No Such Thing as One-Size-Fits-All by Aaron

No Such Thing as One-Size-Fits-All by Aaron - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

Studying abroad was first introduced to American education in the 1870’s by Indiana University. It was and still remains to be a unique and dynamic way of learning for students interested in experiencing once in a lifetime traveling opportunities and learning about different cultures. However, less than 1% of all students with the study abroad opportunity end up going to study abroad. This could be for a variety of reasons such as: the study abroad program is not promoted well enough, leaving students unaware of the opportunity, large expenses, or students simply are not interested in studying abroad. Regardless of the reason, it is apparent that the vast majority of students choose not to utilize this study abroad program opportunity. If only a small minority seem to show interest in studying abroad, it would seem insensible to make studying abroad a requirement for all college students. Studying abroad is a great opportunity and supplemental education for students interested in the program, but seeing that only a small minority actually choose to go study abroad when the opportunity is optional, there seems not to be a logical rationale to make the program mandatory for college student education.
The amazing opportunities and benefits that come with studying abroad are undeniable. Students have travel opportunities in ways that may never present itself again in life, they get to learn about their specific study of interest from novel and unique perspectives, they get exposure to different cultures, along with many other great benefits, however, not all students may be interested in attaining these benefits. College is a time of great diversity in choices, maximizing opportunities, and molding life into however one pleases. Although studying abroad may have great benefits, to make study abroad required, would be the equivalent to picking a student’s major on their behalf. There are costs and benefits to any major and it is up to the student to assess what best interests and benefits them. There is a reason why a student might choose their particular major over any other major. Similarly, over 99% of college students choose not to study abroad when the choice is optional, thus, it is likely that many of them accurately weighed out the costs and benefits and chose according to what they believed was best for them. Autonomy is something very important to help college students who are young adults develop into functional, independent, optimal members of society. Thus, making study abroad required would severely restrict the autonomy of over 99% of college students who would have otherwise opted not to study abroad, resulting in less autonomy, and possibly a reduced development into ideal adulthood.
In conclusion, students that really have a desire and interest to study abroad already have complete access to that opportunity. In other words, students that want to study abroad can do so, and making it required for all college students to go, would not change a thing about the students who already wanted to study abroad to begin with. It would however, affect a huge majority of students who otherwise would not have opted to study abroad. Perhaps making study abroad a requirement would benefit a great amount of students and maybe it will not for many others, however, the point is, when studying abroad is optional, the opportunity still remains to be available to everyone, just as it would if it were made mandatory. The only difference is that it is attained by choice. If the motive to make study abroad a requirement for all students is to have more students benefit from studying abroad; because of the fact that it may not be beneficial to all students (due to reasons mentioned above), perhaps increasing awareness rather than making it a requirement might be a better solution to benefit the most students. Studying abroad is a unique and revolutionary method of receiving education, however, it simply is not for every college student, thus, it should not be something all college students are required to partake in.