A cheaper way to study abroad. What am I missing??

Parents Forum
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<p>Looking at study abroad programs for my daughter, I've been shocked to see the costs involved. Via organizations like CEI and Study Abroad, IES, etc, it looks like they tack on a huge amount of money on the real costs.</p>

<p>For example, applying directly to University of Cape Town, South Africa, you will pay $5200 for tuition or so, plus maybe anohter $3000 for housing. That about $8000 or so.</p>

<p>With any of the study abroad groups, you pay $12-16k or more.</p>

<p>What do they add? Well, all the pre-work has been done, so thats something. They ship you off with a bunch of other American students, which is comforting. They set up some social gatherings, smooth out the transcript process and course approval and credit process, and help with travel.</p>

<p>This is all well and good, but I can invest a little time and energy in doing some of that stuff and save $4-8k .</p>

<p>It sounds like most other international students (Europeans, for example) apply to these Universities directly but Americans tend to go over in big groups (and hang out with the other US students... kind of missing the point of study abroad).</p>

<p>Is there some major reason why she shouldnt apply to the University directly?</p>

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<p>If the timing of the semester, the advising, and the transferability/course approval is a no-brainer (i.e. kids from this college have done this before with little or no hassle) then it’s a fine idea. But if the course structure or completion requirements or whatnot are off, you will end up paying a lot more than 4K to have her repeat a semester at college if her credits won’t transfer.</p>

<p>Back in the dark ages (1970’s) I had friends who came home from a semester abroad and discovered that they wouldn’t be credited for a full semester. Our college did not give credit for “repeating” a course- so if you ended up getting tracked into a French class at a French U which turned into a Moliere seminar- and if you’d already taken a class in Moliere at our college (essentially, getting credit for reading and analyzing the same literary work again) you would come home to a very nasty surprise. But that university may not have had another appropriate class for you take that semester-- the academic calendars didn’t match up precisely, you could have had a scheduling conflict, you may not have tested into a higher level course the week you arrived, etc.</p>

<p>So to me, this is the biggest advantage of these programs. Unless your kid is just lazy about putting together his/her work, getting professors comments, and assembling the reading list before they return to the US, the risk of not getting credit is reasonably low. But if your kid is at the mercy of the registrar/scheduling folks at a foreign university (where an overseas student is not likely to get priority registration) the risk that your kid will only get partial credit is a real one. And that’s where the REAL expense comes in.</p>

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<p>My undergrad school had (and still has) a policy of not allowing study abroad “programs” for students studying in English-speaking countries for JYA. We were required to apply to the host institution directly as a visiting student. Our study abroad office facilitated the process, so we were sure our credits transferred. I am so glad for that policy! My study abroad experience meant that I left my rural LAC for a university in the heart of London, where I lived in a student self-catering residence with regular degree students and made lifelong friendships. (a bonus for me was that my tuition was paid via my college, so my financial aid package was applied to the cost of my host university) I was in one class with some American students on a Beaver College program. While they attended regular classes at the university, they were housed together with other US students and went on scheduled “program outings” to sightsee with their program director. They were essentially tourists, and their parents paid extra for the privilege. </p>

<p>I would recommend your daughter meet with the study abroad office and see if they can assist her in a direct application. Unless her school is running the program, (and therefore profiting off the participants) I would expect them to be able to help her ensure her credits transfer. IMHO, that’s what a study abroad office is for!</p>

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<p>Your home university does have some paperwork to do, in transferring credits. They also get a nice little earner (sometimes) from pocketing the difference. They might also make people feel a bit more secure.</p>

<p>Direct enroll is the way to go, but it is more work and (eg) finding housing is more painful.</p>

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<p>Shouldn’t it be your daughter doing this? I thought part of the point of study abroad was to teach independence.</p>

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<p>Thats exactly what I mean. These tour groups are the equivalent of taking an expensive tour of a country rather than traveling it independently. Much more expensive and you get much less out of it.</p>

<p>The credit is an issue… but I assume you need to iron that out with the US college (my D is going to do all electives anyway - it should transfer just like a junior college’s would, right?) beforehand.</p>

<p>So can anyone explain to me why this is not really listed as an option in all the reading about study abroad I’ve done? It seems like a no brainer to me.</p>

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<p>CSU- don’t assume that all her credits will transfer just because they are electives. Every US university has its own policies on transfer credits. Some U’s require a faculty committee to review the reading list, assess the papers/exams, etc before awarding credit (my own university did that); some just submit the transcript to the registrar and barring anything bizarre (like a grading system which does not calibrate) your kid will get credit.</p>

<p>But don’t assume.</p>

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<p>csudad, yes I meant to talk to your daughter’s (meaning she should go and talk to them, of course) Study Abroad Office. Surely they have files on the options available to her, and can set her up with a direct exchange. Depending on the University, housing may be LESS of an issue for non-program study abroad. If the University in general offers student housing, visiting students are usually eligible. Program participants are not, which is why they are usually shunted off to program-owned apartments, where they live with other American students.</p>

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<p>For study abroad in an English speaking country, I agree that this is a great option to pursue.</p>

