Judging by the sheer amount of Education Abroad Program (EAP) peer advisors who burst into our lecture halls brimming with enthusiasm, you’d think that the process of trying to study abroad would be a little less hellishly frustrating than it is. Clad in their token EAP shirts and reciting the words “Affordable! Easy! Credits for your major!” with robotic frequency, our peer advisors fail to mention that “Education Abroad Program” is merely a euphemism for “Take out loans and graduate two years late.”
I’ve been in the EAP office a total of four times. I’ve left the EAP office with useful information I couldn’t have googled myself a total of zero times. I’ve begrudgingly walked out of the EAP office with a stack of vague fliers, links to websites that any competent pre-EAPer has been on at least 15 times and the email addresses of 30 different “administrators” who all “were not currently available to answer my question” a total of what seems like infinite times. When our school has dedicated (probably bloated) salaries and funding to an entire department, one would expect answers to the simplest questions, such as “Are there scholarships available?” wouldn’t have to be redirected to an entirely different department (you try getting Stephanie from Financial Aid on the phone for more than two seconds — it ain’t easy). When my tuition fees are going towards the funding of this large office in South Hall, I expect one advisor to be available when I walk in, and I expect one informed person to be able to give me information regarding credits and my major so that I don’t have to go to the Economics department with a list of questions they are not equipped to answer. I expect something, anything more than a peer advisor leading me to a computer to direct me to a page of information that is almost stupidly obvious to the average person. Call me bitter, but when I listen to a program’s presentations at least 15 times per quarter I expect something more than false advertising.
Thanks to the futility of the EAP office, I have now made the following appointments to try to gather an ounce of information about what the hell it is I’m supposed to do before I frolic around a foreign country:
- Appointment with the (equally useless) advisors of Cheadle Hall to make sure I don’t graduate in 2020.
- Appointment with the Global Studies advisor (whose availability is basically nonexistent).
- Appointment with the Economics advisor (this one has been completed — it consisted of a fourth-year peer advisor telling me to go to EAP. I chuckled).
- Appointment with the Financial Aid department to see what level of disappointment I should look forward to when I’m told that only loans are available (but they’re subsidized!!).
- Appointment with my own damn computer for three hours spent rummaging through the course offerings of three different European universities while trying to see if there are equivalents to any of the courses at UCSB.
- Appointment with C.A.P.S. because I’m frustrated as hell that no one is available for any damn appointments and it’s giving me anxiety. I’m only half joking.
EAP, your job is being done by a computer, yet my tuition is paying for your salaries. Next time please try to provide some semblance of information that isn’t already put on a flier, because trying to coordinate five different appointments with four entirely different departments is not the “easy and quick” process I’ve been promised. Have someone who can tell students specific information about their major. Have a representative from Financial Aid on staff, in office and ready to dole out realistic information. And for god’s sake, stop handing out fliers to every breathing creature that enters your doors, because you’re severely wasting paper.
*P.S: If you’re going to offer candy at the reception desk as an attempt to distract students from the utter lack of usefulness of your office, at least make sure it’s not expired — my stomach hurts.
I have a perfect headline for this: “Rich privileged self-entitled student’s problems.”
Yeah there are problems that are worse but this is still really annoying. You are obnoxious.
Who wrote this? I look forward to attacking your lazyness and sense of entitlement with a rebuttal article.
This was my exact experience with them. So frustrating.
Dear Sabrina Hodjati, For someone who apparently doubles in Economics and Global Studies, I expected more substantial arguments when complaining about an office that sends hundreds of students abroad every year. The people in the office are not there to wait on you hand and foot when you walk in. First off, UCSB offers over 60 majors and 40 minors offered. Do you really expect every adviser in that office to know every detail about your 2 majors? Major requirements, GE requirements, and course offerings change all the time at UCSB so not everyone knows your specific requirements for your… Read more »
“I hate to break it to you, but the real world requires a lot of paperwork and a wild goose chase of people to get signatures. If you think finding answers about studying abroad is hard, good luck for if/when you file taxes, file for permits, read your new hire contract, or even getting a passport. I’m sorry someone wasn’t here to just do all that work for you.”
Wow, you couldn’t be more spot on. Also I’d like to add that your experience is far more common than Sabrina’s.
^SUCH A GREAT RESPONSE!!!!
I’d have to agree with the author and disagree with the comments before mine that argue that “all paperwork sucks anyway” and “get used to it, this is life.” In my own experience, EAP advisors have been extremely unhelpful about things they should already know – for example, when to get a student visa in another country if needed, which courses will be offered for the term versus what courses had been previously offered during the program and would NOT be available when the time came to enroll for classes, etc. I found myself going in circles a few times… Read more »
If you look at the UCEAP website there are clear instructions about visa requirements. And you do know that it’s the host universities that decide what classes they offer not UCEAP right? We can’t tell a university in Ghana what classes they should and shouldn’t have for that semester.
I’d also like to point out that visa requirements are always changing so of course they don’t have that memorized for over 40 countries. Try studying abroad with a non-EAP program because that’s a lot more work. If you can’t handle the few things EAP asks you to do then honestly how do you expect to be able to function in a foreign country.
If you didn’t want to pay the price for going to Europe then you’re probably not going to do well when you frolic into the real world.
If you think a salary of 30k is bloated then you’re gonna love your first job’s salary.
Would you care for some cheese to go with that unbearably bitter whine? Sounds like a lot of the things you complained about were due either to your own incompetence or they were things that the EAP peer advisors have no control over. So before you take it upon yourself to place blame on people that genuinely want to help their peers have the experience of a lifetime (rather than simply “frolic”), I suggest you revisit your claims and make sure they’re actually factual/valid (because most of them are not). PS: Get a damn hobby and some tums for the… Read more »
I just recently went studying abroad this fall, and all I can say is that the people working in the UCEAP office are all incompetent fucks just chillin around in a office spinning a globe around. During my time abroad, UCEAP was inconsiderate, rude, and unhelpful. They had not organized the program I was in properly and had a lot of miscommunications with our host university, and we had to suffer because of them. They caused me to lose a lot of money and time. I wish I went through another 3rd party vendor!!! I FULL ON SUPPORT SABRINA!! Thank… Read more »