There are 696 students registered to go abroad in the upcoming 2013-2014 academic school year, according to nominations released by the Office of International Education (OIE) early last week.

According to Assistant Director of OIE Michelle Rembolt, while the OIE does not have a set number of students that they send abroad every year, they do work to send every qualified applicant, usually between 650 and 700 students.
Rembolt said that students were given three to five days to either accept or decline their nomination.

Those students who did choose to accept their nomination to one of their program choices now have to complete that specific program’s application.

“Unfortunately we don’t have the numbers quite compiled yet for the number of students nominated to a DU Partner Program as this whole process just happened last week,” she said.

Rembolt said that there are many things to consider when choosing a study abroad program, so the OIE encourages students to focus on the research of individual programs.

“Though many students focus on the actual application, the larger and more important piece is what happens before a student applies,” Remboldt said.

According to Rembolt, the actual application process is fairly brief, and includes an online WebCentral application and short essays in regards to study abroad plans and program choices. Rembolt said that students are also asked to select several programs as back-up options.

Rembolt said that some programs are “competitive,” which means that the OIE receives more applications than the number of spots that are available.

According to Rembolt, on March 1, the OIE will be holding workshops at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to teach students how to leverage their international experiences for their future careers, as well as hosting an International Potluck lunch at 12:30 p.m.

Students are invited to bring food from their host country and/or where they studied  or plan to study abroad.