Study abroad rates are expected to remain unchanged with approximately 250 students’ applications being submitted as of Wednesday, April 18.

According to Associate Director of the Education Abroad Center for Global Study & Engagement, Katie DeGuzman, last year “we had over 250 students who were off-campus for fall-only or for an academic year… then, we have over 250 applicants for this upcoming fall. So, I mean, we’ll probably have numbers within range to last fall.” DeGuzman further explained that as of Wednesday, April 18, 239 Dickinson students have committed to studying abroad in

For the upcoming year, the largest number of students will be participating in Dickinson in Italy, with 36 students currently committed, followed by DIS in Copenhagen with 29 students and finally Dickinson in Australia with 20 students.

When asked to compare students studying abroad in the spring versus fall semester, DeGuzman said that “maybe just this and last year, the spring was a bit lower, but it’s hard to say that this is necessarily a trend. I think we have to wait a few more years to see…this past fall, though, more students wanted to study abroad than in the spring.”

Overall, DeGuzman says “the imbalance [between semesters] isn’t that big…There could be a variety of [personal] reasons” for choosing one semester over another.

DeGuzman thinks that there are a variety of reasons that students would choose one semester over another. She suggested that student-athletes might choose spring or fall semester depending on what season their sport is in, some students might choose to go abroad in the fall over the spring because of summer internship plans, others might choose which semester to go based on far along they are in their major or those who attend language programs might want to take another semester of the language before leaving.

In response to being asked about the differences between the many variations of study abroad programs Dickinson offers, DeGuzman explained that many of the official Dickinson programs have Dickinson staff on site. Meanwhile, she said that partner programs are in collaboration with a specific institution or provider that gives students more choices, “especially for some majors or regions that couldn’t support a full Dickinson program…those programs may have fewer students that go, but it’s really helping make sure that there are choices and programs that can accommodate all majors.” Because of the many study abroad options already offered, only a handful of students per semester go on a non-Dickinson program, “usually they have something very specific that they want to study that none of our programs quite meet that need.”

On Friday, March 2, two Dickinson sophomores were also offered spots as visiting students at Mansfield College for the 2018-19 academic year through the Dickinson at Oxford program.

Resident director for the Oxford program, Wendy Moffat, described Dickinson at Oxford as “a selective program with Mansfield College Oxford…Since 2013, our students have been accepted as Visiting Students and we have sent between two and six students a year, different years, different numbers. We have it here as an affiliated program and students go for the full academic year.”

In regard to this year’s application process, Moffat reached out to 120 students over the summer who met the qualifications of a minimum 3.7 GPA and a non-Division 3 major, to which 45 students replied with interest. Out of the five people interviewed by a committee, two were selected to send in their applications to Oxford, and both were invited to be Visiting Students in the program.