Edwards, the OIP director, says she hopes that increased numbers of students studying abroad will resolve the disconnect with extracurricular leadership at home by forcing groups to be more accommodating.

“It’s a critical mass thing. If a very small number of students study abroad, then no one’s going to make any changes,” she says.

At Georgetown, extracurricular involvement does not make students reluctant to study abroad because international experience is a part of the school’s culture, says Shannon A. Donoghue, the resource center coordinator for Georgetown’s Division of Overseas Studies.

“The notion of overseas study is extremely well-institutionalized here. A very substantial amount of the student population has been going abroad for generations,” Donoghue says.

Kirby points out that even with larger study abroad programs, “other schools do not appear to lack for exciting extracurricular opportunities.”

But Harvard may nevertheless be exceptional on the student group front. Administrators this summer are convening a task force to consider ways of limiting the number of student groups on campus, citing an overabundance of organizations and a consequent lack of resources and space.

FITTING BACK IN

Jackson says that based on her experiences in Australia, students who spend time abroad may return with clearer extracurricular priorities—and may be less likely to see their student organizations as part of a rat race.

“I think you would see fewer students overcommitting themselves, because when you take time away from school, you see what the important activities are, and the importance of pacing yourself,” she says.

Ashley A.P. Horan ’05, who attended a program in Cameroon, Central Africa and held leadership positions in On Thin Ice and Harvard Students for Choice after her return, agrees that students who study abroad would choose their extracurriculars more wisely and would better avoid burning out from overcommitting themselves.

“People would just be smarter....It’s so important for people to travel and to learn about environments that aren’t Harvard,” she says. “I think people would have more energy to dedicate to things that matter on a larger scale, both to the university and to the larger world.”

House Masters say that since study abroad usually alters students’ outlook, reintegration into House life after a semester away can present challenges.

“They are always changed by study abroad, but in good ways, in interesting and mind-enhancing ways. Usually, when they come back, things are a little bit different for a while,” Adams House Master Sean Palfrey says.

“It’s difficult if they can’t maintain their own housing, rooming group, roommate situations, and that’s something the College and the Houses will have to pay a great deal of attention to,” Palfrey says. “That is something that we have to build into the housing as well as we can, though it’s not going to be easy if we have a large number of people studying back and forth.”

Palfrey says he thinks returning students will have little trouble as long as they can rejoin old rooming groups. And he says any changes to House life will happen gradually, and thus not necessarily noticeably.