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Study with care

Study with care

The opportunity to study abroad can be life-changing. It broadens intellectual horizons, promotes tolerance, and teaches appreciation of other cultures. But as three American students who attend the American University of Cairo recently discovered, there are risks.

Last academic year, 723,277 foreign students came to the United States to study. According to the Institute of International Education, Ohio ranked eighth among states, with nearly 25,000 foreign students attending college or graduate school here. Ohio State University, which played host to 6,082 students from around the world, was seventh among all colleges and universities.

Foreign students added more than $21 billion to the U.S. economy through college and living expenses. They also enrich our society and promote international understanding.

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At the same time, more than 270,000 Americans studied overseas in 2009-2010, the last year for which records are available. The most popular destinations were Great Britain, Italy, Spain, France, and China.

Some American students choose destinations that are off the beaten track and potentially dangerous. Nearly 2,000 American students in 2009-2010 studied in Egypt, which has been wracked in recent months by clashes between democracy advocates and first, supporters of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, and then, the Egyptian military.

Most students complete their overseas experience doing nothing more dangerous than falling into Rome’s Trevi Fountain. Cases such as Amanda Knox, the Seattle college student who was convicted of killing her British roommate while she was studying in Italy, are rare. Ms. Knox’s conviction eventually was overturned, but not before she spent four years in an Italian prison.

More recently, three American students attending American University in Cairo were arrested at a protest in Tahrir Square and accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at Egyptian security forces — a charge they deny. One of the students said the protest was “abuzz with ideas of democracy and freedom,” but claimed they took off when police fired weapons.

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Some Egyptians offered to take them to safety, but instead took them into custody. They were beaten, threatened, and forced to lie in the dark for hours with their hands cuffed behind their backs. “It was the most frightening experience of my life,” one told the Associated Press.

Most study-abroad programs include detailed advice to students about how to act and what to do — or not to do. As rare as incidents are, they are a reminder to young scholars to pay attention to that advice, even if they are the guest of a country with many similarities to the United States.

Just being in the wrong place at the wrong time in Egypt — or even Italy — can have unforeseen consequences.

First Published December 6, 2011, 5:30 a.m.

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