The Rising Price of Studying Abroad

Before coming to France, Harrison had braced herself that life would be more expensive, but she was shocked at how the little things added up after factoring in the conversion and commission. Toilet paper. Bottled water. So she started keeping a detailed spreadsheet—"not because I want to, but because if I don't keep track I will literally run out of money." Even being cautious, she's spent $4,200 in the first six weeks. A friend, she confides, recently checked her balance to find she had $5 left—and freaked out. The girl's parents are making a deposit, but it was a wake-up call for both of them.

Some students find their parents actually encouraging them to indulge, to make the most of the experience—even if it means making sacrifices of their own. Joanne Prinzhorn, whose daughter, Jillian Smith, spent a semester in Vienna and one in Regensburg, Germany, didn't want to her daughter to cut back needlessly, even though the study-abroad program put "a little pressure" on her budget. "We felt that doing a study abroad was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so money wasn't so much of an issue," she says. The fact that tuition cost the same abroad as at Vanderbilt University, where her daughter is a student, made it easier to say yes twice.

But the schools themselves are also feeling the crunch. At Stanford, students on university programs pay the same tuition and fees as if they were on campus and Stanford then pays expenses abroad, including tuition, housing and food. "We look at them as students here on campus," says John Mallet, finance manager with the study-abroad office. Typically, U.S. schools have done well under this system, because tuition at the foreign institution is often far less than at the students' home campus. But the falling dollar means higher costs for U.S. schools that charge students directly. "The currency is affecting things," Mallet says. "But we want students to go abroad, and we're doing everything to make sure that that happens," he says.

Not every college can afford to do that. Kimberly Mick, study-abroad and exchange coordinator for Hiram College in Ohio, says the school sets prices two years ahead for its extremely popular three-week, faculty-led trips. With higher costs due to the euro and more expensive jet fuel, the school asked parents to pay an adjustment on some trips. Other itineraries have cut back on food and housing costs, with students taking the subway instead of a private bus, for example. But with students already sleeping in hostels or campsites, how much more basic can it get? As a result, numbers are hurting: 50 percent of Hiram students studied abroad six years ago, and now about 30 percent go, Mick says.

As the euro rises, dollar-friendly destinations like Mexico and China are becoming more popular options, and not just for economic reasons, says Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice president of the Institute of International Education, which administers scholarships and programs including the Fulbright. While competition for funding grows more fierce every year, there are many educational resources for students and parents, including a new Web site, studyabroadfunding.org. Who knows? After all the preliminary research, and then months of tracking the currency markets, some students might be tempted to switch their majors to international finance when they come home.

© 2007