by Charlesie Robison<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the 2024-2025 Centre year, there was a Study Abroad showcase held in Weisiger Theatre which detailed not only the different options for Centre students during the 2025-2026 season, but also how the selection process is done for applied students. They explained that they look for four things in each applicant: their year, their GPA, their recommendations, and whether or not they have been abroad before. More specifically, whether or not they have spent a semester <\/em>abroad before, making it clear that CentreTerm\u2019s abroad did not count. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This, however, has changed. As of 2026, CentreTerm study abroad now counts as having gone abroad before, and will impact whether or not you are selected for your semester programs. Rising Seniors that have only had a CentreTerm abroad will be placed near the bottom of wait lists because they have participated in the Abroad and Away program, even if they chose their centre term program before the change was put into practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many students will choose to spend a CentreTerm abroad before they leave for an entire semester, especially if it is their first time leaving the country and are worried about spending months away from their friends and family. Before, this was a viable option, as it would not influence your placement in your later semester programs, and you could spend that time exploring a new country while still having a professor you know and trust to guide your activities and lessons. This is no longer an option, as choosing to go abroad for a three week semester will retroactively harm your chances of entering a three month program. If you waited until your senior year to go abroad for a semester, you may end up leaving Centre never spending a semester outside of Danville. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I am unaware of when precisely these changes took place, and whether or not they will influence specific scholarships such as the Language<\/em> scholarship. As far as I am aware, these changes were not<\/em> made public, and even if they were, that does not change the fact that students had their plans retroactively altered. In many ways, it ruined their changes for future semesters abroad based on promises made to them by the time of their applications. Centre-Abroad chooses how many students are accepted for abroad programs based on the Junior class, specifically halving the number of Juniors. This year, however, over a third of the student population applied for a study abroad program. I do not envy the abroad office, as it was probably a tough decision in deciding who would get to go and who would get cut, and why. However, how was I supposed to know that by signing up for a CentreTerm abroad in 2024, that by 2025, the rules would change and I would be waitlisted from every program I applied for because of that trip? There were a dozen of different ways they could have gone about this, and even if this was the only option, having transparency with the student body would save a lot of students from the frustration that comes from not understanding why they weren\u2019t accepted into any of the programs they applied for, despite believing that they meet all of the needed qualifications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I write this partially out of spite and general frustration, but also because I know that there are many other students unaware that this change was made, and it could influence their future abroad plans. I encourage the Study Abroad office to make a statement which will explain the changes in their selection process, and for students to start asking if they really wish to do that CentreTerm abroad, or if they want to bite the bullet and try for that semester exchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Charlesie Robison During the 2024-2025 Centre year, there was a Study Abroad showcase held in Weisiger Theatre which detailed not only the different options for Centre students during the 2025-2026 season, but also how the selection process is done for applied students. They explained that they look for four things in each applicant: their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9323,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9322\/revisions\/9323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}