October 2026 – Stalled

The key to having a successful global learning experience is to spend time researching possibilities, thinking about your goals, considering your plans, and talking to others. How do you do that? Read on!

SO YOU WANT TO STUDY ABROAD?

WHAT WE ARE.Global Education Opportunities (GEO) is here to help you plan and make the most of your study abroad experience. We encourage you to speak to returned study abroad/away participants, GEO advisors, your academic advisor(s), and your career advisor to build a study abroad plan that works for you. The more people you speak with, the more research you do, and the more thought you invest in choosing your program, the better your experience will be.

WHAT WE DO. We begin working with students no later than the fall of sophomore year to plan for an away/abroad experience in their junior year or senior fall. We hold regular events and have a proposal cycle wherein students submit their proposed study abroad/away plans to be approved by GEO before applying to their program. GEO is part of DavisConnects and collaborates closely with the Career Design Advisors, Industry and Community Partnerships, Fellowships, and Funding teams.

KEY DATES & DEADLINES

September: GEO Information Sessions. Learn about our process and how to get started.
September: GEO Study Abroad Fair. Meet with representatives from study abroad programs across disciplines & around the world.
November 15: Students submit their Initial Plan to GEO. This lets us know you want to study abroad or away and which semester you intend to go.
February 20: Students submit their Study Abroad Proposal to GEO. We review your proposed plan and approve you to apply to your chosen program or university.
February – October: Students apply externally to study abroad opportunities and domestic programs.

OTHER GLOBAL EXPERIENCES. If you’re not able to study abroad or away for a full semester or academic year, we still encourage you to explore other possibilities for short-term global experiences during Jan Plan or summer. Some other opportunities you can explore include: international internships, independent study or research projects abroad, or enrolling in a faculty-led Jan Plan course.

SO … WHERE DO I GO? We can’t tell you, but we can help you discover the answer! Colby students can choose from over 270 approved programs in more than 70 countries worldwide. We also work with students, faculty, and our off-campus partners to expand study abroad opportunities for students around the world. If you have an idea, we want to hear it! You can make an appointment with a GEO advisor on Handshake.

STUDY ABROAD: MYTHS & FACTS

MYTH: I can’t afford to study abroad.

FACT: Your financial aid at Colby is portable to study abroad/away experiences. This can be further supplemented by scholarships, grants, and financial aid from a variety of sources. We partner closely with Student Financial Services to help all students find opportunities that are financially feasible; cost should not be a barrier even for students with high financial aid.

MYTH: I have to know the language in order to study in my country of choice.

FACT: Colby has a language policy for study abroad, which states that students must complete the 127 course in the language taught here at Colby if they wish to study abroad in a country where that language is spoken. With the exception of primarily English-speaking countries (think Australia, Ireland, etc.) students must also take the local language where they study at the appropriate level. Students who have a strong academic motivation to study in a country where they have no prior language experience and aren’t able to meet the requirement before going abroad can submit a language petition.

MYTH: My grades from abroad don’t matter.

FACT: Colby students must take classes for a letter grade while studying abroad/away (no pass/fail permitted!) Those grades will appear on your transcript, but unless you’re on a Colby-administered program (like Bigelow or Salamanca), they won’t factor into your Colby GPA. So you’ll still see the letter, but your grades won’t impact your Colby GPA.

FACULTY FAUCET

GEO relies on faculty as key partners in this process and you help us set students up for success while away from Colby. Your department page may include specific guidance on study abroad/away for students (and if it doesn’t, we’d love to collaborate to help you develop it!). Faculty advising is particularly helpful as students explore the following questions:

Which semester should I study abroad or away? The sequencing of courses offered in their major or minor can be critical!
What requirements (if any) should I fulfill while abroad? Strategizing with their academic advisors to ensure their study abroad plans will not prevent them from completing their major or graduation requirements within the allotted eight semesters – or fewer, for transfer or dual-degree students – is essential.
Where should I go? Your expertise and perspectives on your field is important in helping students understand what locations or programs would be most complementary to their academic paths and professional interests.

