Undergraduate or Graduate Students; Who Should Study Abroad?

Many people of all ages engage in travel, including leisure travel and study abroad travel. A large portion of international travel can be attributed to college students who participate in study abroad programs. Study abroad offers many benefits to college students including foreign exposure, creative thinking, and the opportunity to travel while still taking college courses for little or no extra money than the student is already spending on tuition. When it comes to college students who are interested in and engage in study abroad, an overwhelming majority are undergraduate college students. Many colleges offer both undergraduate and graduate programs for students of all ages. One of the major differences between undergraduate and graduate programs is that undergraduate programs are four years long while graduate programs can be completed in two years. Most students who attend a university as an undergraduate student will not continue on to graduate school to complete their master’s degree. According to U.S. News and World Report, 85% of the students attending BGSU are enrolled as undergraduate students. With this statistic in mind, undergraduate students are more likely to engage in study abroad than graduate students. This essay will discuss what study abroad looks like for graduate and undergraduate students including the difficulties and opportunities for each. Undergraduate students are more likely to engage in study abroad travel than graduate students due to their academic flexibility, more opportunities, and various other factors such as work and family situations.