Studying Abroad at the Kelley School

There are a ton of opportunities to study abroad while you are an undergraduate at Kelley. Since high school, I had always wanted to study in London because of my interest in the culture and my own ancestry from the UK. (My father's side is part Scottish, my mother's side is part Northern Irish, and both sides have a significant percentage of English ancestry.) If you are really drawn to a country, chances are IU already has a program that can take you there...and if not they will definitely help you find one.

When I was a freshman, I started doing research about what my options were to study in London. I found this list of programs on the Kelley website that can come in handy for any business student looking at different options: http://kelley.iu.edu/ugrad/academics/abroad/programs.cfm.

Also, there are more study abroad programs that are not listed on that site that I have learned about while at Kelley. IU overseas study office has even more opportunities to look at, but usually you cannot take business courses while studying outside of the listed classes on the Kelley link I posted. However, there are also certain classes that take students abroad. When I was a sophomore, the honors students in the Sophomore Block program travelled to India for two weeks in November. There are also classes that take students abroad for a few weeks, and luckily the professors blog about their program happenings via blogs listed at: http://kelley.iu.edu/ugrad/blogs/index.cfm.

Application Process

Many programs have informational meetings annually for students to learn about the application process. For the London program informational meeting, I watched a PowerPoint presentation and was able to ask questions to a representative from Arcadia University (who organizes my London program). Also, it is important to be in contact with the Kelley overseas office as well as the IU overseas office if you have questions about the application. Mine was due in early September 2008, and I had to write six essays, submit several passport-sized pictures of myself, and re-arrange my resume to fit British standards. It's a time-consuming process that requires a lot of organization, so working on the application far in advance is a must.

Orientation at IU

IU gives a mandatory pre-departure orientation for every student signed up to go abroad the following semester. There, I listened to a lot of information about health care and culture shock in a big lecture hall with students attending every program, and then we later split into groups of our individual programs. That was the first time I learned who would be going to London with me.

Receiving Grades Late

For many programs, you do not receive your final grades with the same speed as you would at IU. In fact, I finished my spring semester at the end of April, but I was told that I will not be receiving my final grades until September. I also know that many students who travelled to Spain did not receive their grades until well into the summer months. It is not uncommon to need to wait many months to see what grades you received while abroad. In England, not only do professors grade you final exams, but they also have another professor grade it to be fair. The process takes a lot longer than the speedy-return scantron exams that are commonplace for IU finals.

Link to My London Blog

I wrote a frequent blog while I was abroad talking all about my experience. It gives a perspective of what my life was like while participating in my overseas program. You can find it at: http://elizabethinlondon2009.blogspot.com/