Financial Aid while Studying Abroad

As those of you who have clicked through the blog before have probably already noticed, I like to travel. I had the most amazing time studying abroad last summer and I would do it again in a heartbeat. 

So when I found out I’d gotten into a study abroad program, I jumped at the chance. Although I am super excited to be traveling to Florence this spring and studying abroad again, I’m a little less excited for the toll it will inevitably take on my bank account. Lest you think my summer studying abroad was funded by a mountain of gold coins belonging to a wealthy uncle à la Scrooge McDuck from Ducktales, I did end up using basically all of the money from my job the previous summer to pay for tuition. 

Unfortunately, I have to admit, I am a bit of a dreamer: I often find myself wanting to do things and getting so caught up in the possibility of doing them that I forget to stop and consider the rationalities and actualities surrounding them. For one thing, a major thing I took for granted about my summer study abroad was the visa process: since I was only going to be in Europe for around 75 days, I didn’t need to apply for an academic visa. Another thing I don’t know I totally considered before getting my hopes up about studying abroad was the cost. 

However, the good news about academic year abroad (be it fall, spring, or the entire year) is that Barnard pays for your tuition while you’re abroad. This is a casual fact Barnard slips into its tours and information sessions, but given that as a prospective first-year student and there’s still a bunch of time before you might actually go abroad, nobody goes into the little details about how it actually works. Today’s post is about demystifying the process a little bit, so you know what to expect at Barnard.

As you probably already know, the sticker price for a lot of colleges and universities includes a lot of parts: room and board, books and supplies, fees, and the largest chunk of them all (at least, for private colleges), tuition. What happens when you study abroad is that Barnard pays for the tuition wherever you end up going--whether it’s a Columbia program, a program at another school, or specifically a study abroad program. If you and/or your parents still have to pay Barnard after receiving your financial aid package, you still pay tuition to Barnard--they will pay your tuition to the program. 

However, as I mentioned before, the sticker price for Barnard includes more than just tuition--there’s also room and board, books and supplies, and fees. The price for studying abroad also includes all of these things, plus the money you will inevitably spend on your airfare and a budget for incidental expenses. 

Barnard’s Office of Financial Aid considers all of that when a student wants to go abroad. They look at however much your particular program charges for all the above fees (plus what Barnard charges for students in “study away” fees) and adjust your contributions accordingly. If there are multiple options for room and board, they can suggest which one most closely matches Barnard’s. The Office of Financial Aid also considers that many students have work study included in their financial aid package, but won’t be able to work while abroad and raises grant money from Barnard accordingly. 

If you’re a student on financial aid going abroad, one of the first things you’ll be advised to do is schedule an appointment with the Office of Financial Aid. Then, a financial aid adviser will go over your budget, explaining to you what’s different between your typical financial aid package and this revised study abroad budget. If there are any discrepancies or things to look out for, they will be sure to let you know--for example, I’m not on Barnard’s health insurance since my family is from New York and their health insurance gives me complete coverage. However, not all health insurances give you coverage while abroad, but Barnard’s does. If you need to buy the health insurance, they will further adjust your budget. Additionally, if they don’t give you a large enough budget from getting to and from your program, you can let them know and they will change the budget. For some students, it can be more cost effective to go abroad than to stay at Barnard for a semester.

Now a little bit of more good news: if you’re a Barnard student, you get used to the New York price tag. Having been to seven different countries this summer, I can tell you with absolute confidence that the MOST EXPENSIVE city is New York City. If you know how to budget yourself while in New York, you can definitely do it while abroad. 

The moral of the story is that before you discount going abroad on the grounds of it being too expensive, explore your options. Barnard’s financial aid policy while studying abroad, though a bit complicated, is designed to help students go abroad if they want to. Even if you don’t end up abroad, there are a lot of people on campus to help you figure out if it’s a good choice for you, especially from a financial standpoint.