Should all college students be required to study abroad? Why or why not? by Jeremias

Should all college students be required to study abroad? Why or why not? by Jeremias - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

Study abroad opportunities are meant to benefit students that could enrich their learning experience in a particular subject, most notably in the language arts. In some ways, studying another language can be a bit of a bore to students especially in a classroom setting. One of the ways that can students can feel involved is to have them participate in the study abroad programs. Although, there some study abroad programs that requires prerequisites that students need to meet in order for them participate such as having adequate grade point average, cost, classes enrolled, and so on.
Going back to the question, “Should all college students be required to study abroad?” the words that stands out in the question are the words “all” and “required”, which implies that every college student should or a must have requirement in order to fulfill something. In this case, in spite of the great learning experience that study abroad programs can provide to every student, it would be completely impractical for the college administration to enforce it as a requirement for students due to certain externalities that could impede on their progress such as financial problems.
One of the biggest issues of being a college student is not having enough money. College students are essentially poor and most of them rely on scholarships, federal grants, part-time jobs, parents and student loans to pay for both of their school and personal expenses. Adding study abroad program as part of a requirement would ultimately raise the cost of attendance to every college student, which would be unfair to those who cannot travel. This also means that any students who gets a full ride scholarship may not even get to take advantage of the study abroad program simply because they do not have a passport. But what if money was not a factor? Should all college students be required to study abroad?
No. Some college students are notoriously known to be irresponsible to handle anything, let alone to take care of themselves. Just imagine, the havoc that they can create if they’re not monitored or worst they could get kidnapped just because they decided to take a detour instead of going with the group. Granted most of them are adults, but it cannot be denied the fact that there are some students out there that could care less about study abroad programs, and therefore making it a requirement for them would be a waste of money, time, and energy for everyone. It would be better off if study abroad programs were to remain optional so that serious students who have genuine interest in learning cultural subjects would benefit from their experience since they are most likely going to make the most of it.
Every student goes to college in hopes in getting a degree in something that would later help them get a better job, and studying abroad is something that is completely unrelated unless their main focus is related anything to language or world cultures. Although the idea of having to study abroad would be favorable to high school students as part of a summer program that is fully funded by the schools, however not many public schools would be able to do it simply because it cost a lot of money, unless they expect the student to pay for travel expense which realistically not a lot of students would go if that is the case.
It cannot be denied the fact that almost every student wants to travel and see the world while they are young. In fact, it almost seem to be a dream come true if they can study abroad and not worry about the expenses, but every college student knows that is not the reality. The reality is that everything cost money and study abroad programs are just extra perks for those who can afford it. It is almost guaranteed that most college students would not have the time to travel due to family or work obligations, which is why having college students to go through a study abroad as a requirement would be impractical to both the college administrators and students alike.
There is a clear reason why study abroad programs in colleges were only offered as an optional course for students’ rather than something that is required of them to do as if it was mandatory, was give the sense of accountability to those who are running the program. In other words, certain criteria are in place to attract qualified students only and therefore it would make it easier for the study abroad program director to keep everyone accountable since the class is at a manageable size, rather than having an entire class of more than 30 going all together in which probably more than half would bail out at the very last minute.
In summary, there are reasons why college students should not be required to study aboard due to three factors: money, practicality, and accountability. If study abroad is something that is a required of college students then it can be assumed that they would be paying out of their own pockets, and they definitely would not want that. If not, then it is most likely they would not have the time nor the administrators would have the energy to deal with more students who simply are not in it but rather being forced because it is a requirement.