Life-changing experiences sometimes hide themselves in things you take for granted; you may not always have access to those things that you assume you can just make time for later. Studying abroad can be one of those life-changing experiences for students like us, but many claim they “can’t make the time” or that they will just “do it later”. From immersing yourself in a new culture to expanding your global outreach, the benefits of studying abroad has for your educational experience and overall lifestyle far outweigh the annoyance of rearranging your suggested academic path.
So many students are set in the more test-oriented educational system of the USA. Studying abroad can help you learn to adapt to new educational settings and styles of teaching; for example, there are no rankings or competition between students in Finland, which is basically unheard of to high school seniors who are asked to list their class ranking on their applications. Class sizes, even for underclassmen, abroad are infinitely smaller than what you may be used to in a public school in the USA; professors abroad typically promote self-learning through group work and student interactions. In Spain, a “jigsaw” method of learning is used, where every student in the class presents part of a lesson to their group; this prepares students for future collaborative work in their professional field.
Besides expanding your educational horizons, you also enhance your network, which not only creates better opportunities in the work field, but can also improve your lifestyle overall. You can make friends from all over the world; not only will you become close with locals your age in the country you study in, but also with kids from around the globe who came to the country you did. The wider your social circle is, the more likely you are to develop more enriching career and social opportunities. Maybe one of your Italian friends will invite you to an interesting career seminar, but perhaps you will also visit your Australian friend every summer. Your windows of opportunity will expand beyond the borders of the USA.
Maybe most importantly, you’ll learn more about a new culture. You will expand your worldview and learn more about globalization; through studying abroad, you’ll have a better cross-cultural awareness. Culture has a big impact on how people react to situations, respect others, or even just cook meals. Studying abroad will help you see all these mundane aspects of life in a new light.
When you experience a new culture for months on end, you will grow in confidence; spending time with brand new people while learning a brand new culture will cultivate your soul and pride into something of independence and resilience. It’s truly an essential experience!
I definitely agree with all of the benefits that study abroad has to offer. I am most interested in taking a semester abroad because not only can I learn about a new culture, I can also use what I have learned through my American lifestyle to educate the people I will be around. I have actually had a chance to study abroad in high school, which was a very cool and impactful experience. I went to Israel the first semester of my junior year with my grade (I was at a private school so it was with 60 other kids), and the most meaningful takeaway from my experience was that it was so easy to emerse myself in the culture.
It is certainly hard to think about right now but I have always had a desire to study abroad. The furthest I have ever been out of the country is Mexico for a week long vacation. I would like to go to somewhere long enough where I can learn the culture of the people around me, so they can help me expand my horizons and I can help expand theirs. I agree that spending time with other cultures helps grow confidence and that is why one day I will look to study abroad.
This is awesome because I definitely want to study abroad and this post just solidified all the good reasons why I should! It’s also crazy that in Finland, there is no competition between students because I feel like one of our motivating factors is to do better than others. It seems really nice to work together with people to learn in a nice environment rather than a competitive one where everyone is looking out for themselves.
I am very interested and excited to study abroad as well. I am actually signed up for a seminar about Study Abroad opportunities next summer. Hopefully, we have advanced with COVID enough that there is a possibility of going. Anyways, love the article!