Study Abroad

Some Students Find Themselves Venturing Into the Unknown Even Before They...

At many colleges, a year spent studying abroad is well-integrated into the curriculum as a significant part of the college experience. However, at Harvard, some students say their plans for foreign study have been waylaid in bureaucratic hassle and lack of administrative support.

Only a small percentage of students take advantage of the option to get academic credit for work outside of Harvard.

Last year, 142 undergraduates studied in 36 countries and received academic credit for their work, according to administrative records. This is around 2.2 percent of Harvard undergraduates.

In comparison, two years ago at Brown University, where there are university-affiliated programs abroad, 351 students or around 6.4 percent of undergraduates went abroad, according to a Brown administrator. At Amherst College, around 7 percent of students went abroad.

"Study abroad offers students the chance to take some of the most formative years of their lives, and reinvigorate them with a whole new culture--a new place, a new state of mind," says Atul K. Mallik '98-'97, who is considering study abroad.

But while many students arrive at Harvard with dreams of studying abroad, most never get beyond these early intentions.

Older students cite many reasons for not studying abroad. Many say they discover that four years is a short amount of time to spend at Harvard.

"I'm not really looking to leave Harvard for a year," Eric D. Albert '98 says. "There's too much for me to do here."

Others say they are concerned that going abroad will prevent them from gaining seniority in extracurriculars where participation junior year is particularly important.

However, some students say they simply find the process of planning a year abroad impermeable at Harvard and are deterred from their plans.

Determined students must wade through the multi-tiered paperwork process before embarking on their academic journey.

Seeking Academic Credit

Although Harvard grants credit for study abroad, the credits must be approved in advance and the paperwork requires the coordination of the Office of Career Services (OCS), the Standing Committee on Study Out of Residence, and the student's department of concentration. The Core Office must grant approval in order to receive Foreign Cultures credit.

Robert C. Hyman '97 is still waiting to find out if he will get Core credit for his year abroad at Tel Aviv University. Hopefully his application will be approved, since he is already there.

"One of the most irritating aspects of Harvard is that each part of the administration seems to have no idea what is going on in the other parts," Hyman wrote in an e-mail. "I spent a lot of time running around between the Core Office, the Advanced Standing Office, and the OCS in order to pull off junior year abroad."

Josephine J. Pavese, the OCS director for study abroad, said the present system represents the careful balance of different departmental interests.

"It's not that offices don't know what other offices are doing, but that each of those offices is part of the academic program here," she said. "They each have a vested interest."

But students say the various offices involved in study abroad programs have made little effort to speed students through the administrative logistics.

"OCS, for instance, did not have the forms needed to apply for Foreign Cultures credit, nor did they have any idea what was needed to qualify for that--so I had to arrange that separately with that office," Hyman said.

"Then I had to go to the Advanced Standing office to discuss how my advanced standing would be affected by junior year abroad, and they in turn had to call up the Core Office to see how many cores I would have to take on returning to Harvard...I felt like I was going in circles after a while," Hyman continues.

Pavese argues that such bureaucratic division is necessary for good advising.

"The Core office can give good information on what constitutes Foreign Cultures credit. They are the people with the most information," she said. "Providing forms [at OCS] is not the same as receiving the guidance of that office which is most invested in that part of the Harvard education."

Bureaucratic Woes

Another problem for students has been that the Standing Committee on Study Out of Residence meets only once per month. The Committee must approve all requests to receive academic credit for study abroad.

Gaston de los Reyes '96, a Crimson editor, says he decided last October that he wanted to spend the past semester at Oxford.

"I found that I'd been accepted by Oxford in November," de los Reyes says. "The way the process works at Harvard, I didn't find out that I'd get credit until December even though the program I was applying to was on the list of approved programs."

"I was planning to leave four weeks later. That made it difficult to plan things--I wouldn't go unless I could get credit," de los Reyes continues.

"If you want to study in a program that's been approved, it seems sort of absurd that it should have to go to a standing committee that only meets once a month. The study abroad office should be able to approve it if the person meets certain guidelines," Reyes says.

The administrative problem does not seem to lie in any one department, but rather in the lack of coordination in the approval process.

"I should say that OCS was helpful as far as they could be. Eleanor Sparagana [last year's OCS study abroad adviser] was very supportive," de los Reyes says.