<p>For study abroad in a non-English speaking country, it’s not as straightforward a choice. Sounds like it’s not an issue for your daughter.</p>

<p>Having program staff located in both the US and the host country can be incredibly helpful. D1 had travelled and worked abroad in far more challenging conditions than her study abroad program last semester, so we had no worries about her being able to handle herself. Except that she had a medical issue (not pre-existing). It proved much harder than expected for her to negotiate the health care system, get treatment, and get the treatment properly explained to her. Without the help of the program staff, things would have been much worse.</p>

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<p>Just took a peek at the example university’s website, it looks like that school in particular offers little-to-no on campus housing, but offers a housing location service, but only for the direct applicants as visiting students. Program participants are not eligible for this, they are required to live in the housing provided by the program, not the university. </p>

<p>It also looks like they have a pretty well-organized orientation program for study abroad visiting students and an easily navigable way to transfer credits and to make sure her home institution will accept them. If University of Cape Town is her choice, I would totally go for the direct application in your position. I agree with you that a program does not offer much additional value over what the University has already taken the time to set in place.</p>

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<p>If you can do the legwork, the research and get the preapproval from your college for credits you get from an abroad program that isn’t under their auspices, then you are solid. But a lot of schools really gate keep that option because they want their cut of the fees. It’s not just abroad programs, by the way. Simply taking courses from other colleges has to be coordinated with your main college in order to be sure you get the credits and many colleges have rules that make it limited as to what can be transferred over.</p>

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<p>I agree with OP. I really don’t understand the price tag of studying abroad in Latin America, for example, through college, if you could do it on a dime, with direct application. </p>

<p>In terms of transferring credits - yes, it is difficult, if you study “independently”. Do you really need these “credits” from another university? What is the value of these credits? </p>

<p>I see the value of Oxford-Cambridge, one subject, from a famous Prof. Yet, most study-abroad programs are linked to less famous universities.</p>

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<p>Housing is a huge issue for direct enrollment at many European universities. My D1 did direct enrollment because she wanted to go to a European country that has very few study abroad programs, and she had studied the language spoken there in the past, so her college okayed direct enrollment. They had her pay a smallish-fee (maybe $1,000) for work on the credit transfers.</p>

<p>She had a horrible time finding housing, though. It is very tight in the city she was studying in, and the university does NOT provide housing for direct enroll foreign students. They send a few links to websites. You can look on the websites for people who want roommates or want to sublet, but 99 times out of 100 the people posting those prefer to work with someone from their own country who they can meet in person, is a native language speaker, and can easily pay a deposit without have to wire it. I was not about to send my 19 year old daughter off with no housing arranged, so that was the biggest obstacle. After sending at least 50 emails (haunting the websites practically 24x7 and pouncing on listings immediately when they went up), she finally found a sublet studio apartment several subway stops away from the university. It was a fairly seedy neighborhood with no other students in it. And still pretty expensive. Food was also really expensive.</p>

<p>She was also completely on her own to negotiate her class schedule with the university. The foreign direct enroll students were last to enroll, and there was no space in the foreign language class level she hoped to take (she had studied the language). It took a lot of wrangling to finally piece together a schedule that had enough credits that her college would accept. She wasn’t positive until halfway through the term that she could get the classes her college would accept. So that was really stressful. Also, there were not a lot of classes taught in English, which limited her options (she did speak the language somewhat, but not well enough to take things like advanced Econ classes).</p>

<p>Finally… at this university, the native students tended to hang out together. This is a country that is sort of noted for introverted people, so actually not too surprising. D1 is quite outgoing and friendly, and spoke the language reasonably well. But she found that she ended up with mostly friends who were other international students. Most not Americans, as there weren’t many there. She was never once invited to a party or get together by native students, although she did some social things with other internationals. But it was tough because she didn’t live near any of them. She got to know the city well – did a lot of exploring on her own, read a lot of classics (that is what the city library had in English :)), and experimented with learning to cook new dishes. She is a pretty positive person and did well in a tough situation.</p>

<p>If we had to do it again, honestly, I think she and I would both say pay the college and go through a formal program that helps arrange housing and classes. We saved several thousand dollars, but I think I would have readily paid it to have less hassle, less stress, and for her to have enjoyed her experience more. If D2 studies abroad, she will go through a program.</p>

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<p>I am from Latin America. </p>

<p>I told my D that instead of studying abroad, I can send her to live with my parents during summer break, take any class at the local university, and have fun. Just fun. Hit night clubs. Go shopping. Dine at restaurants. All together it will cost cheaper than “study abroad” program and it would be a better experience. </p>

<p>I really don’t understand the value of studying abroad. People all over the world come to US for quality education … and US sends it’s students abroad to get experience. I don’t understand it.</p>

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<p>IES is a non profit organization so perhaps you should call them and ask how they spend the money.</p>

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<p>You might want to take a look at this fun blog:
[OtherGuy’sDime</a> Blog | A Professional’s Guide to Traveling Without Paying](<a href=“http://otherguysdime.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/]OtherGuy’sDime”>http://otherguysdime.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/)</p>

<p>Groups like CIEE spend the money on things like:

