Does getting less for your dollar mean doing less? Students with little money to spare will have to put some more planning into their study abroad decisions and that could start with location. With airfare being a large cost to a program a shorter flight should be less cost. Heading to a country that has a better exchange rate is another way to stretch your dollar.
Here is a story from Greenville, SC about how students are comparing locations to study abroad;
comparing study abroad locations
And here is an article from Fort Worth, Texas with more of a business view on how the schools running the programs are watching the weak dollar;
It seems like a shift for American students to study abroad in closer locations where the exchange rate is better like in Central America and South America is likely, but will it happen?
1 response so far ↓
1 audrey // Aug 14, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I can definitely relate to this. My school required language majors to study in a country whose native language was that being studied, and with my chosen language being Spanish, my advisor and I narrowed the options down to two locations: Spain and Argentina. While the quality of education played a huge factor (traveling during the fall would land me in Spain in a semester where finals are taken in January, requiring me to skip over the oh-so-important complete immersion of studying with Spanish students in order to be able to return to the US on time), cost was a big issue for me. I planned on traveling on my own dime, and a full-time college student can only make so much money.
Ultimately, I believe the choice to stick with Argentina, whose peso to dollar exchange rate is about 3-1, was a good one. Not only did I receive a quality education, but I was able to stretch the dollar much further than my friends who chose Spain, and was therefore able to travel much more extensively without having to cut out other activities such as dining out, buying souvenirs, and enjoying the Argentine night life. Who doesn’t enjoy a steak dinner and drinks at a high-end restaurant totaling $20???
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