What the Hell New York Times

In an article published in today's Sunday New York Times entitled "The Foreign Legions,"

(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/studyabroad.html?pagewanted=4&ref=edlife)

Laura Pappano takes an in-depth look at the modern day American's study abroad experience. While I applaud her for looking into a more and more important aspect of college life, I wish she'd bothered to actually dive into the topic matter rather than simply pay lip service to both sides of the argument and call it a day.

Ms. Pappano interviews heads of Study Abroad Programs from Yale, Syracuse, and Indiana, students from those schools as well as Chapel Hill, and Loyola Maryland, but does not make anything clear other than these few facts:

1. Schools abroad can be easy or hard. Thanks
2. Some foreign nations' societies might be different from American society. No Shit Sherlock.
3. Schools prepare and aid their students differently during their study abroad experience. That is like being suprised UVA and UCLA have different experiences to offer, REALLY YOU DON'T SAY!!?!?!

My main problem with the article is her gross mishap of not including Middlebury College in her article. Call me a homer, but a college with perhaps the strongest language programs in the country, a world renowned summer language program, and some thirty options for study abroad (both in English and other languages) probably has some good information to offer regarding this subject. Moreover, the majority of the students sound as if they are whining in their responses. Oh Palestine's policies towards women are different from Americans. Who knew? Jeeeze

I agree with her "analysis" that the study abroad experience is one that forces college students to mature, in many ways my experience has been of the "kill or be killed" variety, but that is not a bad thing. Perhaps what Ms. Pappano should have extrapolated from her research was that the modern American twenty year old is actually spoiled by their lifestyles at home, instead of harping poetic about the various qualities of homestays abroad. I don't know, maybe I'm being to cynical, but speaking from my own experience I can say that whenever I've wanted to interact with Chinese culture I've had that option, whenever I wanted to take a break and Westernize an afternoon, I have Starbuck's at arm's reach.

Study abroad is entirely what you make of it. The colleges offer a means out of the States and a program that the students can follow as strictly or loosely as they wish. Ms. Pappano writes, "Being in a place a dozen time zones away, where Internet service and cellphones are unreliable, provides one of the first chances for true and prolonged independence." While that maybe true, it is up to the student to assume the responsibility to lead as independent a life as he or she may wish to.