Financing Study Abroad the Smart Way

By Julia Dunn on June 27, 2015

Do you flip for France? Are you sold on the idea of an Australian outback adventure? Want to float down the Italian canals reading ancient literature, but have no clue how you’ll afford it?

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If you’re a wanderlust soul with a wallet restriction who’s interested in earning university credits while experiencing a foreign country, don’t push a study abroad opportunity out of your prospects because you think you won’t be able to swing it financially. There are resources and tricks available to you as a college student that you may not even know about, many of which will guide you through financing study abroad!

Universities know that college students can’t afford to pay for an entire study abroad trip on their own, on top of tuition and the student fees they pay just to attend college; thus, they offer certain types of financial aid to students looking to travel in their undergraduate careers. Beyond that, the elements of a study abroad trip can be modified in a cost-efficient way to suit your budget if financial aid alone doesn’t cover all of what you need money-wise.

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According to a survey conducted by Knox College Associate Professor of Modern Languages Robin Ragan, cost is the number one reason students hesitate to pursue a trip abroad.

Robin concluded that “A lot of times [not being able to afford it] is an assumption that students make up front, but they don’t really have numbers at their side to prove they can’t afford it … Our challenge is getting to students who assume they can’t study abroad because of the cost before they even attend the info sessions.”

It doesn’t hurt to gather some information and learn about what’s out there; if you don’t, you could be missing out on an insanely awesome trip. Here’s how to make study abroad fit in your wallet.

1. Contact your university’s study abroad program for details on financial aid packages and how to apply for them.

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The best way to obtain accurate information about study abroad and financial aid at your school is to directly contact the department, either through phone, email, or literally walking through their door to pick up a study abroad financing pamphlet. The staff at your university’s study abroad department has worked with tons of students to create an affordable study abroad plan that works for them—they want to help you go abroad just as badly as you want to go yourself!

See if your school offers study-abroad information sessions or events that you can attend for more information on financial aid loans and other “free money” opportunities. These may be useful to you when designing a financial plan-of-attack.

2. Be strategic when choosing a study abroad location.

Venice, Italy
Image Via: www.tumblr.com

The cost of living is different country to country. It’s going to wind up being more expensive to study abroad in Spain than it would be in Senegal, and study abroad financial advisers can help you compare the cost of living in certain countries with others. Investigate various housing options and their costs, along with that of transportation and other logistical elements that can add unexpected costs to your travel bill if you don’t address them before you leave for your trip.

Make sure you have lodging, food, and a means of getting around town factored into your budget, and put in the effort to research cost-efficient options for these matters.

Don’t know where to go? Click here to explore possible study abroad programs and locations organized in Uloop’s Study Abroad search.

3. Shorten your trip to 2-4 weeks.

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When college students envision a study abroad trip, most think of spending months and months on end (even an entire semester or quarter) traversing hidden cities of Peru or exploring the Great Barrier Reef for an entire season. If money is an issue for you, consider only going abroad for a couple of weeks.

You’ll receive virtually the same immersive experience as someone going abroad for a longer time period, but you won’t have to pay for all that extra time. Plan out what you’ll do each day to maximize your time abroad, and you’ll be able to do most everything you want to do in just a few weeks!

4. Apply for scholarships. Early. A year in advance, even.

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Many students don’t know that study abroad scholarships exist. They do! Granted, they’re small enough that they probably won’t cover your whole trip. But an extra $100 or $200 can really help you out when stretching your food money. Apart from designated study-abroad scholarships, there are some super weird scholarships out there having to do with strange interests or bizarre challenges that you can apply for if you’d like more cash towards traveling endeavors.

On the list of wacky scholarships is a $6,000 award designated for female college students who like to bowl. There’s also a scholarship for “graduate students pursuing advanced studies which enhance the potato industry” and a scholarship for college sophomores, juniors, and seniors that awards $2,000 to the student who writes the best essay about social confidence and its relationship to perspiration (yes, an essay about the social qualities of sweat).

If you’re willing to think creatively or search hard enough to find a scholarship that highlights a category you fit (are you a daughter of a 2nd generation grape-grower? There might be money for you). It’s all about how hard you want to work to pick up extra cash that can be applied to study-abroad endeavors.

5. Pay attention to the little things that suck up your money.

Image Via: www.financedegreecenter.com

Are you a souvenir junkie? Do you simply have to try food from every single restaurant and cafe in your peripheral vision? If you’re looking to spend as little money as possible on a financially-limited study abroad trip, try setting limits for yourself on how many souvenirs you pick up and how many times you take yourself out to eat.

Of course, a huge element of study abroad is tasting foreign food and scouting out the best eateries around (and by no means should you keep yourself from exploring different foods in your country), but there are two ways to play this game: the financially blind way, where you eat at restaurants so often that you have no idea how much you’ve spent on food alone, or the financially responsible way, where you plan out how much you’ll spend per day on food (it’s up to you where and how you use this money!).

This will take some extra planning on your part. It will be crucial that you design a plan for how much you’ll spend on what each day of your trip, but if you plan everything just right, you can still have an amazing trip filled with the pleasures of absorbing foreign culture. It will feel great knowing that you’re exactly in budget and won’t have any issues making your dollars stretch over the duration of your trip.

Use these strategies to extract the most out of your study abroad trip. Even if you think your financial situation could never allow for it to happen in the first place, you won’t know unless you try. Go speak with your study abroad department today!

Soon enough, you might just be marveling at ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in Alexandria, or chillin’ with cassowaries on a research trip in New Guinea.

Image Via: www.slu.edu

Click here for more information on studying abroad. Happy travels!

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