Pros and Cons of Studying Abroad for a Year by Syna Sharma

I recently returned from a year of studying abroad in Finland during the 2023-24 school year. Prior to starting studying abroad, whenever I mentioned that I was planning to study abroad for a year, I often received remarks, such as “A year?! That’s so long! I could never…”. I never understood why? After all, who wouldn’t want to spend a year in a foreign country?

Though study abroad was one of the highlights of my time in college, my experience studying abroad and returning after a year abroad had me reflecting on the pros and cons of the experience. 

Pros

  • Deeper Engagement: While moving to a completely new country with a new language and different systems, it can take a while, up to 3-4 months, to build a comfortable and stable routine. 3-4 months is about the same time as a college semester. So, by the time one gets accustomed to living in a foreign country while studying abroad for a semester, their time there wraps up. I remember arriving in Finland during mid August, and I didn’t feel like I built a comfortable routine there until November, so I was relieved to think that I still had another semester to spend time in Finland or even travel to nearby countries. I eventually got the wonderful opportunity to visit the cities of Rovaniemi, Pori, Rauma, and Helsinki in Finland while also exploring the city I lived in, Jyväskylä. This may not have been possible if I hadn’t studied abroad for a year.
  • More Time to Travel to Nearby Countries: With study abroad comes a natural desire to explore the world and travel to nearby countries. With only a semester-long study abroad experiences, one’s travel experiences may feel rushed or one may have to sacrifice time spent engaging in a host country to travel to nearby countries. It’s a tricky balance. Luckily, with a year-long study abroad experience, one can balance rest time with domestic and international travel. I was fortunate to have the bandwidth to be able to spend time travelling to Norway, Sweden, and the three Baltic Countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. While solo-traveling through the three Baltic countries during Winter break, I spontaneously ran into my middle school teacher in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania, and found out that she lives in Lithuania along with 3 other middle school teachers of mine. Since I want to be a middle school teacher after graduating from college, my middle school teachers offered that I return to Lithuania and spend time interning at their school for a week and a half during the Spring time, which I ended up pursuing. I would’ve never had the opportunity to engage in both of these life-changing experiences if I had not decided to study abroad for a year.

Cons

  • Relationships at Home Become Distanced: Though I had a fantastic experience learning and growing in a foreign environment while studying abroad, when I returned home, I noticed that I felt distanced from friends who I thought I was close with. Spending a year away while intentionally aiming to make the most of my time in a foreign country had clear implications to my relationships at home. To maintain relationships while at home, one has to be thoughtful about how they may want to balance spending time abroad Facetiming friends at home versus making new friends and memories abroad. In addition, one needs to be intentional about building a gameplan upon returning to rebuild distanced relationships. Finally, it’s important to embrace the discomfort that comes with studying abroad for a year. One has to leave a familiar environment and experience discomfort while navigating a new country and building new relationships. The discomfort still persists when returning back home and navigating old-relationships with a new lens and worldview. 

 

Nevertheless, with a clear understanding of the pros and cons of studying abroad for a year, one can enter the experience fully-informed of their experience, with realistic expectations, that support them to make the most out of their time abroad!