I'm fascinated. As someone who has spent my entire undergrad, postgrad and postdoc time in the UK system I'd be really interested to know how it works elsewhere. The way some of these recurring US-centric fieldcamp posts get presented it sounds as if this is the only undergrad fieldwork you do? How long does it take? Is there associated project work to submit? How are they organised? What skills do you work on? How do other countries do it?

Speaking for the UK system, all field work is managed by the university you are attending for your degree. Each generally have an average of about 30 days per year for each of the 3 years of undergrad spent in the field (often occupying the weekends). These might be single day trips, through to 5 week long mapping projects. They will each usually focus on two or three things (structural mapping, sedimentology, volcanism, etc).

Each field trip has associated coursework to be handed in. The residential trips I went on (and have subsequently lead) usually expect work to be submitted by 11pm each evening for a quick mark, before the next day in the field, except for the individual mapping project where you and a partner are simply given 5 weeks to map ~16-20 km² of remote geology. The map must be then drawn up, properly drafted and submitted with an interpretive written project on your return.

I'd be really interested to know how others do it. Particularly in terms of reasonable expectations from overseas postgrad applicants.