Studying abroad is within reach for many BGSU students for a cost significantly lower than many students think, according to officials at the Study Abroad Office at BGSU.
Students can study abroad during the summer, fall and spring semesters with durations ranging from a couple of weeks, a semester or a whole year through hundreds of international program options in over 50 countries across the world. There are options available for all students, no matter the major, to engage in opportunities for education, internships, field study, research and community service.
Offerings include faculty-led trips that range from one to 10 weeks for students who want to go abroad, but don’t want to be gone for a semester or longer. Julie Hagenbuch, a journalism and public relations professor who has lead a study abroad trip, said the options make it a more realistic experience for a wider range of students.
“I think this is a good solution if you are not the type of person that wants to just depart from your life for a whole semester but you still want to experience being abroad. This is a good taste of what it is like to be abroad,” Hagenbuch said.
Another option for students who have a complicated or rigorous course schedule is going abroad for a summer session. Education Abroad advisor Andrea Mary Haas said the summertime is a good opportunity for students with stricter schedules to fit in time abroad.
“We also have students who have programs that are really structured so it is harder to fit things in, like our education or aviation students. But the summer really is a great option for a lot of our students, even if they just take one course,” Haas said.
Bowling Green has two flagship programs that are coordinated directly by a BGSU faculty member: the University of Salzburg in Austria and Alcala de Henares in Spain. Students in these programs still register for BGSU courses, and financial aid from the university, state or federal level can be used to finance these programs.
Haas said who are looking for a more immersive and intense experience might find exchange programs to be the best fit. Students will go to their host country and be surrounded by new peers.
“With exchange, you will potentially be the only one from our school, but you will be with other international students,” Haas said.
Once a student decides what program fits best for them, they can begin the application process. Haas said an informational session is an easy way for a student to weigh their options.
“We actually encourage everyone to start with an information session. That’s a way to get information like what is education abroad, what could it possibly be and what are some things to consider,” Haas said.
A common concern about studying abroad is that the application process is going to be difficult, something students who have been abroad debunk.
“I remember the application process being pretty straightforward. It was a lot of information about yourself, an essay on why you wanted to study abroad and a letter of recommendation,” Bailey Price, a BGSU student who went abroad for a semester in Salzburg, Austria, said.
Another common challenge of studying abroad is homesickness, but shorter programs are a good solution for that because students will be gone for less time. Additionally, in programs, such as the flagship programs, where multiple BGSU students go abroad at the same time to the same place, students tend to feel less alone or homesick because they are with people who are going through the same thing.
Haas also said other students who are concerned that studying abroad would delay their graduation or negatively impact their academic standing at BGSU might not need to be.
“For some students, it might, depending on what their full academic setup is, but most students can fit it in pretty easily. If they can’t for a full semester, that summer timeframe is really great,” Haas said.
Another topic of stress for students is if the classes are more difficult at universities abroad or if you need to know the language to study abroad. Although it will depend on the program, students say the opportunities provided by BGSU do not require students to know the language and the courses are taught in English.
“I was really worried about the difficulty of classes in Europe because I have always heard that education in the United States is very easy compared to other standards in the world, especially Europe. But it ended up not being as hard as I thought,” Price said.
The main point of interest that many students have about studying abroad is whether it is affordable. A common myth is that one must be rich to study abroad, when in reality, the Study Abroad Office said many students are paying more for on-campus housing than they would for a study abroad experience.
According to the Office of Student Housing, a double room in Centennial Hall is $3,880 per semester. However, an entire year with the Salzburg, Austria program costs $3,706 (which includes a double room, the education abroad fee, two group excursions and multiple local field trips), according to the BGSU Study Abroad Program Search.
Haas said the different programs range in price, but there are a variety of scholarships available for students.
“We do have a lot of external scholarships, various ones based on identity, income or military. There are different ways to look at it, whether you are looking at just BGSU scholarships or even things outside of Bowling Green,” Haas said.
There are many scholarships available for both BGSU programs and affiliated programs, but students who participate in BGSU exchange partner university programs or flagship programs can use most of their regular financial aid to fund the experience.
Study Abroad officials said studying abroad also looks great on a resume, helps students gain a better understanding of how their career path looks in another country, helps students gain independence, exposes them to a foreign culture and pushes them out of their comfort zone, experts said.
“I can’t think of any downsides,” Hagenbuch said.
Students who have studied about said studying abroad is not just about the skills it can give a student – it is about the experience as well.
“In a nutshell, everyone should do it. You’re going to learn a lot, you’re going to be challenged and you’ll come back feeling like a better version of yourself, a more cultured version, a more confident version of yourself,” said Price.
Programs for the Summer 2025 sessions and the academic year of 2025 to 2026 have rolling admissions until the March 1 deadline.
To learn more, interested students can attend education abroad information sessions offered weekly in person, in room 405A of University Hall, and virtually, on Tuesdays from 11 to 11:30 a.m. and Thursdays from 1 to 1:30 p.m..
For more information on education abroad visit their website.
