Study Earth from around the world: A Q&A on study abroad at the U of A
Jacob Eavis is the recruitment manager at the University of Arizona's Study Abroad office. In this Q&A, Eavis discusses study abroad options for students interested in the environment and sustainability, and he answers some of students' most common questions about turning study abroad into a reality.
Explore study abroad at the U of A
What programs would you recommend for students interested in the environment or sustainability?
Top of the list is our Costa Rica program, either a semester or a summer. Actually you could do a whole year in Costa Rica if you wanted. That is one of the programs that is highly recommended by environmental science and environmental studies.
Our UA Athens program in Greece and our UA Sydney program in Australia both offer really good science courses as well. We have a winter trip to the Galapagos Islands, and then there's the Namibia Desert Conservation and Ecology Program, which happens in the summer.
We've also got a really cool research location in Germany for STEM students to go and engage in research in their topic area. There are also great science and environmental courses in Hong Kong, Singapore, and England. The College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture also has a Future Cities program.
Which students can go on study abroad?
Study abroad can be for anyone! We are open to all majors, all minors, any academic area.
Now, what that looks like might change depending on who you are and what you're studying.
Certain majors can be a little bit harder to fit a semester into a four year plan, but we've got tons of great summer options, or a winter break option, or a spring break option. It may just not look like a traditional semester abroad.
Our summer programs are some of our most popular, since they're not interrupting a four year schedule. In fact, students can use it to get ahead, and then they have a softer senior year, or even graduate early.
What are the differences between the “UA Abroad” and other study abroad programs at the university?
Anything where you're earning credit is run through the Study Abroad Office, though some of these programs we do in collaboration with specific departments. We have five main types of study abroad programs.
Two are internships and research. Those are the unique ones.
For our more traditional study abroad programs, we have Arizona Abroad, which includes the programs labeled with the “UA” in their name. Anybody can apply to these locations, and there are no capacity limits, so if they meet the requirements, they're gonna get in.
The other more traditional option is an exchange program, where we have a direct relationship with a university and we send them students and they send us students. Those have limited spots, so there is a little bit of competition.
The last type are called “faculty-led programs.” Those are organized with a department, where a professor within that department takes a group of students abroad and teaches their class. The Galapagos Island one or the Namibia one that we've talked about are also faculty led; they're run in collaboration with specific departments.
"The thing I really enjoy the most about study abroad is that it pulls the curtain back on the world – not just the physical geography, but also the world within us and the worldview that we have."
Jacob Eavis, Study Abroad Recruitment Manager
When a student is looking at all of these different study abroad programs, is there anything they should consider when they’re choosing between an Arizona Abroad versus a faculty-led program?
There are definitely some very clear differences that will have an impact on a student’s experience.
All official U of A study abroad programs – including Arizona Abroad, exchange, faculty-led, internship, or research programs – are supported by our office.
For a classic campus experience that would look similar to being here at the U of A, just overseas, the Arizona Abroad and the exchange programs for a semester are what that student is looking for.
In those programs, it's about being at our partner university, going to their classes. It looks much like life does here, except that you're in Europe, or Asia, or wherever you travel to. It's about going to class and doing what you do here, just in another country.
The faculty-led programs are very different because they're more travel experiences. It's more about going to locations relevant to that course topic. You may never go in a classroom because the city is the classroom. The faculty-led programs are much more what I call the travel choice.
Regardless, these programs are all fully supported, start to finish. We're here, our health and safety team is keeping an eye on people, and students have resources on the ground wherever they are.
What are Global Tracks?
Essentially, Global Tracks help students more easily fit study abroad into their degree program.
For example, business students have a bunch of Global Track options because a lot of these locations teach business courses. These are great starting points for business students because they know if they go to one of these, they're going to get credit that they need to stay on track to graduate.
For all our programs, the nice thing is all the academic planning is done before students leave, so everyone knows exactly academically what the program is going to accomplish for the student.
We work really closely with academic advising units, and we really encourage students to be talking with their academic advisors early and often about how study abroad fits into their plan.
What are some resources for financing study abroad?
For all of our programs, you're paying U of A tuition. If you go in the fall or spring, you pay whatever your normal U of A semester tuition is. We also charge in the summer; it's still U of A tuition, it's just whatever the per credit cost is.
When you go in a fall or spring semester, all your scholarship money, all your FAFSA grants and loans, still apply. In the summer, most of those merit scholarships don’t apply, so they don’t apply for summer study abroad. We encourage students to check with the financial aid office about their specific package.
Then, there's a world of scholarship opportunities out there both on campus and nationally that students can apply to help support study abroad specifically.
For example, if students receive the Pell Grant, there's a really great national program called the Gilman Scholarship that awards up to $5,000 to support study abroad. Our office even has a $500 award just to encourage students to apply to Gilman.
Our office has a bunch of other scholarships that we administer. Students could use Scholarship Universe to see if their department offers study abroad scholarships. We also have a database on our website called Scholarship Tracker, where we publish other study abroad scholarships that we know about.
Talk to the financial aid office, same as talking to academic advisors, early and often. Then come talk to us and we'll highlight how that'll look given what a student's financial aid situation would be like.
How competitive are these study abroad scholarships?
It varies, and we don't have good data on every single one of them, but I would say that overall, I would classify most study abroad scholarships as somewhat competitive.
For the one I mentioned, the Gilman Scholarship, we know one in three U of A students that apply receive it. The award can be up to 5,000, and we see on average students getting about $3,500. There's another big national one out there called the Fund for Education Abroad, and we see similar success rates. So, I would say all study abroad scholarships that I know of are decently competitive.
We really encourage students to start planning for applying for scholarships early, maybe even before they've applied to their study abroad program. Usually the timeframe for applying to scholarships is a little further out than applying to study abroad. You don't need to be confirmed for your study abroad program yet, but usually you would need to at least be able to identify the program you're planning on going on.
We work really closely with the Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships, as well, and we do a lot of work to make sure students are aware of and prepared for these scholarship opportunities.
Just like everything else I've said today, it really does help to start this process early. We really encourage students to be planning about a year out. The minute you think that study abroad is for you, be talking to us, financial aid and academic advisors.
What is your favorite thing about study abroad?
Study abroad is a transformative experience for students. It's not just about becoming a global traveler. It's about gaining a unique level of confidence and ability to tackle problems locally or globally. It helps prepare us not just for the big questions that we all grapple with, but the personal ones, too: Where am I going to go for grad school? Where am I going to live after college? Am I going to travel? Do I feel prepared to do that?
The thing I really enjoy the most about study abroad is that it pulls the curtain back on the world – not just the physical geography, but also the world within us and the worldview that we have.