For many college students, studying abroad is somewhat of a rite of passage. In fact, the number of American students studying abroad has nearly doubled since 1999 with students traveling to places such as Spain, Italy, and even China to pursue college credit and immerse themselves in a foreign culture. At least, that's the idea. As we see more and more students going abroad in pursuit of higher education, we must ask ourselves why. Is it that students are realizing the importance of globalization and the need for expanded cultural mindsets? Or is it, for them, a glorified vacation that comes with the added bonus of college credit?

The United Kingdom is the most popular location for American students studying abroad, with hundreds of exchange programs that make it convenient and relatively painless to secure a student visa. It's interesting to think about the UK being the most popular destination for students traveling abroad because of its striking similarities to American culture. I can only imagine the advertising slogans.

Don't want to learn the local language? No problem. For a small fee of triple your semesterly tuition, you don't have to! Come to England, where you can eat fried fish and french fries and call it exotic!

Don't get me wrong, the United Kingdom has some amazing opportunities available for students, with thousands of museums, some of the world's most elite universities, and a plethora of historical sites and artifacts. However that may be, it doesn't justify the massive amounts of money that you'll pay for these travel abroad programs when the same experiences could be had for half the price sans the college credit.

But, having the American mindset of "go big or go home," (literally) we can't help but become wrapped up in the idea of studying abroad because it's engrained in our consumer based culture. Make more money, buy more things. Make more money, buy even more things, including elaborate study abroad programs. NYU's Global Academic Program Center has one of these programs, offering students the opportunity to study in Ghana while living in fully furnished luxury apartments. The program costs around $30,000, which is roughly 1000 times more than the cost to feed and clothe an impoverished African family for an entire year. Seems worth it.

Before everyone who's participated in a study abroad program hunts me down with pitchforks, let me elaborate. By no means am I bashing the idea of studying abroad, I'm just saying that the whole concept needs updating. The entire point of studying abroad is to do just that. Study abroad. That means taking classes that you otherwise would not have been able to take, or engaging in genuine cultural experiences that you would otherwise not have been able to participate in. I'm sorry, but if you're taking freshman comp in Paris, you're doing it wrong. Likewise to the people who spend their time abroad caravanning off on expensive excursions to cheesy tourist filled booby traps. Studying abroad in London? For the low price of $850, XYZ company will fly you over to Dublin and escort you on a pub crawl complete with a tour of the Guinness Brewery and a free forehead sticker that says, “I'm a Tourist". You picked your host country for a reason. You can't expect to be immersed in the culture of a particular area when you aren't around long enough to be subjected to it.

So before you whip out your wallets and spend a small fortune on on a study abroad program, I want you to think about a few things. Think about the reasons why you're studying abroad and what specifically appeals to you about the country of your choosing. Does your program offer something that you otherwise wouldn't have access to in the United States? What are you looking to gain from this experience? By asking ourselves these questions, we can begin to break down the concept of travel altogether and start to question ourselves as a generation. Are we searching for enlightenment or are we just entitled?