Are you thinking about studying abroad?

By Alice Gomstyn

College students often find that the benefits of studying abroad persist well beyond the plane ride home, according to survey results released by the Institute for the International Education of Students (http://www.iesabroad.org/)

The institute, a nonprofit consortium that has organized study-abroad programs for more than 50 years, sent questionnaires in the summer of 2002 to past participants in its programs.

Nearly half of the more than 3,000 people who responded said that they had worked or volunteered abroad since graduating from college, and 59 percent reported having returned to visit or work in the country where they had studied. Nine in 10 respondents said their study-abroad experiences had led them to seek a greater diversity of friends.

Mary M. Dwyer, the institute's president, compared the results to a "straight A" report card. "I think it reinforces the value of studying abroad in every possible way," she said on Thursday in a telephone interview from Chicago, where the survey's findings were released during the organization's annual conference.

The survey respondents ranged from people who had participated in the institute's first program, in 1950, to students who went abroad in 1999.

The survey also found that:

• 69 percent of students who held internships during study-abroad programs said their internships had influenced their career choices.
• More than one in three respondents said the language skills gained on study-abroad programs continue to serve them today.
• 96 percent experienced increases in self-confidence after studying abroad.

The consortium consists of more than 130 member and associate-member colleges and universities, and has programs in more than a dozen nations.

Sources:

• Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com/index.htm, accessed October 17, 2003
• Institute for the Int'l Education of Students, http://www.iesabroad.org/