The National Student Exchange program allows students from participating colleges and universities to attend school at one of nearly 200 other participating schools for a semester or year while paying their home university’s tuition.
Schools participating in the program are located in either the United States, its territories and Canada.
According to Mississippi State University NSE coordinator Nancy Fultz, MSU joined the program in 1999 and has had 98 students participate. Meanwhile, MSU has hosted 44 students from other colleges.
Currently, MSU is hosting five students from other colleges, including the University of Memphis, Indiana University, Keene State College in New Hampshire and Oregon State University.
MSU also has six students attending colleges, including Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, Humbolt State University in California, University of Massachusetts in Boston, Queens College and the University of Rhode Island.
Nancy Fultz, academic coordinator in the Office of the Provost, said she thinks the program’s largest advantage is the experience of new people and new places at an affordable price.
“Since you are paying MSU’s tuition, you don’t have to pay the high cost of out-of-state tuition,” she said.
Students also can benefit from a variety of programs which may differ or not be offered by their home universities.
Wade Stringham, senior forest operations management major from Oregon State University, said he has received two different outlooks on the same field through his participation in the NSE program.
“I am from the Pacific Northwest, and I wanted to learn different aspects of forestry to help me be a well-rounded professional in the forest industry,” he said. “I wanted to attend MSU because I knew that MSU has a great forestry college and the aspects of forestry taught at MSU are completely different from the ones that I have been taught in the Pacific Northwest.”
Heather Reinhart, freshman human sciences major from Indiana University, said she finds the numerous amounts of new people and the different cultural experiences the best part about participating in the NSE program.
“I’ve gotten to meet some amazing people who I definitely would have had no chance of meeting had I not done the NSE,” she said. “It’s been fun getting to experience a new culture too. Trust me, compared to Indiana, Mississippi is a new culture.”
Joshua McCormick, a post graduate MSU native working on a second degree in psychology, likes how the program encourages its participants to find creative ways of meeting new people.
“UMass Boston is a commuter school, so everyone lives off campus,” he said. “That really encourages a person to seek out people and events beyond the conventional scope of being a college student.”
Fultz said students pay tuition at MSU the semester they are on exchange and pay living expenses to the host college.
The Fall 2010/Spring 2011 exchange application and $105 application fee is due Feb. 15. To be eligible a student must have a minimum 2.5 grade point average, be in good standing at the university and have one semester of full-time enrollment prior to exchange.
“I think these requirements are very reasonable because it doesn’t eliminate those who aren’t the 4.0 students, which is the point, because all students can benefit from the program,” Fultz said.