Site rates abroad programs

By Genna Tan

When Davidson College graduates Henry van Wagenberg and John Henry returned from studying abroad, they discovered that their experiences had been very different.

"I went to Germany and really didn't like the program, which was in fact cancelled two years later," said van Wagenberg. Henry really enjoyed his program, though.

Van Wagenberg and Henry became frustrated by the lack of an honest evaluation of their study abroad programs online. "If you Googled the Web site, you would just get the program's own Web site with promotional material," van Wagenberg said.

The two decided to fill this void by creating rateyourstudyabroad.com.

The Web site, which was launched in September of last year, allows users to search for a study abroad program and rate it.

Its scale of one to five is based on categories like academic quality, party atmosphere, program classmates, languages, rules, living situation, cultural exposure and program administration. Users who rate their programs can also elaborate on their experiences in a comments section, as well as list specific details about their programs, such as the size, type and cost of the program.

"We hope that students who have studied abroad will write about their experience and get the satisfaction of helping other students find the right program," said van Wagenberg. "And as for students who haven't been abroad, we hope to help them in their research by giving them access to feedback of their peers and other students."

If a program is not listed on the Web site yet, users can add it to the list of programs after registering for an account on the site. A rankings section also lists the top-rated programs based on the overall ratings from users.

Van Wagenberg said he felt the other sources for this kind of information focused too much on the details of a program, instead of on feedback from past participants.

Junior Diana Wong, who went abroad last fall, said a site like rateyourstudyabroad.com would have been useful if she had known about it when searching for a study abroad program.

"There are a lot of study abroad programs in China, and I chose The Beijing Center mainly because of word-of-mouth," Wong said.

The International Programs Office has an evaluation program in place for students who have returned from studying abroad.

The online evaluation form, which contains a combination of scale and open-ended questions, allows students to evaluate their experience based on the quality of academics, student services, preparedness and weekly budgets.

"The evaluation is intended to kick start the reflection process, as well as provide information for students who are contemplating studying abroad," said Vidalino Raatior, assistant director for International Programs.

The evaluations are available on the university's Web site.

"A Web site that would let me read stuff about which programs are good and which ones are not would definitely be helpful," said Wong.

However, the anonymous nature of rateyourstudyabroad.com might cause some problems. It could affect the site's credibility and could possibly result in inaccurate postings, Wong said.

Raatior said the International Programs evaluations are not anonymous.

"The process becomes more of a reflective one, rather than one where the student might just want to vent or rant," he said.

According to Raatior, over 500 students petitioned to study abroad last year, which is about 60 percent of the junior class.

Contact Genna Tan at (408) 554-4546 or gbtan@scu.edu.