Anyone have ANY information on the SEMESTER AT SEA program?

Question:how much did it cost if u have done it? is it worth it to work on the ship to pay off some of the cost? was it educational or more fun? give me ANY INFO PLEASE!



Answers:
i went on semester at sea, spring 2005 (the one with the "wave incident" - they frequently play our voyage on the weather channel) and let me just tell you... we had possibly the most tumultuous experience and despite that, every single person on that ship would agree that it was the most amazing, eye-opening adventure of our lives. i made friends that i can share stuff with that NOBODY else can possibly understand. ever hear that saying "from the outside looking in, you can't understand it. from the inside looking out, you can't explain it"? that's the only way to describe how i feel about this program. IT IS FABULOUS! and completely one hundred percent worth it. i can't really help you out with the cost amount - i forwent a high school and college gradution present from my family for this trip. they paid the tuition and cost of books, i took care of travel expenses. altgoether i probably spent a good 5grand out-of-pocket (reminding you that this does NOT account for tution, room and board, and books). i think that working on the ship is a great way to help alleviate some of the costs (i wasn't granted work-study... it's actually pretty competitive). unlike a lot of the people i met aboard, i wasn't well-traveled. i also went without knowing anyone (which i recommend completely!). i picked some of the big trips to do with the group (such as going to the great wall of china and taking a safari in kenya) but a lot more of the time i just went with it. i would meet a person who didn't have a planned agenda, and then we would plan it together (you can check out lonely planet books aboard in the library). in some countries this proved cost-effective, in others, not-so-much (i.e. i probably would have actually saved more money if i did the SAS Rio trip instead of just going with a group of friends, but I actually saved a lot of money by doing my own thing in India instead of going to the Taj). The other amazing thing about SAS is that every person on that trip will have a completely different experience. As for the educational to fun ratio, all i can tell you is: sure it's fun, and there are definitely times when you go up to the 7th deck to skip out on Global Studies class just to bask in the sun, but more of the time you are concentrating on learning as much as humanly possible. Since it's a small community, the professors really care, and if you are still struggling, there are other people aboard the ship who are more than willing to help out. (in fact, on my voyage, we formed "families" are once a week we would do lunch or dinner or go out together and discuss how we were feeling and new experiences and such). I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on. but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone that went on this trip who'd tell you that they didn't absolutely love it and that, in fact, it was the best time of their life. shoot me an e-mail at stephattulane@yahoo.com and i can give you more info and also hook you up with some other people who can share their experiences.

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