Frequently Asked Questions

Currently, Connect Abroad Spring Break Programs are only open to first-year UGA students. Students who have completed at least one year (not including dual-enrollment in high school) at UGA or another college or university are not eligible to participate.

Applications are available through the online program brochures on the StudyAway website.

Here's what you can expect from the application:

  • Forms & Releases: Agree to participate in a group program abroad, immunization info, records release, acknowledgement of policies, etc.
  • Core Applicant Questionnaire: tell us a little about yourself
  • Disciplinary, Academic, and Criminal Record: disclose all pertinent info
  • EL Connect Abroad Short Answer Questions: The most important part of your application! This is your chance to tell us about yourself, your goals and interests, and make a compelling case for why you should be selected to participate in a Connect Abroad program.
  • Financial Information: optional disclosure of financial aid

Yes! You can apply to as many programs as you would like, and you can rank them in order of your preference. If you are accepted into more than one program, you will need to decide which program you wish to participate in before the commitment window passes.

Once the application deadline passes, the faculty and staff members will review all eligible applications for their programs. Heavy emphasis will be placed on the short answer questions during review.

Applicants will be notified of decisions for all programs around the same time (early October). You may apply to multiple programs, and it is possible that you could be accepted to more than one. You will need to decide which program you wish to participate in during the commitment window following acceptances.

Yes! You are not committing to anything by submitting an application. Because our programs fill fast -- and some are very competitive -- we encourage you to apply if you're even a little bit interested. We can always add you to the waitlist if you are accepted into a program but are not ready to commit.

Decision notifications will be sent to your UGA email.

You will have one week from the date of your acceptance email to pay the $100 non-refundable deposit to secure your spot on a program. Payment can be processed on the StudyAway platform where you submitted your application.

If you are not ready to commit to a program within that week, you can request to be placed on a waitlist. Just be conscious of the risk of losing your spot if the program fills up before you commit with your deposit.

In addition to paying your commitment deposit, you will also need to upload a scan of your passport to the application portal and sign a few more documents.

Make sure that all of your post-decision paperwork is completed in the StudyAway portal, including your passport upload!

Keep an eye on your UGA email, as Connect Abroad faculty and staff will be sending information about mandatory pre-departure meetings and other important program details in the months leading up to Spring Break departures.

IDEA 3000 is a 1-hour an upper-division elective that is taught by the Connect Abroad faculty leader of your program. See program descriptions for each faculty member's approach to IDEA 3000.

The exact amount covered by HOPE/Zell Miller varies by student, but those contributions are applied to the cost of enrolling in the 1-credit-hour IDEA 3000 course. HOPE/Zell Miller do not apply to the program fees, which vary by program destination and are posted on our online brochures.

For a more specific estimate of your financial aid’s contribution to Connect Abroad, we recommend reaching out to the Office of Student Financial Aid.

Yes! We are pleased to announce that every student participating in a Connect Abroad program will receive a scholarship of $400-450 to be used for Spring Break 2025 program fees and expenses.

The Office of Global Engagement offers many resources on financial aid and scholarship opportunities, and some Connect Abroad participants are eligible for their OGE General Scholarship.

WorldStrides, our global education provider for Connect Abroad, offers scholarships to support custom programming like ours. Learn more about WorldStrides scholarships here.

Many scholarships are merit-based awards, meaning that they require students to report a GPA when applying. Since you probably have not completed a full semester of coursework at UGA yet, you won’t necessarily have this GPA available to report. The good news is that some scholarships—like WorldStrides’ awards above—will accept a “letter of good standing” from your university. You can obtain this documentation by requesting an Enrollment Verification on Athena.

Yes! The Tate Student Center offers passport services to the UGA and local community. The passport office is located within Tate Print & Copy.

If you are an actively enrolled, full-time undergraduate student and US citizen who has never received an adult US passport, you could qualify for a FREE passport through UGA Passport Services! Check out the Office of Global Education's Passport Initiative here. Applications typically open in August.