FAQs and Contact Information

Yes, you do need a passport to study abroad, and it needs to be valid for six months after your proposed return. If you’ve never applied for a passport before, the Office of Study Abroad is glad to help walk you through the process! Plus, passports are valid for ten years after their issuance, so you’ll be able to go on all kinds of adventures (maybe even with Southeastern!) after your passport comes in.

At present, students don’t need a visa (a kind of local permit for foreign nationals) to depart for study abroad on any Southeastern programs. Often, local rules mean that you need a temporary visa for semester length programs, but our partner universities help with all of those logistics when you get there. It’s much less nerve-wracking than it sounds, and usually leaves your passport with a cool page to show off to your friends.

No. Statistically, you’re more likely to be the victim of a violent crime in the US than in any of our partner program’s home countries. Some places have slightly higher rates of property crimes—pickpocketing, for example—but it’s quite easy to protect yourself from these things and there are lots of support systems in place to help study abroad participants travel smartly.

Probably not. Part of the pre-departure and application process for the Office of Study Abroad is a kind of “pre-program academic advising” to make sure that the classes that students sign up for while abroad will be useful for their academic progress and still be deeply meaningful intercultural experiences.

Yes, but how they transfer—which requirements they satisfy and such—can vary depending on the program you’re enrolled in at Southeastern and the program to which you’re applying with our partner programs. That’s one of the reasons that the Office of Study Abroad works with students to select classes that will have a meaningful impact on their academic progress at Southeastern.

All of the studies ever done about Study Abroad have shown a strong correlation between participation in a study abroad program and career-readiness, salary growth, promotion likelihood and quality of life measures. There have been no major studies to date that show that studying abroad has a negative impact on the kinds of post-graduation opportunities that alumni pursue.

Yes and no. The sticker price for study abroad programs is higher, but most of that is due to the cost of living difference and the programs’ opportunities. Fortunately, nearly every study done on studying abroad shows that the return-on-investment for study abroad participation is very high, and that making the investment was, for participants surveyed after the fact, “life changing” and “unforgettable.” Smart planning with respect to financial aid and program choices can make it much more affordable, too, and there are plenty of ways to seek out scholarship support for programs.

For full semester or summer-term programs, a good number of financial aid sources at Southeastern do count for study abroad. Because rules change and personal financial information is a private matter, the Office of Study Abroad spends extra time with each participant to make sure that they have the best information about their own financial aid status and the programs in which they are keen to enroll. If you have questions about your personal financial aid situation, don’t hesitate to contact the Office of Study Abroad!

Each program has its own housing options, but all of them have been vetted extensively. For example, in Madrid, students stay with host families, so they gain a fun new aunt and uncle in the capital of Spain. In Geneva, the student apartment building overlooks the Rhone River and is only a few train stops away from the beaches on Lake Geneva. In Athens, student housing is right on the border street between the Plaka and Monasteraki neighborhoods. The chance of living somewhere spectacular while on study abroad is very, very high!

Students cannot work officially while on study abroad in the country where they are studying. They can maintain some remote work, in theory, but the Office of Study Abroad firmly believes that the best way to make the most of the study abroad experience is to soak up as much of the people and places and adventures and spaces that you’ll encounter. Besides, Jimmy Buffett once mused that ““It’s important to have as much fun as possible while we’re here. It balances out the times when the minefield of life explodes.” Best to see all the things, then, we think.