Frequently Asked Questions About Applying to Study Abroad

The online form is available on our website.

The Registration of Intent is a short online form that you must complete if you are interested in studying away from Middlebury at any point during the 2025-2026 academic year (fall, spring, academic year, or calendar year). Students only interested in summer study away do not need to complete the Registration of Intent form.

The registration process is not binding — you are not committing to a program/university or even to going at all — but you are stating your general interest, giving us a sense of your academic interests and goals in study away. More importantly, you will be ranking your preferred period away (fall, spring, academic year, or calendar year) and providing rationale for your preferred period. By submitting this registration, you are eligible to participate in the study away approval process in February (again, you are welcome to withdraw your intent if you decide studying away is not for you.) 

Again, this form is an opportunity for you to think about the timing of your study away period. Can you study abroad for a year? If you are studying away for a semester, which semester works best? Studying in a particular semester can be based on several factors: required coursework on-campus, taking advantage of academic offerings off-campus, continuing significant co-curricular leadership roles on-campus, athletics, and personal factors.

The deadline is November 1 at 11:59pm. This is a hard deadline, and you must complete this step to be eligible to apply to study away.

Even if you are still unsure about the above, you should complete the form. If you are positive that you will not study off-campus in 2025-2026, you do not need to complete the form.

10 minutes or less!

If you have already identified options, you can list some specific programs/universities in the form, but if you haven’t had a chance to think about your options, that’s totally fine. You can just provide some general ideas.

That’s okay, though we recommend you speak with the department(s) in which you may be interested. It would be helpful to discuss your interests, how the major is mapped out, what courses may be offered next year and/or if there are required courses that are not offered every semester, as well as major courses that students are required to take at Middlebury and/or prior to studying away. You do need to declare your major before you can be approved to study away, which means you will need to declare by mid-January to allow time for your major advisor to approve your study away application (due February 1).

Yes. We recognize that this feels early for Febs, but remember the Registration of Intent is not binding. If you are considering studying away during 2025-26 (even if you are not sure), you must complete the form by November 1.

Term assignments will be distributed to students the week of November 18. 

Not necessarily. If there is a stark imbalance between the fall and spring semester, some students may not get their first choice. Students may petition their term assignments but switches of term assignments are limited in order to ensure an on-campus enrollment balance. 

For Middlebury, a small, residential liberal arts college with a large participation rate in off-campus study, it is very important to have a balanced enrollment between the fall and spring semester. The on-campus academic program, housing, and student activities could be undermined if there is a striking imbalance between off-campus semester enrollments. Considering this possibility, the top priority at Middlebury is the quality of our on-campus academic program.

If you wish to schedule an appointment with any of our advisors, you can schedule an appointment online.

• Stacey Thebodo, Associate Director (all externally sponsored programs and exchanges)
• Nicole Chance, Assistant Director (Middlebury Schools Abroad: Brazil, Cameroon, Germany, Spain)
• Bill Mayers, Assistant Director (Middlebury Schools Abroad: China, Jordan, Morocco, Taiwan, M-CMRS Oxford)
• Susan Parsons, Assistant Director (Middlebury Schools Abroad: France, Japan, Kazakhstan)
• Alessandra Capossela, Assistant Director (Middlebury Schools Abroad: Argentina, Chile, Italy, Puerto Rico, Uruguay)
• Phyllis Stinson, Program Manager (Study Away at Monterey)

The online form is available on our website.

The deadline to apply to study away during 2025-26 (fall, spring, year) is February 1, 2025. Please note: You must complete the Registration of Intent to Study Away (see above) by November 1, 2024 in order to apply. 

You must apply to study away during the semester you were assigned in the Registration of Intent to Study Away process.

Yes, students must declare their majors before being approved to study away, which means you should declare no later than mid-January to allow enough time for your major advisor to complete their Major Advisor Approval for your application. 

Each component of the application (questionnaire, passport copy, etc.) has its own submit button. When you have submitted all the components by the deadline and there is a check mark in the box next to each item, the application is considered complete.

Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox both work well. Internet Explorer works only if you have the newest version, otherwise the page may not load correctly. Safari can cause problems.

No. You should have your most recent language professor complete your language assessment, and choose another professor to complete your general recommendation.

Your language assessment should come from your current or your most recent language professor. Your major advisor approval(s) should come from your major advisor(s).

You only need to complete one Middlebury application, even if you are applying to multiple programs/universities. Complete the Middlebury application for your first choice, then later if you need to change it, that should be fine, as long as your adviser approves and as long as you are switching to a program/university normally approved by Middlebury. If you change programs/universities, you may need to re-do parts of the application that are program/university-specific, but that should not be a problem. You should indicate in your Middlebury application that you are applying to additional universities (and which ones).

Note: The exception to this is if you are applying to one of the exchanges (East Anglia, FLAME, Maastricht, Utrecht, Swarthmore, Spelman, AVIC) and are also applying to other universities. Please complete your Middlebury Study Abroad Application for the exchange university, since we need to know right away how many students are applying for these programs. You can only apply to ONE exchange program, though you can indicate your second choice in your application. Please do not submit an application directly to the exchange university; you must apply through Middlebury’s application and then be nominated. If you are nominated, you will receive instructions regarding the host university’s application process.

If you are applying to two different programs/universities for two different semesters, or if you are applying to a Middlebury School Abroad and an externally sponsored program, then you DO need to complete a Middlebury Study Abroad Application for both semesters/programs.

Please request the language assessment form from your professor using the online request. Then, ask your professor to contact International Programs and indicate that they are also your major advisor and approve of your plans to study abroad.

You still need to complete the Middlebury Study Abroad Application by February 1, but you can sign up to meet with Stacey at the beginning of spring semester. If you need to make changes to your application at that time, that should not be a problem (you may need to re-do parts of the application that are program/university-specific, but that can be addressed at that time).