Overview

Considering study abroad during your time in SEFS and the UW?  The UW Study Abroad office is here to help!

How to Find a Study Abroad Program that Works for You

The Study Abroad office offers a Getting Started page with instructions and videos to guide you over the basics of understanding all of your Study Abroad options and finding a suitable program.  To get started, there are three steps:

Step 1: Learn the Basics, which features two brief video courses:

• Study Abroad 101
• Let’s Talk Money

Step 2: Create an Advising Profile

Step 3: Find your program and apply – [keyword searches can be as easy as Environmental Science, or internships, or Engineering, for example.]

Additional Resources for Identifying a Study Abroad Program for Yourself

Various SEFS faculty offer UW-affiliated study abroad programs regularly, and those will be heavily publicized in SEFS as well as findable in the UW Study Abroad database.  Related departments whose faculty offer study abroad programs include Environmental Studies (From Seattle and Bothell campuses), Biology, and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Please make an appointment with the Study Abroad office for advising especially if you are not able to find a suitable program on your own.  You can make an appointment anytime after you create your advising profile (which happens in Step 2 on the Getting Started Page) and are in fact prompted to make an appointment after your advising profile is complete.  You are making an investment in your learning so you should feel confident you have found the best program for you.

Choosing a UW-Affiliated Study Abroad Program

SEFS Students are strongly encouraged to pursue a UW-affiliated study abroad program; all programs in the UW study abroad database are UW affiliated, meaning that either the UW runs them directly, or the programs offered by other institutions meet a critical set of minimum standards that are best-practices in Study Abroad education.  There are hundreds of choices of programs available.  If you don’t see a program in the database, be sure to contact studyabroad@uw.edu to see if it might be available.  For example, many large UW-affiliated study abroad programs, such as SIT: School of International Training, do not have all of their many programs in the UW study abroad program database, but all of their programs are eligible if you ask.

UW Policies on official international student travel are posted in the UW Policy Directory.

If you decide to select a study abroad program not affiliated with the UW Study Abroad office

It is possible, though not encouraged, to find a study abroad program that is unaffiliated with the UW Study Abroad office. The UW Study Abroad office provides the following information to any student who contacts their office about attending a non-UW-affiliated Study Abroad program:

You have expressed an interest in undertaking foreign travel, which may include an academic component, outside of any official UW Study Abroad program.

UW Study Abroad and UW Global Travel Security strongly recommend that all UW students planning to study abroad do this through a vetted and supported official UW program, especially during the current high-risk international environment.

Travel outside of an official UW study abroad program is considered independent and personal travel and does not comply with the UW Student International Travel Policy.

Students who travel abroad outside of an official UW study abroad program:

• are considered independent travelers by the UW
• will not be enrolled at UW during their travel
• will not be able to purchase, or be covered by, UW student study abroad insurance
• will not be supported by UW Global Travel Security through our 24/7 emergency support
• will not be able to have any foreign credits transferred or approved through UW Study Abroad

Students who make the decision to attend an unaffiliated study abroad program are responsible for evaluating the quality of the program they choose, notifying any affected UW office affected by a 1 quarter absence from the UW (such as Financial Aid or Veterans Education Benefit Office), and sending a transfer transcript back to the UW Office of Admissions with the college credit you have completed.  All UW students are allowed to take a quarter off from the UW during Autumn-Spring quarters without affecting UW re-enrollment.  Students gone for two or more quarters during Autumn-Spring must reenroll at the UW as a returning student.