Students seeking to study overseas need not look farther than Boston University – which BootsnAll Travel Network ranked as one of the eight best college study abroad programs in the nation earlier this week.
BootsnAll called BU a “forerunner when it comes to international study options,” placing it among colleges such as Columbia University, Dartmouth University and the University of Virginia.
Study Abroad participants have increased from 2,240 students in the 2009 academic year to 2,354 in 2010, according to a report published by BU Study Abroad. Many of the new abroad students are from the College of Fine Arts.
The London program has been the most popular program among students for the last three years, the report said. Other popular locations include Australia, Spain and France.
BU Study Abroad consists of more than 90 programs in 37 cities on six continents, with programs focusing on everything from sciences to the fine arts, said Margaret Lucas, Abroad’s marketing and communications coordinator.
“We hear time and time again from the students that studying abroad is the best experience that they had in college; that it doesn’t take away from their time before and after in Boston—it only makes it better,” Lucas wrote in an email. “The time spent away discovering truly helps the students survive and thrive in today’s world.”
Some students said they were generally unsurprised by these rankings, as they had either heard positive feedback about or had good experiences in these programs.
College of Arts and Sciences junior Madeline Baker agreed with the rankings and said she had a positive experience studying abroad in Paris last summer.
“I thought it was amazing. The center there is beautiful. It’s right next to the Eiffel Tower,” she said. “I interned all day, and took a class once a week . . . It was a wonderful summer, and I really enjoyed it.”
Baker said that the study abroad program was one of the reasons she chose to attend BU.
While College of Communication senior Allie Rosenberg has not studied abroad, she has visited friends who are studying in London and said she is not surprised by BU’s ranking.
“The facilities [in London] are amazing, and all the internship experiences that they had were incredible, and everyone was really hands-on in their jobs,” she said. “It seems as though [my friends] were getting experiences that they probably ordinarily wouldn’t have access to without help through BU. So, I feel like it makes sense that we’re ranked highly among those schools.
Some students said that despite the abroad program’s popularity, they are not interested in leaving BU to study.
“I know that the study abroad programs at BU are very good, but they’re not something that interested me,” said Metropolitan College senior Matthew Pereira. “As a science major it’s a little bit tougher, it’s a little bit stricter guidelines to go abroad.”
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