanding of the culture.

Employers tend to value these and other skills a potential employee has gained through experiences of traveling abroad, and a global experience can help set you apart during interview processes. Many programs also include internship experiences to build your resume while you’re there. Plus, you never know where you’ll end up after graduating, and some study abroad alums have even returned to the country they studied in to begin their careers due to the connections they made there.

Most reservations about studying abroad have a lot to do with cost, with some programs totaling a whopping $8,000 over what students are regularly paying for CSB+SJU on-campus tuition.

Despite this, many of your current scholarships carry over to your semester abroad, and for many of us who need extra help with the additional costs, CGE assists with applications and resources for additional funding. Students can seek grants through the school or apply for external scholarships to make sure that the price tag isn’t an item in the “cons” column.

We understand that at the end of the day, studying abroad isn’t for everyone. Your time here is what you make it based off your personal needs, but we encourage you to see if studying abroad could be an option for you, even if you previously thought it wasn’t.

To learn more, schedule a meeting with professional CGE staff or student study abroad mentors on The Hive to learn about studying abroad and to explore your options.

Enrollment and engagement keep study abroad programs up and running. Don’t let your misconceptions about studying abroad stop you from partaking in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.