The Office of International Studies has extended application deadlines to March 21 for its spring of 2012 study abroad programs in Puebla, Santiago and Washington, D.C., Shawn Finlen, coordinator for the Washington, D.C. program, said.
"We wanted to make sure that any student who had a conflict with studying abroad in the fall before was able to apply for the spring, especially for freshmen who may not have really known about their options to study abroad," Finlen said.
Kathleen Opel, director of off-campus programs, said the Office of International Studies (OIS) decided to allow more students to participate in the Puebla, Mexico, and Santiago, Chile, programs because more spaces were available. She said there is no minimum number of students that must participate in the programs in order for them to run.
"In Santiago, [students] go through the Pontificia Universidad Católica [de Chile], so it doesn't matter if we send a few or many," Opel said. "The same is true in Puebla. We are affiliated with a university there. It's not dependent on the number of students … but we were able to take more students, and … we wanted to accommodate people that had applied for Toledo if they were interested in other Spanish-speaking options."
Finlen said although the Washington, D.C. program does not have a required number of students, OIS prefers to send between 10 and 20 students each semester.
Sixteen students have already been accepted to the Washington, D.C. program for the spring of 2012, Finlen said. Opel said approximately eight students have been accepted to the Puebla program and about 12 have been accepted to the Santiago program. About 400 students have been accepted to all study abroad programs for the spring of 2012.
Some students may only be able to study abroad in their sophomore years because of their academic programs, Opel said.
"Students, for example, freshmen, that are just making selections for their future tracks here at Notre Dame may not have realized that they should have applied back in November if they were going to study abroad as a sophomore," Opel said. "This is one way we have to address it."
Summer study abroad programs are another way OIS accommodates students that cannot study abroad during the academic year, Opel said. These students receive priority consideration for admission to summer programs.
Opel said some students that are minoring in Education, Schooling, and Society have recently expressed interest in the Puebla program because of its emphasis on educational internships.
Students have also expressed interest in the Washington, D.C. program since the deadline was extended, Finlen said.
