Semester at Sea big at Pitt

When searching for opportunities to study abroad, many students look to programs based in cities around the world, such as Rome, Paris or Buenos Aires. There is another option, however, that students should know about as well.

The Semester at Sea program allows students to travel around the world on a cruise ship, visiting different cultures and cities across the globe. Rather than being based in one country for the entirety of their time abroad, Semester at Sea students have the opportunity to see a wide swath of global culture that they otherwise might miss.

The program is academically sponsored by the University of Virginia and based in Charlottesville, Va., but before 2005, it was administered by the University of Pittsburgh. Despite no longer being the academic sponsor, Pitt still sends more students than most schools every semester. The Semester at Sea office in Central Oakland, independent of the University, displays the program's lasting presence in the Pitt community.

The Semester at Sea program started in 1963, run off the decks of the MS Seven Seas. Today, the ship used is the MV Explorer, but the program is still true to its roots: Visiting more than 14 countries, the latest Semester at Sea voyage has taken students as far afield as Chennai, India and Kobe, Japan. The MV Explorer is specially outfitted as a floating university and is recognized by the organization as being one of the safest passenger ships on the sea.

The converted cruise ship includes classrooms and facilities, as well as an 8,000-volume library, wireless Internet and a computer lab. Designed to be lived in continuously, it supports more than 800 students and staff as they journey to ports of call around the world.

There are programs in all three semesters of each year. Of these, the fall and spring programs last for a full semester, and the summer program spans 10 weeks. Students take classes onboard the ship between port stops, and during their stops they have the opportunity to take additional field trips and explore on their own.

Although Pitt no longer sponsors the program, there are still scholarships available to help defray the costs to students. Tuition and room and board for the program can reach around $18,000, which can be a high price for many students to pay, especially when many of the side trips have additional costs as well. Generally, about 40 percent of students receive aid, and the program has more than $2 million to grant.

Despite the cost, though, the Semester at Sea program claims more than 45,000 people as alumni on its Web site and 734 students currently taking the voyage. The minimum GPA required to be eligible for the program is 2.75, levying some exclusivity to the proceedings as well.

For those students looking for a more varied and diverse experience than traditional study abroad programs have to offer, Semester at Sea can be an attractive alternative.