Although a wide range of governmental and institutional stakeholders agree that increasing the number of students who study abroad will increase the intercultural competency of the participants and prepare more college graduates to succeed in a 21st century globally interconnected knowledge economy, evidence to support the belief that study abroad participation guarantees the acquisition of intercultural competence is far from compelling. In fact, no conclusive evidence exists to demonstrate that the benefits of study abroad participation suggested by prior research are attributable to the study abroad experience itself and not to differences between the students who choose to participate and the students who do not.