Study Abroad: Who? Where? Why? The Most Popular Study Abroad Destinations

We’ve all thought about it—to go or not to go? Whether you planned on it or not, you most definitely finagled with the idea of studying abroad. When else could you pack your Vera Bradley totes stuffed with a six-month supply of peanut butter, bid farewell to the ladies and gentlemen of the last three years with a histrionic bow, and jet off to another country sans the he-said-she-said drama or awkward ex encounters or perfunctory academic effort or the seemingly endless mounting of expectations laden in yesteryear?

Think about it. Didn’t your sorority sister return from a fall in Paris, gushing with stories of her intellectual nights with Étienne, the artiste, strolling along the Seine after a romantic dinner in Saint-Germain des Prés? Remember when your roommate showed up second semester twenty pounds lighter, with a complexion of Cleopatra, and brimming with the energy of a conquering Sultan, begging the question: what was in Istanbul’s water and where can I get some? And then your teammate was suddenly Facebook friends with, it seems, some five million Vietnamese children she trained at a tennis camp in Hanoi over the summer. Even your boyfriend’s jaunt in Madrid continues to conjure an occasional bout of nostalgia, “oh, those nights back when…”, to which you roll yours eyes and gesticulate mockery. Oh, those nights.

Everyone comes back different—more worldly, more mature, more something. And whatever that something is, it seems that studying abroad is an experience to be had, and each year thousands of students are indulging in the once in a lifetime experience to be a student in another country.

Who is Going? And Where?

Whether in search of a good time, an educational experience, or simply an escape from the same ol’ American institution, United States students are studying abroad in increasing numbers. According to IIE Network’s Open Doors 2009 study, Report on International Educational Exchanges, the number of students studying abroad in the academic year 2007/2008 increased by 8.5% from the previous year. Over 262,000 students studied abroad in that academic year, the majority of whom were in the field of Social Sciences (21.5%), Business & Management (20.2%), or Humanities (13.3%). What motivates these students to study abroad, however, begins with the question: where are students going?

The Open Doors study ranked the top destinations among U.S. students studying abroad. Here are the top ten destinations: