Season your studies with immersion in new cultures and places

Living amidst a culture that’s new to you is the best way to form the international perspective essential to thriving in today’s global village. About two-thirds of Bates students earn academic credit for study abroad, giving the College one of the highest participation rates of any U.S. college or university.

Global opportunities

Opportunities to experience unfamiliar cultures begin in the first year with the Bates Fall Semester Abroad programs. Students undertake intensive language study, combined with four months of interdisciplinary courses driven by the particular characteristics of the host country.

In springtime, students can take part in off-campus programs that are part of Bates’ Short Term — a five-week semester distinguished by intensive educational offerings distinct from regular-semester courses.

And many Bates students spend a junior semester or year abroad. Studying at respected institutions, they experience daily life in an unaccustomed land as they stay with host families or in student housing.

They also may join selected study-abroad programs sponsored by other U.S. colleges or international organizations. Classical studies in Rome, Indian history and culture in Tamil Nadu and Japanese language in the historic city of Kyoto are among the possibilities for study away offered by consortiums in which Bates takes part.

Off-campus study in the U.S.

Bates’ five-year Dual Degree Engineering Program leads to a B.A. or B.S. from Bates and a B.S. from an affiliated school of engineering.

The Washington Semester Program, administered by American University, enables students to scrutinize firsthand the workings of government, NGOs and the private sector in the nation’s capital.

Research internship settings include the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. During a semester at Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport, students can take oceanography, American maritime history and literature courses — and spend a few weeks at sea.

In a longstanding exchange program linked to Benjamin Mays ‘20, longtime president of Morehouse College, Bates students can study for a semester or a year at Morehouse and at Spelman College, both in Atlanta.

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