Academic Worries

As someone who has studied abroad, I’ve often gotten pushback from other Harvard students about making that decision. “You only have eight semesters at the best university in the world—why would you spend one of those away?”

It is true that most study abroad programs will not be as academically rigorous as Harvard. Excluding Oxford and Cambridge, even if your classes abroad are rigorous, you won’t have the same wealth of academic resources that you do at Harvard. You won’t have Widener, the Peabody museum artifacts, the world-renowned professors providing feedback on your work. You won’t have the brilliant guest lecturers or the intellectual energy that encompasses Cambridge. (You also won’t be surrounded by other Harvard students, which is both positive and negative).

These academic concerns are valid. But when I asked some students why they chose to study abroad, they spoke about how they felt they were not taking advantage of Harvard’s resources—that they felt stagnant or lost at Harvard.

As a student study abroad adviser, Aubrey Stoddard ’17 asks students concerned about academics: “Are you really getting the most out of your Harvard experience and classes right now?” How many times have you gone to a non-required lecture by an expert, or read a book from the depository for fun? Are you doing all your readings for your classes? “The answer’s always ‘no’,” Stoddard says, “they talk about the great resources and people at the IOP, and I ask ‘How many IOP events have you been to in the past semester?’ And usually they’ll say none, maybe one.”

In general, Harvard students are relatively busy, which you’ll know if you try to plan a meal with someone less than a week in advance. Sometimes it feels as though the measure of how much you’re getting out of Harvard is how many extracurriculars you run; but paradoxically, the more extracurriculars you run, the less you’re able to get out of each. Some of the students I interviewed went abroad to rejuvenate their love for learning, which is easy to lose when the sense that the more you do—the faster you go—the more worthy your life is.

Most of the students I interviewed told me that their semester back from study abroad was their best academically at Harvard, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Stoddard said “[when I came back] I felt centered for the first time ever. I had my best academic and social semester yet; I learned who I was outside of the Harvard bubble. I put everything I can into my papers; I go to office hours… I learned so much more the importance of the people around me.”

Study abroad can undoubtedly be beneficial to those who are rundown by the campus whirlwind. But also, the campus is not a monolith. While everyone at Harvard feels some pressure, some people are thriving—and they, too, might consider study abroad. Before I went abroad, I liked Harvard and did not feel lost or unmotivated; I had simply always wanted to study abroad. I was excited to leave, and I didn’t realize until I left that I, too, was missing something at Harvard: a different type of learning.

Taking time to rest and reflect is a gift, whether it’s summer, winter, or time off. What makes study abroad unique are the real academic benefits that you can’t get at Harvard—even if it is less academically rigorous. Perhaps so few people go abroad—or people go abroad only when they feel pushed—because we have been taught our whole lives to define education narrowly, as something that happens in the mind and computer and classroom, capped with an A.

Abroad, my class pre-screened, with the director, a documentary about Morocco’s tenuous history with its northern region, allowing me to learn firsthand about the history, geography, and intricacies of the region. Itzel Vasquez-Rodriguez ’17 found, in Cuba, the Latinx studies courses that Harvard lacks; outside of the classroom, she was able to travel to a rock cave-museum about the Taino people in a city with strong ties to indigenous cultures. Ellen Jang-Milsten ’18 was able to hear Russian students’ perspectives on Yemen and other issues in a course on war, and take her first oral exam. In Greece, Ileana Riveron ’17 saw and debated firsthand the tensions between tradition and modernity.

Stoddard, during her time in Brazil, saw the tangible benefit, and challenge, of being embedded in a place. “My friends and I had a lot of fun going to this soccer game in this super nice stadium. But the next day, the entire class time was talking about the problems with this specific stadium and how many thousands of people had been displaced to build it; we visited the neighborhoods that had been displaced. You were always aware of your positionality: your experience of the place, versus what was actually happening.”

Renowned professors, unlimited archives, and brilliant peers are things you can only benefit from if you are engaged with and passionate about learning. Study abroad can catalyze a renewed appreciation of Harvard. Additionally, gaining perspective from places different from yours, in many ways more difficult than yours, is vital to learning—especially here, especially now. The students I interviewed found that to truly appreciate what they had, they needed to let it go—more than that, they gained what they did not even know they were missing.

Siobhan S. McDonough ’17 is a Social Studies concentrator living in Kirkland House. Her column appears on alternate Mondays.