We also gather feedback from faculty on study abroad opportunities, destinations, and our processes. We are happy to visit your classroom or host discipline-specific events for your students, and we can occasionally facilitate faculty site visits. Please reach out to Roger Adkins, Director; Ally Hawkins, Associate Director; or Sue Forbes, Administrative and Program Coordinator if you’d like to collaborate.

We know that emailing is not something that all students do often before they arrive at Colby. But email is the main way that most professors, deans, and other folks at Colby keep you informed about what you need to know. So here are some email hacks to keep you informed and help you communicate professionally.

ESSENTIAL EMAIL INFO

CHECK IT FREQUENTLY. So much information will come your way in the form of an email! And — here’s the kicker — people will assume that you read your mail and therefore know that information that’s in your emails. So, set a calendar reminder to check your email at least twice a week. But checking more frequently is better (we suggest checking email every day).

Frequent email checks mean that you’ll get the information you need as soon as possible. In short, checking your email regularly keeps you well-informed and spares you from missing deadlines (which can cause you all kinds of problems)!

WHAT INFO COMES VIA EMAIL? Many of your professors will use Moodle’s communication tool to let folks in their class know about updates to assignments, shifts in dates for class assignments and tests, and so much more. Those Moodle messages appear in your email. Other professors might skip Moodle altogether and simply email students directly. In both cases, your professors will expect you to have read the information that they sent you. If you haven’t read those emails, you could miss deadlines, misunderstand their expectations, and otherwise struggle needlessly.

But it’s not just your professors who’ll send you email, it’s also your class deans and campus administrators. Class deans are facilitators of your academic success, so information from them can keep you on track to register for classes, let you know about important deadlines, and inform you about opportunities unique to those in your graduating class. Checking your email regularly means you’ll also be better informed about grants, internships, and programming that develops your skills or pertains to your interests.

HOW TO WRITE EMAILS

WHY DO I CARE? Keep in mind that email is still the main communicative channel for most employers and graduate schools, so learning good email habits now will make you a better prepared employee and/or a grad students who starts their program with clear, professional communication skills. Even in the short term, the way that you present yourself in an email can shape the way a professor sees you. Concise, respectful emails leave a better impression on their recipient than vague or meandering ones.

CHECK FIRST. Are you emailing a question to a professor? Check the course syllabus and Moodle page first — those resources will provide the answers to lots of questions!

CLARITY IS KING. Email functions best when its recipient can read it swiftly and understand it immediately. That involves using a subject line that succinctly conveys the topic or purpose. A clear subject line can help professors or other recipients prioritize and respond to messages. Your professors and college administrators receive far more emails each day than you might realize. So, writing a clear subject line helps them know when your situation is pressing versus when you’re simply informing them of something that doesn’t require a response.

Getting to your point quickly is also helpful. That means that you do not need to include overly personal information, “sob stories,” or any other superfluous information. Be polite and concise.

ONE AND DONE. Try to include everything you need in one email. If you send emails in a successive chain, it becomes easy for information or requests to be overlooked. So don’t hit “send” too quickly — think about whether your email includes everything it should.

If your email has a lot of information, and that information is all really necessary, then use bullet points and/or bolding of key points to make reading easier.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Purdue University Online Writing Lab. “Email Etiquette for Students.”

University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Writing Center. “Effective Email Communication.”

University of Wisconsin, Madison Writing Center. “Advice for Students Writing a Professional Email.”

FACULTY FAUCET

Is there anything in the advice above to students that doesn’t fully cover what you expect from students’ emails? Provide a document on your course Moodle page that establishes any guidelines that you want students to observe when they email you. An email template might also be helpful for students, particularly when teaching an introductory-level course when students might have limited email experience.

If you do create such a document, consider adding a note that you expect students to check the rest of the Moodle page, including your course syllabus, before sending you an email. Are there issues that you’d prefer to discuss only in office hours? If so, it’s helpful to clarify those for students in that document, as well.

Month: October 2026

Colby Global Education Opportunities (5.3)

Emails and emailing (5.2)