Column by Timothy Kroboth

Want to study in Hawaii or the Caribbean and still pay UK tuition?

All around campus this week, signs have advertised UK’s study abroad information fair, but did you choose not to go?

You may have had valid reasons for dismissing notions of study abroad.

Although spending a semester or year away from UK sounds cool, cultural differences or language barriers in another country can be intimidating.

On the other hand, even if you long for an opportunity to tackle the challenges of adapting to a new campus environment, expenses in studying overseas may be prohibitive.

But you are not stuck in Lexington. National Student Exchange can be your ticket.

Through NSE, which is an exchange program of about 200 member colleges and universities, you can study abroad almost anywhere in the U.S. for about the same cost as you would pay at UK.

NSE minimizes culture and cost differences and maximizes campus options. The boundaries of NSE territory stretch from the University of Guam to the University of the Virgin Islands. In between, NSE participants can select among the likes of the University of Washington, Texas A&M, and the University of Connecticut.

Do you know where you are going next year yet? Unless you already have your heart set on going to a beach-side school on a tropical island, choosing among 200 institutions will not be easy.

You can take notes on how current NSE students decided to attend UK.

Taryn Pachuca, an elementary and bilingual education Spanish and linguistics senior from New Mexico State University, used an unorthodox method in picking UK.

“I closed my eyes and picked four places on the map I had never been and then narrowed it down from there based on some criteria.”

One of her criteria was that the NSE destination would include a chapter of the sorority she rushed at New Mexico State.

As an NSE student from Winthrop University in South Carolina, I established my own diverse set of criteria in selecting among the 200 options before picking UK.

As a lifelong sports fan, I wanted to study abroad at a university with a rich sports tradition. Winthrop University does not have a football team, and the sports teams it does have play in an obscure mid-major Division I conference. Studying at UK through NSE has given me the opportunity to experience big-time Southeastern Conference sports. Besides offering SEC sports, my NSE destination also needed to offer intermediate Arabic courses, which are unavailable at Winthrop University.

Furthermore, I chose UK due in part to its out-of-state location. I wanted to live in another area of the U.S. after having resided in the Carolinas my entire life. But using a set of criteria is not required.

Lang Van Dommelen, an avid rock climber and a political science and environment and society junior from the University of Alaska Anchorage, said that he selected UK because of its proximity to Red River Gorge.

Regardless of how you choose your NSE destination, heed Pachuca’s advice to “be picky about your (NSE) school and make sure it is going to have everything you need for school and social reasons.”

UK NSE Coordinator Kelly Crume has described NSE as “an amazing program” for “ambitious, excited and determined students that want to do something a little different … to enhance their undergraduate experience and get a step ahead of their peers.”

I love Winthrop University, but coming to UK on exchange has given me experience as an undergraduate student in two very different learning environments: a small public liberal arts university and a large research university, both of which I have come to appreciate and enjoy.

At UK, I have cheered with 70,000 blue-clad fans in Commonwealth Stadium, continued learning Arabic and developed friendships with wonderful individuals I would not have met elsewhere. What unique opportunities would you miss by not participating in NSE?

What are you waiting for?