The PIE: What gave you the idea?

AM: The idea came from the desire to bring transparency to study abroad. We want students, universities and the rest of the international ed field to see the quality and characteristics of different study abroad programmes. This just wasn’t available before we created Abroad101—there was no comprehensive resource to compare programmes against each other.

The other major goal that we have is for as many students as possible to be able to study abroad on the programme that is most meaningful for them. We want to reduce the number of students that feel they chose the wrong programme due to poor, or no information available.

The PIE: Have you got any idea of the total market based on your sample of  250 schools? You must know how much that compares to the market. 

AM: This information is difficult to track. We believe there are more students studying abroad than are currently accounted for. IIE gets its data from universities reporting to them, which is not comprehensive. We know that some schools don’t report this information, skewing the data.

IIE gets its data from universities reporting to them, which is not comprehensive

The PIE: That’s interesting. By what margin is this happening?

AM: I would guess half at this point. There are likely twice as many people participating in a study abroad programme or something similar, even if it’s not tracked. We hope to be able to track all of this data soon.

The PIE: What have you learned? What is the most important for students? 

AM: We’ve consistently found that the most important aspects of a study abroad programme for students are academics and cultural learning. These are most highly correlated with student’s overall satisfaction. Things that are fairly low on the list are health and safety and programme cost.

Their goal is to help us become the Trip Advisor for study abroad

The PIE: Where do see the future going for Abroad101?

AM: First we’ll continue expanding our team and the resources we have available. We aim to be the leading website for study abroad information. Expanding across borders comes next, once our financial situation allows for it. We’ve already collected more than $1million from investors to reach the place where we are now. We were advised by our mentors at TripAdvisor that growth will be harder and harder to maintain over time, yet so far we’ve seen four straight years of consistent growth.

The PIE: It’s great that Trip Advisor is talking to you.

They’re our earliest investors. Two of the founders of Trip Advisor including the current CEO, Stephen Kaufer, who was one of our first investors and a strong mentor. Their goal is to help us become the TripAdvisor for study abroad.