Study abroad advice?

[malacoda]

Hi everyone,

 

So, this is my first post here, let me know if there's a more specific place buried somewhere around the forum where I should be posting this…

 

Anyway, I'm an undergraduate senior Comparative Literature major.  I've just finished off (most) of my applications for graduate Comparative Literature programs, and I'm also working on fellowship applications to study for a year in France.  Right now I concentrate more on English and Italian than anything else (I spent a year in Italy), but I'd like to pull in French as well as a graduate student.  Ideally, I'd hope to get into graduate school, then defer for a year to work on my French.

 

But--for a number of reasons personal and practical, I've been wavering about whether another full year abroad is necessarily the greatest idea.  I think I will definitely try to spend the summer in France, to try and get in a good three months or so of language practice, which I hope would make a difference before I begin my graduate work.

 

Anyway, I guess my big question is: would it be foolish for me to pass up this coming year to study abroad?  Given that I'm a comparatist interested in language study?  

Or do graduate students tend to find summers and/or whatever they manage while working on their dissertations to be adequate immersion time?

 

Thanks!

[juilletmercredi]

I'm not in the humanities, but I'm in a social science field in which people frequently do international research.  And yes, grad students do typically find time to go abroad if they need to for their dissertation research.  I have several doctoral student friends who have gotten funding to do fieldwork abroad.  However, you usually have to find funding for it.  Most of the students I know got Fulbright full grants to go abroad, but there are a variety of other funding mechanisms for it.

 

I don't see any scholarly reason why you shouldn't take that year abroad, though, especially if you need French language in your research and this will help you strengthen your skills in that area.  I don't know your individual circumstances so I don't know whether it would be foolish for you to pass it up, but I don't see any reason why you should feel like you shouldn't do it.  Graduate school will still be here when you return.