Would it be worth it?

Applying to College
1

Hi everyone. I am currently an online student at Concordia University in St Paul, MN. I am halfway more or less, did half of my degree in community college was free thanks to grants. Now online, I am receiving less grants and more loans. I will be getting my BA in marketing, also have the option to finish entirely online. As soon as I found out that Concordia University offers many abroad programs I was willing to drop everything (I am from California) and finish my degree on campus, sacrifice living there so that I can get the chance to study abroad.

I visited the school and loved it. I am pretty much qualified for an abroad program thanks to my GPA. However, the credits in traditional programs are more and online the credits are significantly less. Online, it is 8 units less than in person and I will be done December 2017. In person I would be done later, probably summer/spring 2018. However if I decide to move I will be living on Campus. So the costs would be about 50-59,000k in person, not counting interest, just counting tuition (the rest of the credit I have left) and not counting studying abroad, nor housing costs etc…

I have been doing research and seeing that as a student I have many options available to study abroad independently, (my main reason for the move).
I would still have debt online and studying abroad on my own but much less debt.

I am in my mid twenties, so moving out and keeping it that way is important to me, especially after I graduate.

I am wondering if paying 500, 600,700 monthly for a student loan or even more would be worth studying abroad? Thanks!

2

No. It´s not worth it. Especially if you study abroad independently. See cheapstudyabroad.org, and you´ll see how much European universities charge - about 25% of what you will pay through a US program. Go independently and you get the same experience, the same benefit … and 75% less debt, if any debt at all.

The funny thing is that if you are studying marketing, you should be aware that in marketing you are increasing brand awaremess and trying to increase demand for products - i.e., get people to pay (as much as possible) more than your company or client has paid for it. The same happens in study abroad - it’s the “experience of a lifetime”.

And who wouldn´t be willing to be overcharged for the “experience of a lifteime”?

(It is a pretty aweseome experience, to be honest :slight_smile: )

How much for example does it cost to study for a semester in Madrid? $15,000? $18,000?

Here´s a program in Madrid and the tuition is only about $2,600 for the entire semester.

http://www.studyabroadinspain.com/spring-semester-madrid-spanish-language-linguistic-cultural-immersion-universidad-autonoma/

If you´re going to take on a lot of debt to pay more than you have to for a study abroad program, I would suggest taking some courses in accounting and finance, too - cause you´re gonna have to know how to manage your student loan debt really well - and it´s gonna suck.

Good luck!

1 Like