Studying abroad is something that defines DU with an average of 70 percent of students participating, according to The University’s website. Freshmen and sophomores look up to third year and fourth year students to hear highlights and experiences abroad. However, only hearing these stories from peers can breed unrealistic expectations of abroad being a fantasy rather than a real-life experience that is capable of including both new experiences and expanding on the same values students already hold.
“I feel disappointed to come back and not feel like ‘Oh my gosh, that was the best time of my entire life!’ I feel guilty for spending so much money to have a party semester. I had amazing experiences but it wasn’t as gratifying as it’s often made out to be,” said third year hospitality management major Alea Andres-Salvay who studied in Perugia, Italy.
Many students at DU are used to juggling a rigorous academic schedule, work, social life, clubs and hobbies as well as career pursuits. They are used to balancing a busy schedule of “work and play” and, in turn, feeling productive and satisfied.
“I was excited to come back because I’m used to DU’s stressful pace of school, and I work on top of it, so I had a hard time with my identity abroad,” said Christina Brazen, a third year hospitality management major who studied in Glasgow, Scotland. “I’m used to being busy and I wanted to get back into the grind of things and work towards my degree, because there I felt really lazy.”
This points to the fact that underneath all the cultural changes, foreign languages, new friends and new places, a huge difference between studying abroad and studying at DU is that, while abroad, students are often given permission to take it easy, which isn’t necessarily what every student wants.
The expectations are situationally relaxed and the workload is culturally different. Take Europe, a place many students study abroad, as an example. According to an article published by USA Today in 2015, the way European professor-student relationships operate is fundamentally different.
“European students are notorious for skipping classes,” said the writer of the USA Today article. Students also “frequently take exams as their primary mode of grading while American students customarily have some smaller additional assignments throughout the semester that require more frequent attendance.”
My personal academic experience studying in Asia was that the classroom atmosphere was strikingly different. Despite small class sizes there was rarely discussion. Classes were disengaged, I found it hard to focus and I was not invested in my schoolwork.
Some students experienced similar academic issues in New Zealand and South America.
Third-year business information and analytics major Alex Kunzer described classes in New Zealand as “…lackadaisical and the curriculum was not conducive for efficient learning.”
Senior environmental science major Jessica Lally said classes in Argentina were “not incredibly challenging.” However, she anticipated this and took it into consideration of her personal abroad goals. “I knew I wasn’t there to take hard classes, I was there to learn the language,” said Lally.
The huge participation in studying abroad is something special about DU for good reasons—it’s an incredible way for students to experience different cultures and find independence and confidence in their ability to navigate life in a foreign place.
However, another special characteristic of DU students is their academic drive and work ethic. It is important for students to be aware of the academic and lifestyle differences of studying abroad via both the university and their peers. If students are unsatisfied with a lighter overall workload, perhaps it would be more satisfying for students to push themselves more with academics, programs and internships when abroad. They should be aware of these factors and have options available to compensate.
