The cost of studying overseas

SMILING FOR MOM—Preston Keldgard, a 20-year-old junior at California State University Channel Islands, sits beside Lake Constance in southern Germany. Despite a tough economy and a weak U.S. dollar, hundreds of local students from both CSUCI and California Lutheran University continue to study abroad. Preston Keldgard signed on to Skype video chat at 8 p.m. at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

Even after a long day of classes, the enthusiasm in his voice was apparent when he was asked to describe his studyabroad experience.

For many California State University Channel Islands students like Keldgard, the chance to study abroad is highly anticipated despite the poor economy. They soon find out firsthand, however, there’s an economic crisis not only at home but globally as well.

Heightened program fees, the plummeting exchange rate and the inability of most students to work while abroad has contributed to a decline in interest in foreign study across the nation, according to the 2008 Forum on Education Abroad’s State of the Field Survey.

According to the Pennsylvania-based forum for education abroad, 82 percent of participating universities said the rising cost of studying abroad is dampening student interest.

Private versus public

The cost of a CSUCI semester program abroad includes the university’s standard semester tuition ($2,013) plus a program fee ranging from $2,000 to $6,000, plus room and board.

At California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, students typically pay the equivalent of their tuition to study abroad.

Annual tuition at the private university is $28,980.

Room and board

The option to live with a family abroad cuts the cost of room and board.

But Catt Mann, a student worker in Cal State Channel Islands’ study abroad office, said that program coordinators are having difficulty finding enough host families to meet the demand.

“Our country coordinators are very stressed,” Mann said.

Despite the financial relief of living with a native family, Mann said, “I have a couple of students who are very worried about their financial situation.”

At California Lutheran University, the situation is similar.

Lisa Loberg, the Study Abroad director, said that, while study abroad interest has actually increased, more and more students are deferring their acceptance to a later semester because of the tough economy.

“We are trying to help students see that they still can study abroad, that it is affordable and they can even go places where their dollar stretches further than it would here,” Loberg said.

Living on savings

Fortunately for Keldgard, he planned ahead. He’s been working since he was 13 and is supporting himself in Germany using his savings.

“I definitely took the financial ramifications of such a stay abroad into consideration, but in the end realized that the benefits, growth and experience I would receive while studying in a foreign country far outweighed the price,” Keldgard said.

He said students do have to budget for the sharp decline of the dollar next to foreign currency, especially in Europe, where the Euro remains strong.

The value of the dollar has declined from 75 cents to the Euro in September 2007 to its current value of 67 cents.

“I think that had I studied prior to the economic collapse, my money would have stretched a lot farther,” Keldgard said.

He said the American students he knows in Germany aren’t feeling the pinch of the down economy because “most of the exchange students were prepared for the increase in cost of living.”

Mann said her office makes it a priority to let students know what they should expect to pay in personal expenses during their overseas experience.

Defraying costs

The CSU system questions students returning from studying abroad about their expenses. The experiences of those students help prospective study-abroad students prepare their own budgets and ensure that no one runs out of money early in the program.

California Lutheran University also asks students about their expenses and offers several scholarship and financial aid programs to stem the costs of studying abroad.

Mann believes budget cuts suffered at the state level have had the greatest negative impact on the university’s study-abroad program. Students now have to pay as much as $6,000 in program fees in addition to their tuition, an increase of more than 25 percent since 2007.

To stem the costs of studying abroad, Cal State Channel Islands offers a small grant to some students who complete the Free Application for Student Aid, but that may not be enough to make up for the lack of scholarships, budget and support available to those interested in studying overseas.

Mann said the experience of studying abroad is invaluable and should be made available to all students.

In fact, an experience overseas is considered so important by students at the University of Illinois at Urbana that they voted 2-1 in 2008 to impose a $5 student fee to be used for study-abroad scholarships.

The House of Representatives recently passed the Sen. Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, a bill meant to greatly increase the number of students studying abroad by encouraging diversity, increasing funding to study-abroad offices and promoting the benefits of studying abroad.

Sponsored in the Senate by Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), the legislation is largely supported by both parties and more than 40 higher education entities.

Just after 9 p.m. Keldgard went back to the homework due in class the next day.

He knows that when he comes back to the U.S. money will be tight.

But it’s a sacrifice that’s not keeping him and other college students coast to coast from experiencing what it’s like to wake up in a foreign country.