More UW-Madison Students Studying Abroad Than Ever Before, Officials Say

A record number of University of Wisconsin-Madison students are studying abroad.

Ten percent of American college students study abroad before they graduate, but at UW-Madison, nearly 30 percent of students spend a semester or more in a different country.

According to the 2015 Open Doors International Educational Exchange, 2,276 UW-Madison students studied abroad in 2014 — an increase of 5 percent from the previous year.

UW senior Sanjana Segu studied abroad in Paris during her junior year spring semester. “It’s an experience that is really hard to get at any other time in your life,” she said.

Segu said a lot of her peers chose to study abroad. In fact, many of those peers share demographic similarities with her. Nearly two-thirds of students who study abroad are female, and half of them end up going to Europe.

In addition, Segu is pursuing a business degree. Business students make up 25 percent of UW Madison’s study abroad program, a statistic that reflects a nationwide trend of schools encouraging business students to gain international experience. For example, the University of Minnesota requires all undergraduate business students to study abroad.

Despite Minnesota’s mandate, UW-Madison still sends more students abroad than any other Big Ten school.