Studying Abroad

Stimulating, Interesting and Mind-Expanding

In the Department’s experience, it is a rare student of foreign languages who, after studying abroad in the target country, does not return to campus to say that it was the single most stimulating, interesting, and mind-expanding experience of their college education. As a result, the Department strongly encourages any of its students-not just its majors and minors-to study for at least one semester in an appropriate foreign country. As for majors and minors, the Department considers it so important for them to study in the target culture that it spares no effort in helping majors and minors to benefit from this experience that best facilitates cultural and linguistic fluency.

But in order to assure maximum benefit from study abroad, it is necessary for any student to view the off-campus program as an integral and coherent part of the entire undergraduate experience. Choice of program and the course of study should be planned as carefully as possible before departure. Moreover, the follow-up after return to Denison should serve to put the off-campus study in perspective as well as to complement and enhance it.

Before applying to individual programs, it is necessary for a student to obtain Denison approval from the Office of Off-Campus Study. The Denison approval process is designed so that the student may step into it as soon as the student starts to think about off-campus study. If the student plans on off-campus study sometime during the junior year, we encourage the student to begin this process as early as the fall of the sophomore year, if not before.