Across the many different countries in which Georgetown students choose to study abroad, there are great differences in the cost of living. For instance, a two-liter Coca-Cola in Germany will cost $4.06, while the same bottle of Coca-Cola in South Africa will run only $0.78. Although so many prices will vary depending upon location and exchange rate, one cost will remain the same: their tuition.
The tuition cost for a semester abroad, no matter where a student chooses to study, will cost $18,768 for both this semester and the spring 2009 semester.
According to Katherine Bellows, executive director of the Office of International Programs, the university treats study abroad program costs in the same way as the academic costs at Georgetown proper.
“We have students admitted [to Georgetown] in all different types of study. You have serious lab, science students with lab fees,” she said. “There are different costs for each, yet [the university] charges everyone the same thing. And we are doing the same thing with study abroad . we don’t want to distinguish and get into having someone pay this much more and this much less . We want them to have the full experience. So the tuition is paid the same way as if they go to school here.”
As a result, Georgetown students who study at King’s College in London or Trinity College in Dublin or at any of the other 120 programs Georgetown offers will all pay a fixed tuition cost of $18,768.
Bellows said financial costs for a student studying abroad are broken down into two categories when it comes to billing arrangements: fixed costs and estimated costs. Only fixed costs, which include tuition, insurance and, in some cases, room and board, are billed to a student’s account. The insurance funds in the fixed costs will be used for transportation in case of a health emergency, Bellows said.
The estimated costs, according to Bellows, are the approximate costs for personal living arrangements, travel arrangements and purchases while abroad. The university does not charge the student for these costs, as these estimates are only used to represent an approximate amount that each student will spend while abroad for personal purchases.
“Most of the ways in which we are billed, we’re billed by the institution overseas . They say `you’re bringing in so many people and this is how much it’s going to cost you.’ And then we pay that bill,” Bellows said.
According to Patricia McWade, dean of the Office of Student Financial Services, students receiving financial aid will receive the same aid for tuition as they receive at Georgetown, in addition to aid for room and board and flight costs.
“The full cost of attendance [is paid for]. OIP gives us a unique budget for all students going abroad and we meet the full need. . It makes it possible for any student to study abroad, no matter their financial situation,” she said.
Students on scholarships will also get enough funding from the university to cover their abroad experience, McWade added.
However, one student, Laura Fayer (COL ’11), said that paying the fixed Georgetown tuition is financially constraining.
“The Georgetown tuition, for the most part, is significantly higher than [that of] universities abroad,” she said. “In my opinion going abroad is a great opportunity for students, and it should be an opportunity, which is easily accessible. With tuition prices so high, many students decide against studying abroad.”
Another student, Christopher Dicks (COL ’11), said he is able to understand the reasoning behind the fixed rate.
“I can see the logic behind [every student paying the same tuition fee]. Students should be choosing the programs for their content and not for what they’re going to cost and you wouldn’t want to flood one program just because it’s cheaper than another,” he said. “So, though it would probably be nice to have to pay only a few thousand dollars to attend a school in Egypt for just a semester, I think every student paying the same study-abroad tuition is alright.”
When tuition costs of individual universities abroad, which are based on academic years, are compared to the standard Georgetown tuition, there are significant differences.
For example, a year at King’s College in London, England, would cost international undergraduates studying mathematics, management or computer science 10,980 pounds, or $16,544.
A Georgetown student studying abroad at King’s College for an academic year, according to the financial information sheet offered at the OIP office, would pay a tuition rate of $37,746 for an academic year, $18,768 per semester.
For U.S. students studying abroad at Peking University in Beijing, China, an academic year abroad costs 26,000 to 30,000 yuan – $3,809 to $4,395. For Georgetown students, the tuition and room and board for a year abroad at Peking costs $42,436.
Although Georgetown’s set tuition fee for any student studying abroad can be more or less than the international university’s actual tuition, Bellows believes that in the long run, due to exchange rates and program costs, the money gained or lost by the university when dealing with study abroad programs equals out.
“So, overall, with a dollar that’s weakened over the past year or so, and [with] the euro rising, perhaps [this new payment plan] is not in the university’s best interest . now we have to spend more dollars for the euro,” Bellows said. “[But] I think over a period of years, it all works out. Whatever is in the university’s best interest is in [the] students’ best interest because funds go back into the university when dollars are strong and the euro is weak.”
Bellows said that unused funds are used to contribute to the development of the university.
“If there is money that’s left over after we pay the institutions, some goes to operation costs for OIP. The other money goes back to the main campus account to pay for overhead . which are the costs of keeping a campus open, maintaining it,” she said. “That’s what tuition is meant for – professors salaries, as well as university bills . and it goes toward maintaining classrooms.”
Before fall 2005, Bellows said Georgetown billed students based on the actual program cost of the university they were attending, along with an additional student fee. The student fee went toward overhead costs, including adviser salaries, dean salaries and other support services, such as aid with pre-registration, answering health insurance questions and using psychiatric services when abroad. Now, according to Bellows, these costs are included in the standard undergraduate tuition rate that each student is charged.
aura Welch (SFS ’11) believes that reverting to the former, program-specific cost structure would attract more students to study abroad.
“I would prefer to go back to the old system and this would be more equitable for the student body as a whole. It would save a lot of people money,” she said. “I think it would encourage more people to go abroad because they would not feel like they were being cheated by the university, which really seems to be happening.”
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