Students Choose College Abroad To Experience Other Cultures
CollegeAbroad.com survey highlights student desires for international education
CHESTER, PA, October 1, 2003 -
Fifty-five percent of prospective college abroad students cite "to experience another culture/country" as the reason they are interested in pursuing a degree overseas according to a recent survey on CollegeAbroad.com. Additionally, forty-two percent say that four years presents a better opportunity to become immersed in the new culture, as opposed to a semester or even a year abroad.
College abroad students are those that attend a four-year institution outside the US. According to Mark Shay, president and CEO of Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc., the parent company of CollegeAbroad.com, "Getting a degree from an overseas university provides an appreciation and understanding for other cultures and lifestyles, providing the student with valuable life and work skills. As more American jobs are through multi-national companies, a degree from a foreign school can give a student an edge in the career marketplace."
In September 2003, CollegeAbroad.com, an online directory of colleges and universities worldwide that offer full degree programs, collected data from 165 prospective college abroad students over a seven-day period from its web site. The survey consisted of 11 questions from which students were asked to select one of the possible answers presented to them. Each question attempted to further understand students' desires for attending college abroad.
According to the survey responses, current events are not influencing students to pursue college abroad opportunities. Seventy three percent say that nothing in the reported media has had an influence on their plan or desire to attend college abroad. Especially noteworthy, the majority of students are first generation college abroad students, as seventy-five percent of students' parents did not study in a country other than the US.
The survey also asked other pertinent questions regarding a student's decision to choose a college abroad program. Fifty-nine percent say they are fluent in the language of their destination country, while forty-one percent say they are not. Fifty-four percent say they have also applied to a US university, and only six percent of respondents say they expect to find better teachers in foreign education. Only twenty-five percent say they would get a foreign degree because of lower tuition costs.
Full survey results can be viewed at: http://www.CollegeAbroad.com/survey.
For more information on Educational Directories Unlimited, please contact Matt Ulmer by phone at 484-766-9200, via e-mail at mulmer@edudirectories.com.
About CollegeAbroad.com
CollegeAbroad.com (http://www.CollegeAbroad.com) is an online directory of colleges and universities worldwide that offer full degree programs and welcome international students from around the world. CollegeAbroad.com provides prospective students with an easy way to find institutions overseas that meet their criteria. Students may search by location, school type, enrollment, housing status, and setting. CollegeAbroad.com is a service of Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc. (http://www.edudirectories.com).