As much fun as being at SMU and living in Dallas for four years of my life has been, one of the best decisions I ever made was to go abroad for a semester. I knew since high school that where ever I went to college that I was going to go abroad for one of those semesters. Not only had my parents always encourage me to go because they never got the opportunity to do it themselves, but seeing how much my older friends enjoyed their experiences with abroad made me instantaneously decide I had to go for it! Even though I was not hesitant about my decision, many people do have doubts because it is such a big decision. So I have compiled three components that seem to make people hesitant about the experience- and hopefully my reasoning will help the undecided say yes and go abroad!
1. Although going abroad is an large expense, if your parents are willing to pay for it then why not do it? When else can you justify jet setting to Germany for the weekend to drink beer at Oktoberfest or tell your parents your school trip involves drinking wine on the coast of France. Most of the time, the tuition price of an abroad program is the same amount of money as you pay to SMU for one semester. And your parents don't need to know about all of the extra expenses they will be paying for until after you get across the Atlantic!
2. Because we go to a relatively small school, you may think- "But I am going to miss tailgating for football games and all the fun parties in the fall!" Even though you are gone a full semester, the time flies by! And wouldn't you rather spend your time at Barcelona's five-story club, Razzmatazz, partying until 7 am than being at Homebar on a Thursday night in Dallas? There will always be things you miss, but your adventures abroad will outweigh any funny story one of your friends may have from the SAE foam party.
3. You want to pick a place to study that you want to go to, and not choose the place where everyone else is going. There is any easy fix for this problem- do what you want, now what everyone else is doing! First of all if you do choose to go somewhere alone, this will be a great opportunity for you! It will be like starting college all over again, although you may endure the hardships of having to make new friends, etc. But if you chose to study abroad by yourself in the first place, you probably do not have much trouble making friends anyways. Even more, this gives you such a great excuse to go visit all of your friends who chose to study somewhere else. You could be in a new country every weekend!
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