While MSU’s ranking in the Institute for International Education’s Open Doors report has slipped in the last two years from second to fifth, the number of students engaged in study abroad programs has remained high, with more than 2,500 involved. But in a new ranking by BestCollegeReviews.org, MSU programs did not make the cut for the top 50 programs in America.
Best College Reviews chose colleges and universities based on “limited program enrollment, ensuring an intimate experience while abroad, length of at least one semester, faculty involvement during program and dedicated university specific international location, not simply an enrollment at an international university.”
Communications manager for MSU’s Office of Study Abroad at MSU Cheryl Benner, said the criteria does not fit the type of programs MSU offers. Most of MSU’s semester-long programs are direct enrollment or exchange programs where students enroll at an international institution to take classes with local students, she said.
Programs like the Emerson College’s studying in the Netherlands made Best College Review’s list for hosting their students in a 14th century medieval castle. Emerson makes the program an intimate experience by sending only 85 randomly selected students each semester.
While MSU ranks fifth for IIE Open Doors for the more than 2,500 students they send abroad each year, that only amounts to about 25% of the 2013 graduating class that participated before they left MSU.
MSU appears high on some study abroad lists and low on others, depending on the way the numbers are shown. U.S. News and World Report Education ranked 102 college and universities by the highest percentage of students studying abroad, ranging from 100-30 percent. MSU did not make the list.
Yet in another list, also by the U.S. News and World Report, MSU appears in an unordered list of universities with “stellar examples of study abroad programs,” because the list was composed by inviting “college presidents, chief academic officers, deans of students and deans of admissions from more than 1,500 schools to nominate up to 10 institutions.”
Kinesiology senior Shaina Lewinski enjoyed her experiences abroad during her freshman seminar in Ireland and a separate trip studying World War II in Scotland and England.
“In my opinion we have a really great structure here. It’s an experience that you won’t get anywhere else,” Lewinski said. “It really opens your eyes to being able to see how we are different than other people — we are kind of sheltered where we live. We don’t really understand how other people live. (Studying abroad) really humbles you and makes you a better person.”
