Open Doors 2025<\/a>, a report last year from the Institute of International Education (IIE). \u00a0The figure placed SDSU fourth in California for the number of students studying abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cFor many students, the study abroad experience is transformative, reshaping how they view the world and their place in it,\u201d said Cristina Alfaro, associate vice president of SDSU International Affairs. \u201cThese experiences have led them to reimagine their career paths toward making meaningful contributions to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among California universities, SDSU trailed the University of Southern California (2,245), University of California Berkeley (2,140) and UCLA (1,796) for the number of students participating in study abroad programs.<\/p>\n
SDSU\u2019s study abroad cohort increased 25 percent compared with the prior year. Italy, Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Japan were the most popular destinations.<\/p>\n
Open Doors reported 298,180 U.S. students studied abroad for academic credit in 2023-24, up 6 percent from the prior year. New York University, the perennial leader in the Open Doors tally, was on top again.<\/p>\n
SDSU ranked 36th nationally. Within the university, colleges sending the most students abroad were Health and Human Services, Fowler College of Business, Arts and Letters, Sciences and Professional Studies and Fine Arts.<\/p>\n
SDSU historically has produced high study abroad rates, ranking in the top 10 nationally for six consecutive years between 2015-21.<\/p>\n
The pandemic, however, derailed study abroad across the country, and it has yet to fully recover. Nationwide, participation still lags the 347,099 students who studied abroad in the year prior to COVID travel restrictions, according to Open Doors data.<\/p>\n
Multiple options<\/p>\n
SDSU has maintained its commitment to global learning opportunities for students. Diverse destinations and programs are available, ranging from a full semester or academic year abroad to short-term international experiences that take place during winter break, spring break and summer.<\/p>\n
In addition, the university provides financial assistance and encourages students to apply for scholarships to help defray the cost of international study. Associated Students also contributes $400,000 annually for study-abroad awards.<\/p>\n
Over the past year, SDSU student demand for study abroad opportunities has been gaining momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn spring 2025, we had the largest number of SDSU students abroad that we’ve ever seen during a spring semester, and we’re on track to have an even higher number abroad during spring 2026,\u201d said Chris Kjonaas, assistant director of SDSU\u2019s Global Education Office.<\/p>\n
Lopez was part of that Spring 2025 cohort. He had not considered studying abroad before coming to SDSU. But he began looking into it after enrolling. \u201cI did some research and thought, I can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
He made a point of being open to anything, which helped him to connect with classmates. \u201cWe all did my first karaoke together,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was leaving on the airplane, my Japanese friends handed me origami gifts. It was just so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez plans to return to Asia later this year to visit friends he made while studying abroad.<\/p>\n
Another trend coming out of the pandemic: More SDSU students are pursuing career-building programs. About 200 SDSU students participated in international internships in 2024, a three-fold increase over the prior year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach year, students are showing more interest in international internships and career readiness when planning for their global education experience,\u201d said Kjonaas. \u201cIn spite of everything happening in the world, this continued demand for global education experiences is really exciting to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additional information from the Global Education Office about studying abroad can be found online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Lopez left San Diego State University to study abroad in Japan with one suitcase and one goal:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-160607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-san-diego","9":"tag-san-diego-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}