In the past four years, there have been at least three different OCS directors of study abroad. Students cite this switch in advisers as one of the factors complicating the process.

"There have been a few study abroad directors [in my years here], and they have tried to keep continuity, but you still have to keep on top of the paperwork yourself," Chimene I. R. Keitner '96 says.

Publicity Problem?

At Harvard, students and administrators agree initiative for study abroad must come from the student.

At many schools, there are frequent mailings from the study abroad offices to advertise programs financially affiliated with the school. But since Harvard does not sponsor any of its own study abroad programs, it does not advertise such possibilities.

OCS holds educational meetings to tell students about their options, but many students say such meetings are not well-publicized.

At Princeton, students say they are routinely informed of these meetings.

Princeton student Jared P. Schutz says, "There is a meeting twice a year. It is generally well promoted with flyers in everyone's mailboxes and with ads in the paper."

Those Harvard students that attend the OCS meetings say they find them helpful.

"I was wandering through the Yard and saw a poster saying there was an open house at OCS, and I was the only one that showed up," says Amanda Rawls '96, a Crimson editor who spent a semester last year traveling in Kenya for academic credit.

"You need to know what questions to ask when you get over there," she says.

Despite the deficiency of advertising, OCS can be a valuable source for information when planning foreign study, students say.

"OCS definitely has good resources, but you really need a lot of individual initiative," Keitner says.

Financial Concerns

Many Harvard students say that studying abroad is a financial impossibility. But the Administration makes efforts to allow all students to study abroad, Pavese says.

"Harvard does support study abroad and financial aid abroad is a way of showing that support," she says.

According to the OCS Guide to Study Abroad, "If you are receiving financial assistance from Harvard-Radcliffe and your program has been approved for academic credit, you may be eligible to receive aid while studying out of residence."

But some students say they had financial difficulties studying abroad due to Harvard's Core system.

"I am not able to matriculate as a full-year student at Beida [Peking University] because of Harvard's strict constraints on the Core Curriculum, so I was forced to go through the exceedingly expensive route of CIEE, the Council on International Educational Exchange," Brian P. Betty '97 wrote in an e-mail.

"While CIEE-Beida is much cheaper than Harvard, it is upwards of 18 times more expensive to use CIEE [than direct enrollment in Beida]. If I went myself to Beida, it would be phenomenally cheaper for a year as a private student than for one semester with CIEE," Betty added.

Some departments lend themselves to study abroad more than others as students often discover the difficulty of fulfilling course requirements in foreign languages.

Students agree it is much easier for those concentrating in foreign languages to integrate time abroad into their four-year academic plans.

"I'd love to spend a year abroad, but I couldn't fulfill my biochemistry requirements in a foreign language, and my parents definitely can't afford an extra year of Harvard tuition," Robin K. Litchfield '97 says.

Harvard's academic schedule poses a common problem for students who plan to study abroad for only their spring semester. Because final examinations fall in January, many programs overlap with reading period and exams.

"I had to take my exams from Harvard in Oxford. [The administration] wouldn't let me take the exams early. I went for two eight-week terms and the first term was really shot because of the exams," de los Reyes said.

A Vacation from Harvard'

Despite the difficulties of approving their plans for foreign study, all students interviewed say they highly recommended the experience of studying away from Cambridge.

"Studying abroad is a great experience. Everyone should try it, if only to get a semester of vacation from Harvard, and to see things from another point of view," says Joshua E. Greenfield '97, who is currently at the University of Strasbourg.

Although it is necessary to file paperwork specifying a student's intended coursework, the administration allows for change and students say they appreciate this flexibility.

"I had to apply a semester in advance for credit. I came up with four classes, but took totally different ones. And [Harvard] understands that," says Chimene Keitner '96 '97, who studied at La Sorbonne in Paris last year.

Many of those students studying abroad say they would like to see the Harvard system streamlined to facilitate and publicize the application process for study abroad.

"I think that freshman spring or sophomore fall, there should be a well-publicized meeting--people need to know what their options are. [Students] should be given the list of programs that Harvard has approved in the past," de los Reyes says.

Pavese says she agrees that information needs to be better distributed to the Harvard community.

"I would like to reach students earlier," she said. "Thinking about studying abroad allows you to let it fit into the context of Harvard."

Pavese says she will consider putting announcements of study abroad meetings in the Yard Bulletin and holding a meeting for first-years in the spring during the concentration fairs.