Many people want to spend their vacations away from school, work or life in a remote island where they can experience new cultures and go on new adventures. Being a college student and finally gaining freedom over our own lives makes us want to experience the different aspects of life. Freshman year we start with getting a schedule to feed ourselves, when to sleep, go to classes and when we hang out with our friends. We finally get used to this freedom at the end of freshman year.  

Iowa State gives every student the opportunity to travel abroad and see the world with the safety of school, the cost roughly equal to tuition and multiple places to go visit. Students can visit the country of their dreams during the summer or during the school year. Many students who go around the world during their school year to study and visit a new place do not regret it whatsoever.

If cost is the thing the thing keeping you from wanting to go study abroad, there are scholarships available to help pay for the seemingly huge cost. The total cost for traveling abroad for a semester is around $14,000. This estimate is for Germany, but most of the others are roughly around that price. You can find the budget for your desired program and country at the Iowa State Study Abroad Center page, or at the Study Abroad office.

If being over the 34-credit maximum requirement the Study Abroad program has, there is paperwork that can be filled out so the limit requirement is waved. This makes it so more students can study abroad. This program isn’t just for sophomores and juniors anymore. The Study Abroad Center’s office is located in the Memorial Union. You can go there to find information about how much your desired program and country costs, what exactly goes into being able to study overseas and answer any questions one may have about their possible experience.

An article from 2012 states “The United States attracts the most international students, according to the Institute of International Education, with 691,000 students studying abroad in the U.S. during the 2009 to 2010 school year.” That is a lot of students for the program not to be effective and make students happy. We need to do the same thing as those international students. During my freshman orientation, they talked about how great the program was for students. Iowa State strongly encourages students to be out in the world, making the most of their time in college.

There is no reason why students shouldn’t take advantage of this experience. The people at Iowa State make it possible for many students to experience the world while working toward their degree. They are willing to help find ways to pay for it, make travel safe and make taking classes easy to complete. So go out and study abroad.