When senior Chelsea Cowman studied for a school year in Colorado as part of Ball State University's National Student Exchange Program, she learned the meaning of "culture shock."
"You get to learn about different cultures-the different parts of the country," said Cowman, who studied at Fort Lewis College in Durango during the 2003-04 academic year. "The diversity is different. The atmosphere is different. The people are different. You kind of have to change the way you think."
So when Cowman learned that Ball State University would not participate in the NSE program during the 2006-07 school year, it was rather surprising.
"It's kind of disappointing, actually, because I think it's such a good opportunity," Cowman said. "And to have something like that taken away is kind of disappointing."
The NSE program, which allows students travel to another college in the United States or Canada for a semester, will be canceled next year because the Office of Admissions is taking on other projects that will take up lots of time and effort.
"Because we are committed to always give quality service and support to our students, it was determined it was not in the best interest of students to run it next year," Marcia Kelly, associate director of admissions, said.
The Office of Admissions is working on two initiatives for Fall 2007. One of the projects is an in-house Web application for students to apply to Ball State, Kelly said.
The online application is now through an outside vendor, so when the university receives the applications, it must print them out and then re-enter all the information into a different computer program.
The in-house online application will save the department lots of time, Kelly said.
The other initiative will allow students applying to Ball State to be able to go online and check to see the status of their applications as well as what documents they still need to send the university.
"We're hoping to give better customer service that way," Kelly said,
No students had signed up yet for NSE when the program was canceled, Kelly said, and the office received no complaints about the program being canceled.
The university fully intends to participate in NSE exchanges for the 2007-08 academic year, Kelly said.
Cowman said she hoped students take advantage of the program in the future, especially since going out of the state costs the same amount of money it costs to attend Ball State.
"I think it's a great opportunity, especially for students who have wanted to go out of state and couldn't afford it or get financial aid," Cowman said.
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