Students Choose Nontraditional Study Abroad Locales
The Grand Tour is getting a reboot. For decades, the American study abroad experience was synonymous with Renaissance art in Florence or literary walks through London. That picture is fading. A new cohort of students is trading Western European capitals for tech hubs in Asia and biodiversity centers in Latin America, driven less by wanderlust and more by a cold, hard career calculus.
The numbers don’t lie. For the 2022-2023 academic year, only four of the top ten destinations for U.S. students were in Europe, a significant drop from seven just before the pandemic, according to a new report from the Institute of International Education (IIE). The “Global Pathways 2024” report details a tectonic shift in student priorities.
The New Map of Global Education
So where are they going? The data points to a clear trend eastward and southward. South Korea saw its numbers of American students jump by 35% from pre-pandemic levels. Japan wasn’t far behind with a 28% increase, while Costa Rica experienced a 22% surge. These aren’t random spikes; they are targeted movements.
The majors tell the story. The primary fields of study for students heading to South Korea and Japan are Computer Science, Engineering, and Business. For Costa Rica, it’s Environmental Science and Biology. Dr. Aruna Patel, Director of Global Engagement at a major public university, says her office sees a clear pattern where students want programs that “directly integrate with their STEM or business curriculum.” The classic humanities semester abroad, it seems, is no longer the default.
They want programs that directly integrate with their STEM or business curriculum, and that often means looking to Asia’s tech hubs or Latin America’s biodiversity hotspots.
Resume-Padding at 30,000 Feet
This isn’t just about coursework. It’s about building a specific kind of resume before graduation. Take the case of Ben Carter, a 21-year-old computer science major who chose to study in Seoul. His motivation was explicit. “I wanted an internship with a major tech company,” Carter explained, noting his options were essentially Silicon Valley or Seoul’s thriving tech ecosystem.
Carter’s experience highlights the new objective. He didn’t just learn a new language; he worked on a machine learning project for a direct competitor to U.S. firms, an experience he called an “incredible resume builder.” This is a far cry from backpacking through Europe. It’s a strategic deployment of a student’s time and tuition money to gain a competitive advantage in a globalized job market.
A Pragmatic, Financial Calculus
But it’s not all about career ambition. A powerful undercurrent is simple economics. The IIE report finds that cost is a massive driver in these decisions. Maria Flores, the report’s lead researcher, observes that students are making what she calls “pragmatic, career-focused, and financially-driven decisions.”
The cost of living is a huge piece of this puzzle. A semester in Seoul or San José, even with airfare, can be substantially cheaper than one in London or Paris. When students are already facing staggering tuition debt, the lower day-to-day expenses of these nontraditional locales become a critical factor. The romance of Paris looks a lot less appealing when a croissant and coffee cost ten dollars.
The funding structures are adapting to this new reality. The IIE report identified a 15% increase in students using program-specific scholarships tied directly to STEM fields for their international study. Universities and their benefactors are putting their money where the job market is.
And this has consequences. While programs branded as “Global Career Accelerators” or featuring international internships are up 18%, traditional language-immersion programs in countries like France and Italy have seen enrollment dip by 10%. The focus has shifted from cultural immersion to career integration.
