I have several different opportunities to study abroad through my university all over the world. I pay my home school tuition and I just have to pay living fees to the university I choose. The professors keep saying it "will look good on your resume," but I think that any amount of long term travel would look good, even if it wasn't in college. I was wondering if it would be best to wait and travel independently after I graduate college?

Go! Traveling on your own is great, but unless you are doing something and not just bumming around it won't do much for a resume. BUT if you go to school there, with possibly an internship that will really turn heads after college.

I wish I would have done that, but it was cheaper for me to bum around europe for a couple of months. You can always travel for fun, but how often can you go to school in a different country and pay your school's tuition? Not often.

What are you going to school for?

Do both. Sure, this may mean waiting longer before the independant travel can happen, but it will be worth it.

Living in a different country is completely different from just visiting, and there's not that many situations where it's easy actually get that living experience. Studying abroad is one of those situations, so it's well worth it to take the opportunity while you have it.

Last summer I travelled independently for about 6 weeks, split in half by a summer school session in Turkey. It was all fantastic, but studying in Turkey was much more meaningful experience, as I got to make some local friends, get to know the culture and the city better, etc, etc. It's a lot harder to do that hopping around place to place. And independent travel probably won't look good on your resume, as others have said.

Thanks for the feedback

I would take the opportunity to travel during schooling. You can always travel independently later on if you enjoy the experience.

I chose to delay and travel after graduation. I'm glad I did because 1) I loved my school, 2) I got the chance to double major, and 3) I didn't have to leave my friends.

I took off for a one-year RTW trip after college graduation. Obviously I was lucky - most people can't afford to do that. So I would say do as much travel as you can afford. If you can do both, then do it. If travel during college is your only opportunity, then take advantage of it.

And definitely take advantage of the opportunity to live with a host family when you study abroad. It's very difficult to do this during solo/independent travel.

Do both! I am. I studied abroad for my entire Junior year, and now that I've graduated I'm going out again!-- This time more confident with experience. And many others I know who have studied abroad were also motivated to travel again after graduation, this time with a better idea of how they ought to do it. There is no either/or. Travel as much as possible.

Study abroad now, I did it for a year and loved it!!! Usually what happens is that you get the travel bug and then spend, every second of the day dreaming about traveling but reading travel forums and blogs!!!

I would do both. I do wish I could go back in time to do the study abroad program. I did few of them while I was in university and really miss it. Like Conti said, you can always do the solo trip whenever you want when you are done with school. There are many benefit of being student while travel; lower price for student i.e. air ticket, museums, and so on. Plus study abroad provides you a different view on each destination with different way to meet friends, so you can take advantage of that point and keep it as a resource for your future independent travel

General answer: both!

More specific answer: definitely study abroad while you have the chance. I did both in high school (junior year to Sweden) and university (junior year in New Zealand, which turned into my final year since I ended up transferring and settling on graduating a year earlier than planned). Living abroad, as I'm sure you know, is a completely different experience than traveling abroad- each has its own benefits and drawbacks, but it's cool to try both, and during university is one of the absolute easiest times to try out living abroad. There are scholarships, field courses overseas, tons of opportunities like that... and then, of course, there's the pretty standard study abroad. Independent study abroad is a good thing to look into (this way, you usually end up paying tuition directly to your host university rather than your home uni, which can end up being significantly cheaper. To give you an idea, a year in NZ- where I'm studying now- is about $20k US, including tuition, rent, and airfare. Tuition in Canada, where I was studying before, was about $25-27k US. Tuition in the States, where I'm originally from... well, more).

Studying abroad, far from preventing you from traveling in the future, can both save you some money and open up some cool doors in terms of post-grad job opportunities overseas, if that's something you might be interested in pursuing. Foreign employers like to see that you have experience living away from your home country.

Study abroad while you can. Be careful to find a program with some discipline and rigour. There are too many programs that take your 20 or 30 grand and provide a sub-par education. Check around.

But by all means, study abroad for a year. It will really open your horizons, you'll make plenty of friends from another country, and you'll get an inside look at the culture you would not get just popping about and looking at the sights.

It's also very good for your resume, and don't scoff at that. If your resume doesn't look good, job hunting can be a very hard thing indeed.

As many have posted, study abroad now! I studied in Russia, Japan, the Bahamas, and finally China (my school had an awesome program). It's very hard to leave for longer periods of time, such as a few weeks or months, once you're working. Plus, if you do travel with the school, you can get class credit (no boring history class for this kid!) and it's Significantly cheaper! Just make sure that you have a professor with you that speaks the native language, and always be a smart traveler. Look up tips before you go anywhere, and learn some cultural norms that are from this millenium.

I went to Japan, and read that sitting at the table is a huge deal so don't sit until everyone else has sat down. I stayed with a host family, and they were so confused on why I wouldn't sit down at the first dinner. Made for a funny story but I'm sure I came off as this bizarre American.