Catherine Marshall, director of the Office of Education Abroad, said that more regimented majors — such as education — might have difficulty studying abroad due to fewer opportunities that would have accommodated tight graduation schedules. In order to counteract this, she recommends planning early to work around graduation requirements.
Although the participation numbers are lower now for study-abroad programs during semesters, Marshall said she does not think that will continue for long.
“I think as we look forward into the next two years, we’re going to see the semester numbers increase,” Marshall said. “Eventually semesters will be the norm.”
With programs increasing from 10 to 16 weeks, the price tag study-abroad programs carry has also increased, which could also affect participation numbers. A trip to Merida, Mexico, which averaged 40-50 people in the past, has only 11 signed up this year.
“The program cost twice what it used to be,” said Daniel Torres, a Spanish professor and director of the program. “Next year, it’s going to be better because students will be more aware of how the semester system works.”
Though Marshall noted students have nationally gravitated toward short-term programs such as summer study or Winter Intersession, she said she believes semesters are generally beneficial to the overall study-abroad experience.
“Fifteen weeks is not actually that long for studying abroad; it’s actually a really good time, but if you’ve never thought about it before, (it seems longer),” Marshall said. “The longer you go, the more you will be integrated into the host country and culture.”
Marshall also said the switch would allow for more compatibility with universities abroad, which is something that enables an easier interchange both in bilateral exchanges with other universities and in other study abroad programs.
“Our quarter calendar did not match up (with other universities),” Marshall said. “If you wanted to go abroad Fall Quarter, it would sometimes line up with the beginning of a Fall Semester, but if you wanted to go during the Winter Quarter, it wouldn’t line up.”
In addition, students who are learning a language while abroad will be given a longer period of immersion, which both George and Carley Solether, a senior studying Latin American Studies with a minor in Spanish, said positively affected their language studies.
“If anything, (the semester switch) helped me, because I had those five extra weeks,” said Solether, who studied abroad in Ecuador last semester.
— Katie Spector contributed to this story.
eb401010@ohiou.edu
