More Students Choose Study Abroad Programs

The number of University of Cincinnati students traveling abroad has increased by approximately 35 percent within the last five years.

During the 2006-07 school year, approximately 875 UC students traveled abroad, compared with 644 students in 2003-04.

Caitlin Arnest, a fifth-year WHAT student, traveled to England, South Korea, India, Japan and New Zealand, through UC International Programs, an organization that plans overseas study programs.

“I’ve learned a lot. In an academic setting you meet people from all over the world,” Arnest said.

The cost of traveling abroad is different for every program, but academic grants and scholarships will always be applicable.

“All of your UC financial aid will travel with you,” said Jill Reister, an education abroad adviser for UC International Programs. “Grants, loans, scholarships, tuition remission … Our office gives over $100,000 to UC students.”

And students snap it up.

“There’s a lot of grants and scholarships out there that I applied for and got,” Arnest said.
Some students pay approximately what they would pay to attend UC.

“My study abroad experience in Mexico was an exchange program so I paid about the same as what I would have paid at UC, plus the cost of housing, food and travel,” said Ashley Hafner, a fourth-year journalism student, who studied abroad for 15 weeks in Guadalajara, Mexico at the University of the Valle of Atemajac, and reported about it to The News Record. “Eating out and drinking at bars was much cheaper than in the United States, but the school did not organize any excursions, so my trips to Guanajuato, Puerto Vallarta and Tequila were out of my own pocket.”

Traveling to a strange country to take college classes may seem like a foreign concept to some students, but it has its advantages.

“The Mexicans I met welcomed me into their homes and lives, and this made my experience much more enjoyable than if I would have spent all my time with Americans,” Hafner said. “My Spanish improved greatly, and I learned slang words that a native Spanish-speaker is quick to point out are 100 percent Mexican.”

Reister went to Argentina for six months during high school. As a UC student she also went to Luxemburg, Spain.

“I’m completely fluent in Spanish,” Reister said. “My host family came to my wedding last year.”

Reister graduated in four years with two majors, and Arnest was able to apply academic credit earned in South Korea to give herself an additional major in Asian studies.

“If you go for a full quarter, you get a full quarter’s worth of credit,” Reister said. “It helps you challenge yourself, and expose yourself to other parts of the world. It’s good for your resume too.”

Living situations vary from program to program, with shorter programs being likely to place students in a hotel or with a host family, and longer ones may furnish them with an apartment.

“I was pleasantly surprised to find teachers asking me if I had explored an area of Mexico that weekend, eager to know about my thoughts and experiences,” Hafner said. “I was touched by the kindness of many Mexican people I met, and students invited me to their homes to spend the weekend with them.”