Study Abroad, the Basics

As I mentioned earlier, this year I'm heading off to International Christian University (ICU) in Mitaka, Japan. I'm rather fortunate to even be going there for two reasons.

1. Getting the opportunity for study abroad is fantastic in and of itself!!
2. Wittenberg was very lucky to be granted admittance to ICU and send students on an Invitee basis.

"But, Alexandra, aren't you going to be an exchange student?" Naw, not really. This is a tad different. Most colleges have partnerships with other schools in and out of the country. Depending on who and where those other schools are, students can bop around to different colleges, expanding their courses, cultural understanding, and language proficiency. Going into study abroad you have a few different options: exchange, direct enrollment, programs, and invitee. An exchange is a simple trade; one of our kids for one of yours. The students don't have to swap in the exact same year, but after a while, the number of students coming in is the same as going abroad. This works pretty well for the schools since they were expecting that American student to be living at the college anyway. Their numbers didn't change for the year, just their diversity level. Direct enrollment is when you study abroad, but it is a little more than the limited time deal. A student who is directly enrolling into a foreign school typically is now regarded as a student of that college, must fulfill all the general course requirements, and can graduate from that school. You only directly enroll somewhere if you plan on being there all 4 years and are already proficient enough in the language to live there. Programs are like tourism packages; sure you have to go to school and study, but the program staff will make sure that you visit the major cites in the area, meet and mingle with other people in your program, and act as your support group away from home.

This all brings us to the invitee end of it all.

Probably not "the best for last," invitee standing can be seen as a gift from a benevolent ruler. What do I mean? Look at it this way, if you come from a big school, you probably have a lot of programs, students, funding, and fame. Everyone wants to be your friend because they can then say that their students have the chance to study abroad at your school. But if you are a small school, people in the town next to you might not know you exist, so how is someone in another country going to know you are there? They won't. And they won't care. That is why invitee programs are so special. Being on an invitee basis with someone means, "I don't want my students to go to your school necessarily, but you can come to my school. Just don't come rushing in all at once! One at a time, if you please." See? it isn't that they are rude, just more focused on the bigger prize. But this means that I can sneak in under the radar and attend the same sort of school that the students from larger universities get to go to!

Wittenberg has an invite from ICU because one of the professors of Japanese here knew the president of ICU and a few years ago worked out a deal to have one Witt kid per year come to ICU. But just ONE student per year is invited over! I'll be the fourth student invited to ICU, much in thanks to my helpful sempai: Tyler Roberts, Kai Wiesner-hanks, and Joani Schaffner.

Phew!! That was a lot for just a little question. What was the question again? I'll have a couple other posts under my "Basics" category over the summer. For more on ICU, feel free to check out an online article I wrote about them and their official website.