By: Jade Harding

The Finances

In my experience as a student in the US, studying abroad can, luckily, be surprisingly inexpensive! I feel like getting into the weeds a little, so I’m going to consider the financial side of study abroad from the perspective of someone looking to go abroad, who knows about their program and location. Some things to immediately look at are the cost of living and program type. In the case of Japan, the cost of living in Tokyo is approximately half of Seattle, Washington. Therefore, you would plan on spending about half as much on expenses like food and rent in Tokyo than if you lived in Seattle. Note that the reverse could be true for your destination, with the cost of living being more than if you stayed home. This information is easy to find and cross-compare online, so check for your destination! I wouldn’t advise this as a method of choosing your program or location unless money is a primary concern, but it will give you a rough idea what to expect prices to be when you get there. 

As for the kind of program, this is once again highly individual. In my case, the program was a half a year, so relatively long, and the college arranged a dorm with set rent and meals included for most days of the week. As such, I was able to factor in that cost immediately. It is also worth considering transport; for a program in Japan, a substantial cost is the airplane. I’d advise reserving a flight the instant you know when you will need to be in the country, as the closer to departure you reserve, the more expensive flights will be. 

Scholarships??

In order to afford studying abroad, there are many scholarships available; simply too many to detail here. There are probably some local to your area which your study abroad department or google could refer you to, as well as country-wide options. Many are specific to certain critical languages, or meant to encourage students to go to underrepresented areas that are of critical interest. My general advice would be to look for something that appeals to people in your specific circumstances, like financial need, study abroad location, or skills. For one specific example, if you live in the US and receive a Pell grant, you can apply for the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, offered by the US state department to support students with financial need who want to study abroad. Disclosure: I received this scholarship, and without it I would not have studied abroad, nor would I be writing this blog. As of writing, the program will provide an award of up to five thousand dollars, depending on financial need and program length, which does not need to be repaid. Including me, the Gilman scholarship has supported over 41 thousand students. I’ll include a promotional pamphlet below for more information about it. If you qualify, it is worth looking into, and if you don’t I can guarantee that there are more out there to look into. Some study abroad programs also offer scholarships specific to that program. For instance, my host college offered two scholarships that incoming students could apply for to cover costs like rent and food.

How do I budget?

I want to take some time to explain how I thought about budgeting before and after my trip abroad. A lot of costs are going to be included in the program–i.e. tuition–but a lot is also under your control. Especially if you are doing a longer term program, going in with a budget that you can adjust over the length of your stay can make the process easier. Personally, I built a spreadsheet! One sheet with a budget, and another tracking actual spending—yes, I counted my receipts, and understand completely if you don’t want to. This is what worked for me, and everyone’s system will be different. That said, I’m going to delve into my own system a bit as an example. 

I didn’t record each transaction individually, just keeping track of total spending in overall categories—food, rent, shopping, travel etc.. If your program arranges aspects like housing you should be able to find out most major expenses beforehand, and you have control over how much you want to spend on shopping, personal travel during the program, etc.. At the end of the month I compared the budget to how much I actually had, and based on that adjusted the budget (or my spending). Having a rough budget prepared also tells you whether you need scholarships, how much you would need, or if you should work while abroad to supplement savings and/or scholarships.

With that in mind, here’s what ended up being the main framework through which I made spending choices while abroad: I separated out the categories in my budget that were under my control—areas like food or shopping, not rent or tuition. I took that number, divided it by 31, and the result was a goal for the average amount of discretionary spending I wanted to aim for day by day, let’s say $30. On my handy spreadsheet, I took my actual spending, added it up, and converted it to an average over the month so far. If I was two weeks into the month and my current average was $20 per day over those fourteen days, I could splurge on a daytrip. If it was $40, I would hold off and explore something nearby instead, unless I could reduce spending on other things for the rest of the month. Being above $30 doesn’t mean I need to spend $0 until it’s back on track, it means that I need to spend less than $30 per day unless I have a good reason to do otherwise. Similarly, having some leeway means I can spend some not-entirely-necessary money without feeling any guilt. My main point here is that I worried about the trend, whether I was below or above that average, not the specific amount I spent each day.

So, look into the options! Studying abroad can be expensive, or if you choose the right program and location, it can be cheaper than staying home. Making a budget can take some time, but having one ready will give you a tool to determine how realistic going abroad actually is, convey your circumstances clearly, and make decisions while abroad. At least, that’s what it did for me.