The Case Against Taking a Semester Abroad

Before you pack your bags for Europe, ask yourself what you’re leaving behind on the banks of the Charles.

Harvard currently advertises a wide range of study abroad programs through the Office of International Education, ranging from Argentina to Amsterdam, from Britain to Bishkek. While such programs are exceptional opportunities to experience foreign places, sacrificing a semester in Cambridge is detrimental to both the individual and the communities Harvard expressly seeks to cultivate.

Harvard is exceptional — there’s no way around it. While there are numerous pull factors to go abroad, from cultural immersion to resume building, we are blessed with an unmatched, one-of-a-kind learning environment. The opportunity cost in forgoing our University’s resources during term time is simply too drastic.

We urge our fellow students to seize the opportunities around us on a daily basis: the exceptional professors, communities, and resources that gain us intimate access to the highest echelons of social impact. The reality is that we only have eight semesters at the College, marking about 120 weeks of instruction. It’s our imperative to seize every single one of them. Nothing can replicate the intellectual breadth and depth of Harvard; to be absent for a semester amounts to a waste, however small, of one’s capacity for meaningful learning.

But above all, leaving Harvard during term-time has consequences for what we leave behind.

At a college where almost everyone has a jam-packed schedule, it’s easy to feel lost without tight-knit student communities. To leave Cambridge, and by extension these communities, is to abandon one’s peers. For the sake of simplicity, imagine if your favorite club executive departed for a few months. Even if the organization filled the leadership role to right the ship until their return, what would be the cost? While abroad, the executive’s intangible relationships with fellow members would diminish, and it would hinder the club’s social dynamic.

This hypothetical may seem extraneous at first glance, but many of us Harvard students are leaders in our respective extracurriculars, and we each bring specific, irreplaceable qualities to the table. Semesters abroad ultimately remove undergraduates from what matters: Harvard communities.

Spending a semester elsewhere ultimately harms both your college experience and the experiences of others. In a nutshell, the costs outweigh the benefits, and they extend beyond the individual in question.

But let us be clear: We are by no means against studying abroad during winter and summer breaks. At a time when classes are out, clubs are less active, and Cambridge sees a mass exodus of college students, it makes perfect sense to dedicate a period of concentrated time and effort to learning in a new environment. In fact, the summer recess is essentially the same length as the fall semester.

Harvard’s Office of International Education reports that over 50 percent of Harvard undergraduates study abroad, and anecdotally, a large chunk of students who study abroad do so during breaks — perhaps in recognition of the value offered by time on campus.

And while a summer abroad is not the same thing as a semester abroad (for one, other colleges will likely also be on recess), we believe most of the benefits often cited as reasons to study abroad remain salient. While working in a foreign nation on a school break, you can still learn from exceptional professors and industry leaders while conducting research or exploring new intellectual fields.

We won’t be at Harvard forever. The world, on the other hand, will always be out there. Don’t sacrifice your limited time at the University — rather, treat your moments here with intentionality.

Kai I. Russell ’29, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Adams House. Cyrus P. Sarfaty ’29, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Adams House.