When I think of the quintessential college experience, a few things come to mind: late nights spent studying, piping hot coffee in hand; impromptu conversations with classmates and dorm-mates probing the philosophical and mysterious; study groups working out difficult problem sets together. And maybe most of all, a semester spent abroad, spent discovering new cultures and concepts and traveling to far-away cities.
These images were in my mind as I planned and applied for college and as I chose the one where I would spend the next four years of my life. I remember my 17-year-old self, perusing all things Stanford during a less-than-exciting senior spring of high school, coming across Stanford’s premier organization for study abroad and being disappointed by the sheer lack of options. Now, this disappointment is amalgamated with the dismay I have that a university like Stanford, a highly endowed prestigious research university known for its academics, would not offer a more diverse array of study abroad opportunities.
Governed primarily by the Bing Overseas Study Program (BOSP), Stanford offers its students just twelve quarter-long study abroad options. All of South America is represented by just one city, Santiago, and someone decided that all of the rich, nuanced variety of culture and history in Africa could be swept up under the rug of the Cape Town, South Africa program. Half of the study abroad countries are considered Western, and one-fourth are primarily English-speaking.
For comparison, Harvard offers 28 study abroad programs, Princeton offers over 100 programs in 43 countries and Yale boasts over 200 study abroad options in 50 countries. None of these peer institutions have entire continents represented by only one study abroad program. All of them offer a variety of both semester-long and full summer-long programs (Stanford offers only the Santiago and Cape Town programs during the summer) and incorporate ample occasions to engage with partner universities. In juxtaposition with these opportunities, Stanford’s study abroad options seem needlessly restrictive.
Part of this doubtlessly has to do with Stanford’s bizarre insistence on creating “mini-Stanfords” at all study abroad locations. While Stanford does allow partnerships with other study abroad organizations, it is ambiguous which, if any, will be accepted for university credit or for application toward a major. Perhaps BOSP’s leading shortcoming is the lack of diversity of courses offered. In each program, there are no more than fifteen courses that a student may choose to take, and only select locations, namely Berlin and Kyoto, offer STEM courses. And even then, there are only one or two of these courses, usually focused on materials science or engineering.
BOSP’s case is bolstered by the overseas seminars — three-week programs during the summer that cover a variety of topics, including computer science, art and geophysics. The timescale and summer-focus allow students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to study abroad take advantage of subsidized overseas excursions. Yet three weeks isn’t nearly an adequate amount of time to become truly immersed in a new culture and engage in the self-reflective study abroad experience. Sure, they might allow travel to intriguing locales or a sampling of exotic cuisine, but how much cultural understanding can really be packed into less than a month?
The low number of programs combined with the inflexibility in course offerings leads to fewer students studying abroad, and fewer students being able to take part in the enriching experience of studying abroad. To combat this problem, BOSP introduced changes to the programs this year by easing language requirements, opening up more opportunities for students who may not have been able to fit language classes into a heavy course load to go abroad. Yet the relaxation of language requirements goes against the primary study abroad mission of cultural immersion. Now, students may go abroad without prior knowledge of the language. Speaking as someone who has been in this exact situation — the summer after my senior year of high school I went to China on a National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship without any prior knowledge of Mandarin — I can tell you that this not only makes the study abroad experience more taxing, it severely diminishes the amount of cultural learning one might glean from it. More students may now be able to study abroad, but more and more these programs are turning into “Stanfords away from Stanford” rather than a unique experience — an opportunity to travel, party and simply be away from Stanford rather than learn.
The prospect of studying abroad encompasses something so critical at this time in our lives. It represents new perspectives, fresh opportunities, and a way to become introspective individuals and learn more about ourselves as well as the world we inhabit. The current state of Stanford study abroad is disheartening; we need to expand study abroad options both in terms of location and in terms of depth in order to bring the most engaging experience to a variety of students.
Contact Amara McCune at amccune2 ‘at’ stanford.edu