<p>RE fees. At Rice you pay a $250 study abroad fee, but then pay the study abroad fees directly. Financial Aid figures your budget using the study abroad figures and uses those for setting "need". This works out well for full-fare customers, as quite a few study abroad options are cheaper than tuition/room/board at Rice, and works out fine for those with "need" also. DD hasn't finished apps yet, but is hoping to go to Ecuador. :eek:</p>
<p>Pomona is doing a lottery this year as all the students apply in the fall and few apply for the spring. This has created housing nightmares as 97% of students live on campus. This year if a student is first accepted for study abroad they then have to go into a lottery. They can still go abroad but are not guaranteed housing when they return if not picked for the lottery. Pomona is quite generous with study abroad, paying airfare, room/board and a travel stipend. Mt S will not know until later in March if he wins the lottery. He is wanting to go to Prague. I am excited as we will visit him there and do some traveling. Unlike my 2 kids, my husband and I have never been to Europe. Pretty sad, huh?</p>
<p>Thank you for the post, interesteddad. We only know about SLawrence, Acadia and Butler programs. I think son is only interested in programs where you are taught by Oxford Dons and can participate in EC'c eat in college, etc, but glad to know there is more out there if we do research.</p>
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Pomona is quite generous with study abroad, paying airfare, room/board and a travel stipend.
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<p>I think Pomona handles study abroad finances the same way Swarthmore does: pay the college the usual amount and they pay the study abroad costs, including airfare, and misc.</p>
<p>Rice's system is more favorable for full-fare customers, because many study abroad programs are somewhat less expensive than a semester at college. However, their system probably discourages low income students from studying abroad as it has more hoops to jump through and may involve a cash outlay.</p>
<p>good to know about Rice... as a full-fare customer, this will make my parents much more amenable to the idea of study-abroad.</p>
<p>raindrop:</p>
<p>I can't speak for all parents, but I think most of us would be amenable to a study abroad program as long as we believe that it offers educational/cultural/horizon-expanding value equal to or great than a semester at college. It's up to the student to "sell" the value of the program.</p>
<p>Hint: Saying that it would be a blast to travel around Europe with your friends may not be the best sales pitch for something that may cost your parents $15,000 to $20,000. You can probably make a more effective pitch for a program that is really going to push you in some way.</p>
<p>Let me try one of my questions again. Suppose you go to an expensive school (that charges its own costs for study abroad) and are paying full freight, and you like that school or have problems fitting in everything that you would like to do there, but you want an academic overseas experience that can't easily be duplicated by just traveling or working abroad. Would it make sense to just take a leave of absence from your school and do the study abroad as a perhaps no-credit activity? Or do it after graduation?</p>
<p>I think Rice's program works for kids with financial need, too. They have a staff of people whose sole job is to shepherd kids through the process, and financial aid money (and extra scholarships) are available.</p>
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Would it make sense to just take a leave of absence from your school and do the study abroad as a perhaps no-credit activity?
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Sure. That could make sense. One of my daughter's friends was considering doing that. In that particular case, the student had extra credits and really didn't need any academic credits from the study abroad program.</p>
<p>Students who have the toughest time are science and engineering majors. Because there are so many required courses for some of those majors and because science offerings are often hard to come by in study abroad programs, this can be a road block.</p>
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Or do it after graduation?
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Yes, but only for some programs. Fact of the matter is that many of the study abroad programs are "academic lite" programs...so doing them as a college grad might be a little boring. Many of the programs don't allow it.</p>
<p>Others would not only be fine for post-grads and accept them. The program my daughter is doing explicitly states that they accept post-grads:</p>
<p>9. Can I do this program even if I am graduating this year?
Yes, IHP has had post-bachelor students participate and students are not required to be currently enrolled as undergraduates. The major concern for post-bachelor students may be financial. Because you are not enrolled in a college or university, you may not be eligible to have financial aid from non-IHP sources.</p>
<p>There are also programs specifically designed for post-grads -- like the Rhodes Scholar program that pays for post-graduate study at Oxford. I believe that many of the world's universities are happy to take your money! It's a revenue stream.</p>
<p>I haven't looked into post-grad programs, but a lot of students do spend a year or two overseas after graduation doing various combinations of interning and/or studying.</p>
<p>OK, I'll take the Rhodes. :)</p>
<p>Happystudentsmom,</p>
<p>My son is enrolled in the OPUS program through his school. He is affiliated with a specific college at Oxford, lives near campus with other Opus students from various colleges in US and signed up for a dinner plan at his college just to meet British students. Plus it's a good deal and he says the food is good. He is allowed to participate in all the EC's Oxford students participate in plus various activities - dinners, parties and day trip excursions. Admission to the program is as ID described. His college, Wash U had a specific number of students they could take with a gpa requirement - I doubt anyone was turned down.</p>
<p>We pay same tuition we would pay for his school but housing is more - quite a bit more, so that was a surprise. On the whole, from our experience so far, I would plan on study abroad costing more in general even if the tuition stays the same. There are plenty of miscellaneous costs that arise from being abroad that are difficult to account for ahead of time. Passport, airfare, conversion rates, phone, extra travel ( which they will want to do if they are there) etc.</p>
<p>Also, I recommend the Let's Go guide for college students if any of your students are traveling abroad. My son had that guide and Rick Steve's last summer in France. He used both but the Let's Go was particularly good for finding cheap places to stay in small towns.</p>
<p>Fight over Semester at Sea program at UVa</p>
<p>Study Abroad: Counterpoint</p>
<p>Barrons: I was very surprised that UVa took on the Semester at Sea program after Pitt dumped it.</p>
<p>The existing academic repuation combined with the challenge of trying to sell 600 seats at $16,000+ a pop makes it a daunting challenge to make the program anything beyond a pleasure cruise.</p>
<p>Apparently so were the faculty.</p>