  1. advertising
  2. perhaps owning property in the country where the program is (some programs have their own dorm for their students);
  3. hiring a local coordinator;<br>
  4. perhaps paying an American to go abroad as a coordinator, which includes salary, benefits, housing, etc.;<br>
  5. “Insurance-like costs”: Things like having plans in place for things like medical evacuations, natural disaster evacuations, the possibility that your kid is arrested overseas (they likely have a bunch of lawyers on retainer that understand the laws of each country where there is a program); </p>

<p>Lately, I"ve been reading a little bit about the MEredith Kerchner situation and you can see how the program she went on was a bit lax, shall we say? They didn’t immediately send someone over to be with her when she was arrested, they didn’t go in with lawyers and guns blazing – and you do wonder if the outcome would have been different if they had. They didn’t appear to have strong contacts in the city where she was enrolled.</p>

<p>Here’s hoping that no one here’s kid is arrested overseas, accused of drug trafficking, etc. but if you’re a worrier (I am), you might want to pay some of the extra costs to have the insurance that if something did happen, the organization could handle it.
(There were kids who died on one of those student cruises a few years ago, etc. maybe Semester at Sea? Once you start paying attention to those stories, you will be amazed at how many of them there are._)</p>

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<p>One more thought to consider. At my son’s school, a student will not be able to apply their merit aid (not financial aid) to a study abroad program cost if the program is not sponsored through a approved organization. </p>

<p>IES is one of the approved ones. So that means he would not receive his merit money for that semester if he went on his own or with a company they don’t have an arrangement with. Just that, balances out the cost for us. You should check with your daughter’s school to see if anything like that applies.</p>

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<p>Finally, most reputable European universities have far higher academic standards than American ones (and do depth over breadth). Private programs will massage this. But a direct-enrolled American student might get her GPA crushed.</p>

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<p>Many colleges won’t allow students to apply need-based or merit aid to non-approved study abroad programs. </p>

<p>My D1’s LAC has a flat policy of not approving credit transfers for individually-arranged foreign study, unless the program is approved in advance by the college. They have a wide range of pre-approved study-abroad options and they’re adding new ones all the time, but it’s a major bureaucratic hassle to get approval for an individually arranged program. In part their concern is maintaining educational standards, which vary widely from school to school and country to country; they don’t want the value of a degree from their college to be debased by a semester or year of substandard academic work. But it seems pretty clear they’re also trying to protect their tuition revenue. Their policy is that you pay full tuition to them for the study-abroad year or semester, and they pay the fees for the (approved) study abroad program. They probably turn a nice profit on many students’ study abroad, and perhaps break even or even take a small loss on some others, but on balance it’s probably a money-maker for them. They don’t want students to undercut this by going out and arranging their own cut-rate foreign study programs. So they just have a blanket policy under which that’s probably just not even possible, since if they pre-approve your individually designed program they’ll probably just say, “OK, now pay your tuition, and we’ll pay the fees to the foreign university.” It is what it is, and we knew that was the deal when D1 accepted their offer of admission. She was more than satisfied with her study-abroad semester in a college-approved program, and we paid the price we had always expected to pay for her tuition.</p>

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<p>Our school also charges an additional fee for doing the paperwork for an non approved study abroad organization, so in the end, the cost leans in favor of choosing what they have approved.</p>

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<p>OP, check the recent threads on CC. There are a couple discussing the value of studying abroad or the problems of a student landing in Paris with great expectations. Use the search buttons!</p>

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<p>Reputable European universities come in all shapes and flavors. I am not certain that most have higher standards, let alone far higher standards. The issue might one of comparisons. Do we compare Reputable EuroUni to HYPS or to the University of Waxahachie known to graduate expert cheerleaders and basketweavers? Do we compare it to Wellesley or to Berea? </p>

<p>The reality is that many US schools have a close “counterpart” but let’s not be fooled with the standards. For example, the cherished by Kate and William St Andrews is purported to have high standards. Yet, it’s main attraction to US students is the (relative) ease to be accepted when compared to US schools. </p>

<p>Fwiw, I maintain that the biggest cross-ocean movement is targeting mid-level students attending mid-level to mediocre US schools and matching them with programs of comparable quality and difficulty. Meaning that the typical student life in the US can continue with the added benefit of a foreign travel extended experience. </p>

<p>And, fwiw, unless the programs happen to be taught in English (for everyone) it is inescapable that the courses have to be watered down to accomodate the poor language command of foreign students. The best way to do this is via dedicated programs that are designed for the foreign students. </p>

<p>But, as usual, there are exceptions to the above. And I do not doubt that a great number of CCers (a crowd that hardly reflects the JoeSixPack typical academic environment) will find the comments irritating. But after all, studying abroad is a lot more than a HYPS student spending a full year at the London School of Economics!</p>

<p>Finally, it is good to remember that most programs exist because they represent a solid cash cow for the foreign schools and … the local universities and colleges. Selling popular programs and convincing parents they are worth the expenses has been an easy sale. And it is not for the academic challenges!</p>

<p>Everything considered, if study abroad appears interesting, the best options are to go before or after the usual 4 years of UG. That is why gap years and Master’s exist.</p>