Welcome to the
Smith Guide for Education Abroad!

Smith College first sent students abroad with the "Junior Year Abroad" program to Paris in 1925. We continue to be a leading liberal arts college in the support of education abroad. 

Nearly 40% of Smith students study abroad for a semester or a year, in a variety of programs in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and English-speaking countries around the world. Education abroad provides a new perspective on your own country; it also provides you with a new view of yourself - of your capacity to adapt, to grow, to be open to new experiences - and perhaps also of your own limitations, which you may want to learn to transcend. Inevitably, it changes your life.

Explore the Approved Program List, learn about the application process, and check the eligibility requirements. Discover how to select a program appropriate for your academic and personal interests and how to pay for your education abroad program.

Students who may not be able to travel internationally are encouraged to explore our newly added options such as the Williams-Mystic Ocean Studies program and the Integrated Studies Program in Puerto Rico. There are also domestic study-away programs at destinations throughout the United States offered through other departments.

Important Dates

Gathering Information

Application Deadlines

Our Goals

• Promote education abroad opportunities that are in keeping with the educational aims of the college

• Provide program options that offer outstanding academic content, instruction, language learning, and cultural immersion opportunities in the host countries

• Ensure other first-rate education abroad opportunities that accommodate a range of disciplines and include diverse regions of the world

• Integrate education abroad into the student's four-year study to the fullest extent possible

Committee on Study Abroad

Education Abroad programming is overseen by faculty on the Committee on  Study Abroad, which is a sub-committee of the Committee on Academic Priorities as part of faculty governance for the Smith curriculum. The Committee on Study Abroad is responsible for the selection, review and approval of programs on the Education Abroad Approved Program List. The Lewis Global Studies Center is charged with the support and oversight of student participation on these programs.