The Question: Study Abroad

Facts and statistics are easy to find.  A student perspective is another story.  Welcome to The Question, a blog by sophomore Kimberly Takahata designed to give you honest answers to some of the most popular questions about life at Brown University.  Your quest for real stories from a real student ends here.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been talking all about Brown and the experiences you can have as a student. But what if you want a semester, or even a year away? Thankfully we have our Office of International Programs.

So this week, we turn to the international sphere: Does Brown have study abroad?

Short answer: Yes!

Long answer: The Office of International Programs provides support for about 600 undergraduates every year who choose to study away from Brown every year. This means that in a given year, about one-third of a single undergraduate class is studying abroad, although those 600 students are spread out among different class years. Financial aid does carry over in study abroad.

Brown has programs in ten different counties (Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom). With several sites with designated Brown programs, most students are encouraged to apply first to these programs if they have an interest well-suited to the studies available.

However, there are also dozens of other countries home to approved alternative programs: programs not sponsored by Brown but deemed up to par with Brown’s academic expectations. These programs are very helpful for students who do not wish to study at the Brown locations across the world. If none of these locations have exactly what is desired, there is also a petition process by which students submit a syllabus and program of study at another location to the Office of International Programs, and they can approve this plan.

In order to guide you through all of these decisions, information sessions with representatives for each area start early in the year and continue through the spring. These advisors meet with students one on one to discuss interests, academic background, course questions, and more specifics to make sure that we are all very well prepared for our study abroad experience.

Some students choose to participate in a Global Independent Study Project (GLISP), or a Brown Plus One program. In a GLISP, students generally participate in research that they design themselves (generally with help from a professor), and some of them continue this research after they return to Brown. In a Brown Plus One program, students can take graduate courses abroad during their junior year and then complete a Master’s Degree at either The University of Edinburgh or The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Of course, many many students stay at Brown. So whether you choose to leave for a bit, or stay at Brown for your entire time, the opportunities always exist.

Prefrosh!  Brunonians!  Have a question that just might be The Question?  Have an answer that you want to be The Answer?  Email suggestions/comments/corny jokes to kimberly_takahata@brown.edu

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