I just have a question about the cost of studying abroad. This past year my sister did a semester in Italy and it was almost twice her tuition to go. However she was at an instate school. I plan on going oos for school so doubling tuition is very unlikely for my financial stability with the large tuition. My question is does studying abroad oos end up being added in to your yearly tuition and being a lot more or would I end up spending similar amounts compared to my oos tuition anyways?? I’m not sure if that made sense haha
It can vary from school to school so do check. Most schools will have this info readily available on their websites. Using my 2 kids’ colleges as examples, for one school it was the same price as tuition plus the cost of airfare. (for students receiving FA, that FA would be applied to the study abroad cost). At the other child’s school, it is typically cheaper than a semester on campus. The college charges the program fee of the given study abroad program (which varies but is generally less) plus an administrative fee, plus airfare again.
Bottom line, it would be wise to read up on each college you are considering.
You could enroll directly and pay the “wholesale” cost. That´s what I did.
http://www.cheapstudyabroad.org/?s=italy&submit=
http://www.cheapstudyabroad.org/cheap-study-abroad-italy-semester-in-siena/
(Tuition at the University for Foreigners at Siena is less than $2,000 a semester).
Hope that helps.
Not all colleges in the US will let you enroll directly in a foreign school if you just want to go for a semester or a year. I know at least one highly ramked US university that would make you withdraw and reapply if you wanted to direct enroll in a foreign school where the original college did not have a study abroad program.
You may need to pay for additional health insurance during study abroad.
Costs for study abroad can often vary within a college depending on the program. Also, if you have financial aid, it’s important to know if that aid can be used for study abroad.
Doing it yourself can be cost effective, but only if you are guaranteed the credits will transfer to your home school. Even programs that are affiliated with the college you attend can pick and choose what credits they will accept. Some majors (engineering, physical sciences, nursing, and others) are extremely difficult to do abroad and receive credits for the courses.
Also, there can be different degrees of relationship between a college and study abroad programs. My daughter has a scholarship that covers 80% of her tuition. Her school offers 4 different types of programs:
- School-sponsored programs (everything managed by school, all aid can be used)
- Exchange programs (combination of management by school and foreign school, almost all aid can be used)
- Affiliate programs (everything managed by the foreign school, no college aid can be used only state/fed)
- Non-college programs (only allowed if no other program exists that meets need, no college aid can transfer, student goes on leave of absence while studying abroad, wait listed for housing upon return with no guarantee of housing)
The cost of the school-sponsored program was equal to the normal semester cost, so with her scholarship transferring it made the most sense for her to go on a school-sponsored program.
Every school will be different. If this is important to you, evaluate study abroad policies when building your list of school where you plan on applying.
I’ll second @InigioMontoya 's post.
My D was very interested in study abroad so we did quite a bit of research during her application process.
If you read each college’s study abroad website carefully, you should get a good feel for what the options are. At my daughter’s small college there are several school sponsored study abroad opportunities, an entire category of options where you pay your usual costs (adding the most expensive dorm and meal plan for that semester) to the university and the only additional cost is airfare–most financial aid applies (exchange programs). And others where you pay the cost directly to the study abroad program and can’t use financial aid (direct programs). At all the colleges we researched we found this to be the case. There was at least one school that encouraged study abroad so much that they would pay passport fees for those who didn’t already have one.
If you haven’t chosen a college yet, look into what kinds of study abroad options are available before you do. If you have campus visits in your future, go talk to someone in the study abroad office. Once you start college, get over to the study abroad office early in your first semester and talk to someone in person and in detail about your options.
My D made an appointment with the study abroad office early in her first semester, and the advisor went over her major and other graduation requirements in detail and helped her choose a program that fit into this. They discussed credit options and how to ensure she gets transferrable credit. They discussed what semesters would be best to study abroad that would work with her course load. They looked at what her financial considerations were and recommended programs that fit with her budget and available financial aid. She’s ended up doing a summer study abroad (her school sponsors this program) that we would never have considered, thinking it would be unaffordable, but it’s allowing her to graduate at least a semester early and is costing less out of pocket than an additional semester on campus would have cost us. She also was able to apply for study abroad scholarships that her school offers and received two of them. She is planning to study abroad a second time in a later semester as well.
My D1 had an unusual study abroad interest, so we stopped in the study abroad office during every campus visit. The policies varied widely.
As the others say, this varies widely from school to school. Do check to see if any financial aid will apply to the overseas program.
One university I’m aware of (Webster in St. Louis) will even pay for your airfare for your first trip studying abroad.
The tuition for a three month semester in Italy at the Universita Italiana per Stranieri in Siena, Italy costs about $1,600.
http://cluss.unistrasi.it/2/50/106/Regular_Courses.htm
Tuition for a three month course (Italian Language & Culture) at the Universita degli Studi Firenze in Florence, Italy costs less than $1,000,
http://www.ccs.unifi.it/ls-6-i-corsi.html
Darn… can´t find a good “whoohoo!” icon.