¿Cuánto cuesta?

Wie viel Geld?

多少钱？

It doesn’t matter what language they ask it in: ASU students weighing their desire to study abroad against the costs of living in the current economic climate are left wondering, “How much money?”

The Study Abroad Office at ASU has received fewer applications from students looking to study abroad during the summer term this year compared to last, according to assistant director Dan Hart. He said the office usually receives between 1,100 and 1,200 applications, but this year about 900 ASU students have applied to study abroad.

However, the total number of ASU students studying abroad this year has not been determined because the March 1 application deadline has been extended.

This year, the Study Abroad Office has also received a “significant increase” in scholarship applications for the summer and fall 2009 terms than in any other year, and Hart said it was “safe to attribute some of that to students’ concerns for the current economic situation.”

Hao Ly, a journalism junior, said money was the main issue that kept him from applying to a study-abroad program this year.

Ly said he traveled to Beijing last summer for a faculty-led, study-abroad program and felt the life experience was worth the cost. But financial concerns regarding the economic recession and pre-existing debt at ASU as a result of rising tuition would have made the experience too stressful to be worth the hassle this year, he said.

“The money situation is really tight [right now],” Ly said. “Even if I did apply [and was accepted to a program], I wouldn’t have that much money to do what I want to do.”

Hart said the University more than tripled the amount of money set aside for scholarships specific to study abroad in response to this growing demand for financial aid. The $200,000 in scholarship disbursements for the 2009-2010 school year reflects an institutional commitment to the study-abroad experience, he said.

“Study abroad is an important opportunity that ASU provides to [its] students,” Hart said. “Not only does [administration] talk about the importance of global engagement, they support it with scholarship money.”

The deadline for study-abroad scholarships expired March 15 and will not be extended as a result of the large demand for financial aid, said Barbara Fleming, the Study Abroad Office’s international coordinator.

But she said there are plenty of other situations where a student may actually save money by studying abroad.

Fleming said that because of increases in tuition and living costs and the potentially cheaper costs of living in a foreign county, “it’s actually a better value” for students to study abroad in some situations. For example, she said, ASU’s partner school in Sweden paid students to go there this year in order to keep its foreign-exchange program alive.

“We have to maintain balances [with partner universities], and [foreign-
exchange students] are sometimes waiting in line to go here,” she said.

Hart said the distribution has not changed between applications to foreign-exchange programs, in which a student pays ASU tuition while studying for a semester or academic year at a host institution, and faculty-led summer trips, which are typically more popular because they are less of a commitment. Programs most commonly applied to also did not change this year, he said, despite unfavorable exchange rates in popular destinations like England.

This implies that cost doesn’t determine how or where a student wants to go, Hart said, but whether they decide to study abroad at all.

“They play more ‘Do I go or don’t I?’ in their head, rather than, ‘Where do I go?’” he said.

Grace Roland, a theater and philosophy sophomore, said she applied to a foreign-exchange program with a university in Istanbul for the fall because of her interest in the language and culture of Turkey.

While finances were also a concern when deciding whether or not to study abroad this year, Roland said she does not regret her decision because the chance to step out of the U.S. and learn in a different academic and cultural environment is worth the money.

“Money is meant to be used for life experiences,” she said. “It’s useless if it just sits in a hole and rots.”

Sun Devil TV reporter Gitzel Puente contributed to this article.

Reach the reporter at trabens@asu.edu.