Summer and Winter Study Abroad Opportunities

by Julia Gardner

Interested in studying abroad, but not able to fit a full semester into your schedule? Many program providers also offer winter and summer study abroad experiences, and you can even transfer credits earned back to Wesleyan!

Many winter abroad programs have deadlines throughout October or at the beginning of November. Some of the providers offering January-term programs include, but are certainly not limited to:

  • AIFS offers both subject-area and language courses in Italy, England, Spain, Costa Rica, South Africa, France, Austria, and Portugal, with deadlines throughout October. 
  • CIEE offers 31 January-term programs all across the world, the deadlines for most of which are November 1. 
  • ISA still has open programs in Chile, Spain, France, and Italy; please keep in mind that business course credits are unable to transfer back to Wesleyan.
  • TEAN Abroad’s South Korea programs have November 1 deadlines.

If you’re interested in transferring credits for a winter study abroad program, you should attend a First Steps meeting with the Office of Study Abroad by October 30th, which can be scheduled here. As a reminder, winter break is from December 15 to January 22; many “J-term” programs end before the beginning of winter break, but it’s important to double check to make sure that the program you’re interested in ends before the spring semester begins on January 23.

If you’re hoping to study abroad in the summer, it’s never too early to start thinking about programs and scholarships. The Critical Language Scholarship is a competitive, fully funded opportunity offering summer study in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu, with an application due in mid-November. Wesleyan will be having an information session on CLS and the application process in mid-October, so stay tuned for more information!

Most other summer programs have applications due later in the year, but if you think you may be interested, it’s great to start identifying programs and scholarships.

Wesleyan financial aid does not extend to summer and winter programs, but there are plenty of external funding opportunities. Many study abroad providers offer scholarships and/or financial aid, which can be found on their website. External grants, such as the Gilman Scholarship, Freeman-Asia, Explore the World Scholarship, Fund for Education Abroad, and many more are also available. Students applying for a summer abroad program may also be eligible for a Wesleyan Summer Grant; more information can be found here. As always, if you have any questions about study abroad, the Office of Study Abroad is here to help! You can find information here, as well as opportunities to sign up for advising and First Steps meetings. We hope to see you soon!