LSUS Washington Semester least expensive 09/20/02

College students who want to experience the nation’s capital “up close and personal” will find no better way than the Washington Semester conducted by the LSUS International Lincoln Center for American Studies.

The 18-day mini-semester, for which undergraduate and graduate students from any college can earn up to six credit hours in humanities and the social sciences, will celebrate its 20th anniversary May 14-31, 2003. The LSUS academic adventure was the first independent Washington semester at a public college or university in the South, and today remains the least expensive in the nation.

Dr. William D. Pederson, a professor of political science who holds the LSUS American Studies Chair, said the average cost for the unique educational experience he created is about $2,000. That amount should cover housing, tuition and fees, bus trips to Philadelphia, Monticello and Richmond, meals, cultural events and transportation costs.

The cost will vary, of course, depending on the student’s tastes. “If you eat regularly at McDonald’s,” Pederson said, “you’re going to spend less on meals than if you eat at fancy restaurants.”

Pederson stressed that the LSUS Washington Semester is a group learning experience, and it takes the students to fascinating places tourists seldom see. “It’s not tailored to the lifestyle of decadent elitists,” he said. “If you can’t walk for two hours, don’t go on this trip.”

The program has been recognized in publications of the American Political Science Association, and was the subject of the first journal article published on Washington semesters.

More information about the LSUS 2003 Washington Semester may be found on the LSUS International Lincoln Center Web site: www.lsus.edu/lincoln/washington.asp.