Why SAS?

Your Most Valuable College Semester

  • More bang
    for your buck

    8-15 destinations
    2-4 continents
    24,500 nautical miles
    Transferable credit from U.Va.

  • 98% of
    SAS alums

    report it's their most significant semester of college.

  • Global
    experience

    for your resume or graduate school.

  • Coolest campus
    on earth

    7 deck, 590-foot ship where you learn, live, travel, and reflect.

  • World-class
    faculty

    Plus experts, including Nobel Prize winners, world leaders, and TED speakers.

  • Fits easily into
    4 years of college

    Offers the course requirements you need for your major or enhances it with a global perspective.

  • Exposure to
    world issues

    on the ground through faculty-led trips and service projects that make a difference.

Learning Goals and Outcomes

Semester at Sea introduces undergraduate students to global and comparative studies by focusing on structural and social changes taking place in the world today by:

  1. Building the insight necessary for perceiving and understanding our increasingly complex and interdependent world.
  2. Learning how to interact with cultures and peoples of developed and emerging nations.
  3. Developing a better awareness of one's own culture through comparison and contrast with other cultures.
  4. Observing and understanding world issues through first-hand observation.
  5. Learning to think critically, with knowledge and understanding about the variety of issues and opportunities that challenge today's world.
  6. Developing a better understanding of the relationship between the United States and other nations of the world.
  7. Learning about one’s self through service learning projects.
  8. Growing through the challenge of living and learning in a closely integrated shipboard community.

Personal Benefits
of Studying
Abroad on SAS

Why Are Students Choosing SAS?

  • Improved understanding of the world
  • Greater awareness of cultural difference
  • Improved self-confidence and autonomy
  • Improved flexibility and understanding of multiple perspectives
  • Better understanding of own culture
  • Greater acceptance of others and their own opinions
  • Ability to live in close community

What Makes Our Program Unique

Why Global Comparative, Not Immersion?

While an immersion experience in a single country is a long-standing tradition in study abroad, Semester at Sea’s global, comparative model is an opportunity to embark on the educational and experiential journey of a lifetime.

Maximum value for the investment

Dollar for dollar, it's the highest impact, most valuable study abroad choice available in terms of miles traveled, countries experienced, and cultures explored. Plus you receive transferable college credit from one of the most prestigious public universities in the nation.

A taste of the whole world

If you are working towards a profession that doesn't leave room for extensive travel abroad, seeing several countries during one semester provides you with one of the only times in your life when you'll be able to travel to so many parts of the world. You'll likely never have the time again in your life to journey and learn about several different places.

Merges sensory experiences with academic insight

Programs that enable you to visit multiple countries aren't vacations—they are opportunities to learn about each country intensively and with an open mind. No guide book can teach you more about a country than a professor who has expertise in a theme or area of the world.

Teaches adaptability and sensitivity

Every country you visit will have different cultural characteristics - dictated by the dominant religion, the geography, the climate, the political system. Navigating so many different places in such a short time teaches you to be adaptable and to notice the differences between places.

Access to
Remarkable
Organizations

Apply Now