My daughter is making her college decison in the next few weeks and I’m thinking about cost. I remember when in was in college 30 years ago I had to pay full tuition to my US university the semester I spent abroad, but some of my friends in the exact same program paid the school abroad directly and it was much cheaper. Is this still the case? Could going abroad for a semester or year end up saving a ton of money or are those days gone?
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I’m sure it varies by school. My S went to W&L, but spent a semester at St Andrew’s. He had a scholarship that paid for tuition, but he had to live on campus for 3 years. We thought there would be a huge savings that would help with room & board costs, because St Andrew’s was so much cheaper. Instead, they reduced his scholarship amount. I guess that was fair, but still disappointing.
I think if you were full pay, you’d see the savings, as the bill reflected St Andrew’s costs.
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When my kid did a study abroad in 2005, it was through his own university. Cost was exactly the same as when he was enrolled at his own college.
Big difference was…he wasn’t able to work for discretionary spending during that team aboard, so we pitched in a little (in addition to his savings).
We also went to visit him for a week…two parents and younger sibling. So…if you plan to visit…consider that cost as well.
It still varies by school and program. If she is just deciding between a couple of schools you might be able to get all the information on their study abroad websites. Or at least understand how it is handled. For D20 we paid the same college tuition and program room and board direct to the college.
We were full pay. When both of my kids studied abroad, my costs went down quite a bit. I paid for the study abroad schools tuitions and room&board plus home school administration fees. My kids were considered as international students, so their tuitions were higher than domestic students, but their tuitions were still a lot lower than their US school (they went to the same US school).
I went to a different private school long time ago. They had their own study abroad programs, which were organized/conducted by the school. The school charged the same tuition.
If she is receiving institutional aid or merit money that is for 4 years double check to see if that can be used for a semester abroad. Only one of the schools that my daughter applied to/accepted to will allow her to use merit aid for study abroad.
My D studied abroad her junior year but her school paid and they charged us full tuition for that year even though the English school was less than half the price so no savings for us. A close friend’s child went abroad and they paid the UK school directly so she did save quite a bit of money. You need to find out how the schools you’re considering deal with study abroad tuition.
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We were FP, and kid payed foreign institution directly. Yes, a savings!
When I was in college, same – but that was when we styled our hair with woolly mammoth bones and named out kids Bam Bam and Pebbles.
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My daughter’s school offered 3 different programs.
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The school sponsored with same class numbers, some prof from U taught overseas. Students from a couple of different US colleges also part of the program (12 weeks in London). There was one fee that all students paid and it wasn’t tuition (found that out when doing taxes). It was a program fee paid to a third party but her university gave her all her financial aid and scholarships, including an extra scholarship for study abroad. She had to pay own travel, the program included a home stay with breakfast, and she had to pay all other food and touring costs. For her, as an OOS student, it was cheaper than a semester on campus ($9000 v about $14000). For an instate student, it was more! ($9000 v about $6000 on campus)
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Pick a program where the home university had an agreement with the foreign university, and the home university would accept all the credits. The cost was whatever the foreign university set, but some had agreements with the home school for a bargain price. I believe the home school would let students use their FA and scholarships too .
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Arrange your own study abroad. The school would work with you on accepting credits. Not sure about the school financial aid but you could use Pell grants and things like that. They did have a list of schools but you could ask them to consider other programs too.
There were also some shorter programs in the summer. Usually those were professor led, for 3-6 credits, and student financial aid was available. Last summer my daughter went on a 3 credit/3 week program and she got grants to cover the whole thing. Some of the summer things are digs in the middle east, language study while traveling in Asia, a few geology courses. Pretty cool. For these the student just registered for the course as a summer school course.
What I’m finding is that for schools that have given S23 in-state tuition waivers, it’s not considered a scholarship, per se. He would only have to pay the in-state tuition rate for the program, but that benefit is limited to the more formal university-run programs, I believe. I’m still trying to get a clear sense of how it would work.
Bama, however, is all in on throwing that scholarship money back for you to use however you want. Definitely a cheap way to get overseas, is Bama.
D studied abroad and it was an exchange program through her university, so tuition wasn’t anymore then what were paying at her home school. The housing cost slightly more (it was charged separately), but not significantly more.
They also had shorter summer programs that were usually led by a professor. They counted as summer school courses…
My daughter studied in Florence one semester. I was surprised that we had to pay a little more than usual, maybe $500. It was worth it, though. What a great experience for an art history and photography major!
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D20 studying abroad this entire year. Her school uses merit/need based aid to subsidize study abroad costs.
That also means the programs acceptable to the school require students to pay either the study abroad tuition or home school tuition, whichever is higher.
We have seen some savings, her R&B abroad is slightly less than at her home school- though that savings basically eaten up with flight costs.
Her home school is well aware that some may want to pay the lesser tuition of the programs directly. If you attempt to do that at her school it means taking a withdrawal from the home school and having to reapply for admission. Also means having to hope your classes transfer after the fact.
One thing that made our D’s study abroad costs higher, was the fact that she did some traveling. Not a ton, but enough where it added up. And of course the flights to and from Europe from the US.
Another thing that can eat up costs is going to visit your kid while they study abroad. If you’re really trying to watch costs, I’d say skip going to visit your kids. I think it’s fun if you can do it, but it’s not necessary.
My D spent last year abroad and paid the US school at US school rates for tuition. The US school then accepted the credits of the foreign school including for some required classes.
There are some (competitive) scholarships available too, if learning a less common language is of interest. Look at Boren Scholarships and Critical Language Scholarships offered by the US government. My D’s school offered a great deal of support in the application process for these. If your D is intrigued by this, looking at the US school’s application support could be another factor in her decision.
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Re: fun travel costs. Entertainment always fell to our kids to pay for, and that included travel while abroad. But, it can be done very cheaply over there! Mine traveled a LOT - some were to uber popular places (Barcelona, Amsterdam, Venice), but many were not (Porto, Malta, Corfu). He (and his friends) took advantage of RyanAir’s el cheapo prices. Most flights were between $25-50, maybe less. I remember he told me there was one fare for $5! But, you only get a personal item. My kid learned to live out of a backpack, even for a week. And splitting a cheap AirBNB with 2-3 others made that cheap too. It might not the way we parents want to travel, but for a college kid, it’s perfect. He had a lot of great times. I am jealous and sad my younger kid didn’t have the opportunity (covid cancelled his twice).
And we did visit during our spring break. We made that our yearly family vacation. We toured Scotland and did Iceland for one day on the way back. But nobody went with him to drop him off/pick up. He was on his own for that.
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My D also paid for all of her “fun & travel” when she studied abroad. She chose not to go to London, because it was way too expensive. She & the friends she met while studying abroad chose the cheapest places for travel, and they put all of their clothes into one suitcase & split the cost. It’s possible to have a great time for a reasonable cost in Europe, as long as the student chooses to travel to places that don’t cost a lot. There were so many places that met that criteria … they never felt like they missed out.
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My daughter and a friend stayed and did that after the program had ended. Travelled by train, stayed in hostels (which can be super-nice in many countries!) and AirBnBs, had a backpack with detachable daypack to avoid pulling/carrying suit cases through train stations and local streets.
The backpack was designed for travelers to “live out of” so it could be unfolded, with various compartments, that one didn’t have to unpack each time.
The hostel stays were among her favorites, because of the community aspect - meeting people from all continents, all with similar mind set, sharing stories.
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For our 1989 trip to Europe, DH and I got great backpacks that doubled as suitcases. We saved them and are going to use them for our trip to Spain and France this summer. 
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