Setting Goals

Focus on the options that really meet your needs and find a starting point for discussion with the Study Abroad Office and faculty advisers.

Brainstorm Goals

Write down some things you want to do abroad. Start with a few categories:

Academic

  1. What is your intended major or are as of emphasis?
  2. Do you have another interest or a complementary subject area that you want to focus on? (Engineering students may want to take business courses.)
  3. Do you have a senior project, honors paper, or second language requirement?
  4. (You could do research abroad for a paper or study a language intensively.)
  5. Do you want to study one topic intensively or take a variety of courses?
  6. (Explore issues of development or take some major courses and some general education/electives eds.)

Learning Style

  1. Do you learn better in the classroom or in the field?
  2. Do you like independent or guided learning?
  3. Are you able to adapt to different styles of learning?

Geographic Interests

  1. Are you interested in a region of the world or a specific country?
  2. Is there something happening in the world today that you want to learn more about?
  3. Is there a political system that intrigues you?

Personal Identity

  1. Do you want to explore family roots?
  2. Are there historical factors or current political/social situations around the world that may impact your experience abroad?

Career Path

  1. How important is an internship?
  2. Do you have the language skills for an internship in your field?
  3. What will help your graduate school applications or make your resume stand out?

Other

  1. Do you want to study abroad more than once?
  2. How immersed in the culture do you want to be?
  3. You may have other ideas; include them all!

Identify Challenges

Now think about what, if anything might prevent you from studying abroad. Use the same sort of brainstorming technique to record the challenges. Identify the factors you'll have to consider:

  1. Family
  2. Money
  3. Job obligations
  4. Social, academic, or athletic commitments

Consider how these factors affect studying abroad. The aim of this is to list the real challenges along with your goals.

Set Priorities

Once you have completed this list, you can start setting priorities. Try ranking the factors. You may place the number 1 beside a geographic location that is extremely important to you, and then the number 2 next to money if affordability is a major factor. You aren't making final life decisions here, just setting down on paper where your priorities lie.
Some students like to rewrite their list combining both sets of factors in order of importance. Others write down goal statements which combine the most important factors. An example of a goal statement that comes out of this exercise might be,
"I want to find a semester-length, affordable study abroad program taught in French that will allow me to complete credits toward my psychology major and do an internship or research."

Communicate Your Ideas

Talk with the Study Abroad Advisor, your faculty advisor, and/or the Career Center. Find out where your vision fits within the realm of possibilities. Sometimes the matches work out perfectly. Other times you may need to set some intermediate objectives that lead you to your goals.

If you have spent a little time on this planning process, you will be well on your way to finding the right program for you.


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