Since 2002, Twice As Many Go Abroad

The number of students studing abroad during the fall semester surged this year for the second time in a row, bringing the total to more than double what it was in fall 2002.

According to the two-year-old Office of International Programs (OIP), 118 undergraduates will be spending time abroad this fall. Last fall 88 students headed overseas, while 55 did in fall 2002. Spring semester study abroad participants also rose slightly from 76 in 2003 to 83 students last year.

The figures still fall short of the 25 percent of students—or about 200 a semester—that the leaders of Harvard’s Curricular Review are hoping will eventually opt to study abroad.

The Curricular Review recommendations, released last April, called for the expansion of financial support for grants and loans to allow students to study abroad more easily. That followed the College’s move in the spring of 2003 to grant one Core exemption for each semester spent abroad.

The College still lags behind peer institutions when it comes to easing the study abroad process, students who have headed overseas said. Harvard operates only one self-run program overseas—in Chile—and many students are participating in programs run by other colleges.

“The main thing that turns students away from studying abroad is the fact that Harvard doesn’t have many of its own programs,” said Aubyn E. Niemi ’06, who is studying in Paris with Columbia University’s Reid Hall Language, Culture and Society program.

Students said that while requirement-heavy concentrations are making it easier to get course credit for study abroad, leaving for a semester is disruptive to both academics and extracurricular activities.

Ryan P. McAuliffe ’06 said he had to resign as an officer on the Harvard College Democrats to go to Ireland this fall.

“I do worry that I am missing out,” he said, but added that “studying abroad seemed like an opportunity that I really did not want to miss.”

Wendy Y. Guey ’05, an economics concentrator who studied in China last year, said that “one of the biggest problems students face is figuring out how to study abroad without falling off track—really how to integrate your study abroad plans with your course of study here.”

But she and others said that Harvard was getting better at helping students study abroad.

“Moving the OIP right in the center of Harvard Yard felt like it was symbolic of study abroad becoming the center of Harvard,” said Lisa M. Shichijo ’06, who plans to spend spring semester in Buenos Aires, of the office’s recent move to the basement of University Hall.

Although Aaron M. Mihaly ’05 went to Rio de Janeiro last spring through the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, he said the OIP held sessions on how to receive course credit, avoid culture shock and even get medical insurance overseas.

Niemi said the OIP is sending e-mails about Harvard events in Europe and helps “keep us connected to the goings on at home.”

Mihaly said he thought that as more students come back after having good experiences, others in turn will be encouraged to leave Harvard temporarily.

“Kids come back raving about how good study abroad was, so the number is definitely rising,” he said.

—Staff writer Bari M. Schwartz can be reached at bschwart@fas.harvard.edu