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College Class Trips: Are They Worth It?

College Class Trips: Are They Worth It?
10/26/2011
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Darci Miller

When I got to college, I assumed that class trips were a thing of the past. And for two years, I was right. So when I found out there was an opportunity to travel to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming with my travel writing class, I was pretty blown away.

My professor told us that the school would pay for hotel expenses, our admission into the park and dinner on two nights, while student participants had to shell out money for flights (several hundred dollars!) and lunch for several days. Like my fellow virtual intern Kara Coleman said, experience is often more valuable than education but would this be worth it? My parents seemed excited about this opportunity for me and offered to pay, so it was settled: I was going to Wyoming.

We left at the crack of dawn on a Thursday morning and returned at almost midnight on Sunday. Luckily, The U's fall break fell on that Friday and travel writing is one of my two classes on Thursday. Getting out of my one other class was relatively simple – it was a school-approved absence – but I still had to figure out how to deal with the time I now wouldn’t be able to spend doing homework. In the time leading up to the trip, I was also scrambling to get ahead on my newspaper duties: I’m the opinion section editor and had to work double time so I wouldn’t leave the rest of the staff in trouble during my absence.

The trip itself was such a great experience! Grand Teton is absolutely gorgeous and it was really cool to get to know some of my classmates (and my professor!) better. I don’t know when else I’d ever get the chance to go to Wyoming, let alone write about it. And guess what? The newspaper got along mostly fine without me. (When I turned my phone on after a full day of travel, I saw a frantic text from the managing editor. Can’t win ‘em all!)

In trying to gain experience, don’t just do what looks good on your resume. Taking opportunities like these give you the chance to expand your horizons, see and do new things, and handle a different kind of stress.

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