Does anyone know the process for studying abroad. If I were to study abroad for a semester, would my AFROTC scholarship cover my tuition? I'm a Russian major and I'm looking at a program in Kazakhstan. I think spending an entire semester (not just 8 weeks for project GO) abroad would be very beneficial to my language acquisition. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
Studying Abroad?
- Thread starter tibreaker
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Pima
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+1 AROTC-dad
Talk to your cadre. AFROTC will pay for the tuition if it is connected to your school, iows you are not asking to transfer your scholarship, just going away to a college that your school accepts as a sister school and the tuition goes to your current college.
Talk to your cadre. AFROTC will pay for the tuition if it is connected to your school, iows you are not asking to transfer your scholarship, just going away to a college that your school accepts as a sister school and the tuition goes to your current college.
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Things to keep in mind:
- Don't reinvent the wheel - Contact the study abroad program at your college. Most colleges have a department that handles this. For example, in the University of California system, (UCLA, Berkeley etc) it is called EAP, or Education Abroad Program. The programs are all set up with schools and they do their best to ensure that all units are transferable).
- Graduate on time - The biggest issue is making sure that study abroad will not delay your graduation. AFROTC doesn't want you going beyond the projected academic plan unless there is a darn good reason!
- Make sure it is one tuition bill - Most programs charge the tuition through your home college which makes it easier for AFROTC to pay.
- Don't stop Go - You should still consider participating in Project Go which is a DoD program. Yes it is short, but it will focus more on language and culture of strategic value.
https://vt.edu/academics/study-abroad.html
https://ieo.ucla.edu/uceap/
http://studyabroad.tamu.edu/
https://www.unr.edu/study-abroad/study-abroad-locations
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^^^
@AROTC-dad is spot on on all four points. Especially the Project Go point.
@tibreaker ,
You are correct to shoot for the semester abroad. My DS's experiences were Rotary exchanges prior to College in both Taiwan and Brazil (living with families where no English was spoken and going to schools where no English was spoken) and Project Go, studying Russian in Kiev. His running mate was an AFROTC cadet from IA State majoring in Russian.
Hands down total immersion is best, but Project Go is an excellent second best if you can put yourself in situations where the folks around you don't speak English.
@AROTC-dad is spot on on all four points. Especially the Project Go point.
@tibreaker ,
You are correct to shoot for the semester abroad. My DS's experiences were Rotary exchanges prior to College in both Taiwan and Brazil (living with families where no English was spoken and going to schools where no English was spoken) and Project Go, studying Russian in Kiev. His running mate was an AFROTC cadet from IA State majoring in Russian.
Hands down total immersion is best, but Project Go is an excellent second best if you can put yourself in situations where the folks around you don't speak English.
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@cb7893 is totally correct about immersion.
My oldest DS (non-military) spent a year in Beijing studying at Peking University. He was appalled at how many of his fellow students from the U.S. would "hole up" in the dorms and not immerse themselves in the culture.
My DS literally traveled cross country from Beijing to Guangdong and as far east as Szechuan, and was invited by people he met to stay with their families instead of a youth hostel. The language improvement through immersion was amazing! (when he returned to the States, the first thing he wanted was a hamburger and at the restaurant he started to order in Mandarin).
My oldest DS (non-military) spent a year in Beijing studying at Peking University. He was appalled at how many of his fellow students from the U.S. would "hole up" in the dorms and not immerse themselves in the culture.
My DS literally traveled cross country from Beijing to Guangdong and as far east as Szechuan, and was invited by people he met to stay with their families instead of a youth hostel. The language improvement through immersion was amazing! (when he returned to the States, the first thing he wanted was a hamburger and at the restaurant he started to order in Mandarin).
My non Rotc son did a semester abroad in the Netherlands. However what he had going for him is that the Dutch school belongs to the US college so therefore the tution remained the same and the tuition payments were made to the US college. If you have a situation like that, I cant imagine there would be a problem with a scholarship. However, the real issue I would imagine, is that you will be gone for one semester. That means no PT, no AF classes and everything else that goes along with being in Rotc. How is that handled?
unkown1961
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My son has doen Project Go in Estonia and Krgyzstan and saw the same thing. It's too bad because part of the program is culutrual immersion. We also saw it while stationed in Japan and Germany - 3 day weekends when we took off, too many families spent time at the BX for the holiday sale.
unkown1961
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I know studying abroad for a term is fun, but remember that Project Go will advance you one level of Russian. My son is a Russian major and has done two summers of Project Go. Each time he came back he advanced a level in Russian. Even if you do study abroad, do the Project Go programs. It's a great opportunity to travel and immerse yourself in the culture.
As for fidning a sister school, you need to work with your school.
As for fidning a sister school, you need to work with your school.
Yeah I think finding a sister school is my biggest problem. We have one in Latvia, but I've only heard of kids doing the summer Project GO session there. I've talked to some people in the Russian department, and they seem to be more in favor of just doing Project GO in the summer. As of now, I'm doing 4.5 years, so I guess I could always go for two summers (16 weeks total). Anyways. Thanks for all the great info!
My DD is applying to do study abroad next summer through the honors program at her college, to Italy and Greece. It's shorter (a month) and worth 6 credits. She has coordinated with her cadre so she can attend cortramid in the early summer and then her study abroad is basically the month of July. She should have two weeks free between cortramid and study abroad, and two weeks after study abroad and before fall classes start. This should actually help her stay on schedule to graduate...taking a semester off to do study abroad won't work, she's a stem major, so her core classes and responsibilities to her unit preclude that. The option she chose seems to be the best of both worlds to me. They actually have a professor from the honors college going along and teaching the 'class'.
For me the problem isn't not being able to fit in my AFROTC classes, but finding a sister school to VT. I met with my APAS about this and he said that I could easily study abroad first semester of my fifth year. So it really just comes down to finding a program that could be paid for by my scholarship. Again, thanks for all of the advise!