<p>Brandeis has a long tradition of sending students overseas but be warned - a recent policy change has determined that students can no longer use their merit scholarship towards study abroad. You can still use other forms of financial aid, like loans, but for those of you who will likely qualify for merit aid and wish to study abroad, be prepared to pay out of pocket instead. At the same time, new housing policies designed to eke more money out of students studying abroad have gone into effect. For example, juniors planning to study abroad in the spring are now required to live in the most expensive undergraduate housing in the fall. The price of the room itself is equal to that of some of the other housing options, but unlike the others, it entails buying a meal plan (the minimum cost of which is $3,414). If study abroad is really important to you and your budget is tight, you may want to add some other schools to your list.</p>
<p>I'm going from memory here, but is this really a recent policy change?</p>
<p>My daughter is a current sophomore with a JLB scholarship (merit scholarship with 4 years full tuition, contingent upon maintenance of a 3.2). IIRC, she mentioned going in that her scholarship was not applicable to overseas study. Wasn't an issue in her case, as the schedule for the courses she needs for her major precluded her taking a semester somewhere else. I also recall that it's only a 4 year deal, so it would have involved making sure the overseas session didn't slow her down.</p>
<p>Now, I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Maybe this is a change for other scholarships, but I do recall that a semester overseas was not going to be covered when she got the word on her scholarship in April '07.</p>
<p>Also, at least to look on the bright side, at least you are guaranteed housing in an on-campus dorm that is one of the most attractive, at least in terms of facilities given that it is the most modern building after the newly opened Ridgewood dorm.
In addition, one often overlooked cost of studying abroad with merit aid or other aid is in fact the cost of the study abroad programs themselves, when attempting somehow through bureaucracy to enroll directly in, for example, a European university is usually far cheaper because tuition there can often be as low as 500 euros per semester or lower (some students in Germany protest that this is to high, because it used to be nonexistent).</p>
<p>Just to add a bit more data here:</p>
<p>I just went to the school site to check the cost of attendance figures. The least expensive meal plan (the Village plan) is $3414, but that's for a full year. For just one semester, it's half that. Same with the $7800 room cost (assuming a Village single as the most expensive housing on campus).</p>
<p>Following up on Catperson247, having the housing guaranteed as a junior is no small matter. My daughter would love it if someone forced her to live in the Village next year, especially if it were a single.</p>
<p>
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At the same time, new housing policies designed to eke more money out of students studying abroad have gone into effect.
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</p>
<p>according to today's campus newspaper, the reason for requiring the study abroad students to live in a specific dorm is so they can group them together and then have that space available to group next year's entering midyear class together. in the past few years, midyears were housed in newly renovated dorms that were being renovated during the fall, and therefore available for all of them to live together in for the spring. they are not renovating a dorm this coming fall which led to the issue of how to be able to house next year's midyear's together -- something that is deemed important for helping their transition into the school.</p>
<p>so you may not like the policy and its effects on those who want to study abroad, but to characterize it as designed to eke more money out of study abroad students may not be fair.</p>
<p>To respond to Jackson17's initial post, most of the scholarship letters I have seen mine included ( dean's award which is for 8,000 a semester) specifically state that they are transferable for abroad programs. Thus, the sudden policy change is not only unjust, it may be illegal. Yet, Brandeis was one of the few schools to ever allow this in the first place, so it limits options. My advice to parents and others is to mention that this change upsets you whenever you receive fundraising calls from Brandeis. People are listening to the refusal reasons and do take these things into consideration. Brandeis is very bottom line conscious in regard to policy.</p>
<p>Brandeismom, it's more than obvious why this policy is going into effect. Brandeis saves money by not renovating a freshman dorm, gets to fill the vacated dorms in the spring with the midyears and thus not let them go to waste with all the study-abroaders, and at the same time, gets to collect more money from students who can't use merit scholarships abroad. We all recognize that the budget crisis means we have to make sacrifices, but for students who were told they could use merit aid to study abroad when they were first accepted, this is completely unfair. Many of the recent articles and blog posts by student organizations detail the experiences of students who used their merit aid and desire to study abroad as a big factor in their decision to come here. The bait-and-switch in the middle of sophomore year has really screwed over a lot of people and the students are rightfully not happy about it.</p>
<p>you are upset and are lumping together a bunch of issues. if the merit scholarship letters said they could be used for study abroad and that is now being changed -- i don't blame affected students being really upset about it.</p>
<p>but the housing thing -- to presume that brandeis would just keep renovating dorms so that there'd be space for midyears just isn't fair. if anything brandeis students should be glad that a lot of the other planned construction is going forward. in fact i'm pretty sure they've known for a while that there wouldn't be another dorm renovated in fall 2009 creating the "where do we house '10 midyears" issue. they've just completed the complete rebuilding of the ridgewood dorms which will have a net increase in the number of rooms on campus and make on campus housing easier to obtain for upper class students. so they've come up with this plan that solves the midyear issue and minimizes the number of empty rooms when people study abroad -- quite honestly -- both of which are legitimate concerns for a college. you really weaken your argument about the study abroad policy changes by painting the housing change as part of some plot to squeeze money out of study abroad students. </p>
<p>you're upset - -but focus on the real issue.</p>
<p>More midyears will be admitted - some will be put in the non-renovated dorm and some will be in the Village. This means more tuition revenue and more efficient use of space. I don't think the administration is particularly happy about the decision either since it has always tried to keep all the midyears together and with all the other freshmen. It certainly isn't the worst thing in the world to have guaranteed housing for a semester, but the Village just isn't as financially feasible for a lot of students. It's pretty disheartening to hear about many of my friends and fellow students having to cancel their study abroad plans or looking at transfer application deadlines for their in-state schools. Here's hoping it'll be at least be semi-okay for everyone.</p>
<p>update -- reversal on decision -- use of merit aide for study abroad --
BREAKING</a> NEWS: University reverses decision; merit aid can be applied toward study abroad - News</p>