How financial aid factors into study abroad

Hundreds of students leave College Hill to study abroad each year.

While some may be dissuaded from studying abroad if they receive financial aid because of the potential expenses associated with going abroad, they need not worry about the cost, wrote Malik Blue, the senior associate dean of the College for study abroad, in an email to The Herald.

Students considering destinations worldwide for semester or yearlong study abroad programs will pay their usual amount of Brown tuition regardless of where they study. “Students who study abroad for academic credit will be charged Brown University tuition,” Blue wrote in an email to The Herald. Students do not have to pay for meal plans or housing while abroad.

Students pay their tuition and fees directly to Brown, and the University then facilitates payment to the student’s host institution. But this means that even if Brown tuition costs more than the study abroad program, students will still pay the full Brown amount, Eveleyn Chang ’26 said.

While students are expected to pay Brown tuition, those on financial aid are also able to receive their full designated aid regardless of where they study abroad, wrote Dean of Financial Aid Sean Ferns in an email to The Herald.

“Aid is available for Brown programs, approved non-Brown programs and (Consortium for Advanced Studies Abroad)-approved petition programs,” Ferns wrote.

Blue, who regularly works with students on financial aid as they consider study abroad options, encourages prospective students to complete a budget worksheet to help students “understand the total estimated cost of the experience (including living expenses) so they can properly budget.” Students can also appeal for additional funding for housing, meals or travel by submitting the worksheet.

In addition to the worksheet, Blue wrote to The Herald that “study abroad advisors and program staff are available to help students estimate the on-site living costs so they can properly account for them in their budgeting.”

Chang — who said that Brown covered her full tuition for study abroad — spent an entire academic year at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As a Program in Liberal Medical Education student at Brown, she felt it would be beneficial for her to spend a full year abroad since she has seven other years in Providence.

A literary arts concentrator, Chang wanted to take a year off from pre-medical classes while out of the country. “I wanted to have a year where I only focused on English,” she told The Herald.

Emily Lopes ’27 plans to study abroad in Brazil next semester. She chose a program in São Paulo that is not affiliated with Brown, but petitioned to the study abroad office and her application was accepted.

Lopes, who is from Pawtucket, is Cape Verdean. Although she can speak Creole, an unofficial language of Cape Verde, she is not fluent in Portuguese, the country’s official language.

She sees studying abroad as the best way to become fluent in a language. She was debating between Portugal and Brazil, but chose São Paulo because of its Afro-influence, which felt more comforting to Lopes.

“Studying abroad, for me, was not a decision I took lightly,” said Lopes. The cost of Lopes’s program in Brazil is “roughly the same” as if she decided to stay on campus, she told The Herald, and her financial aid will cover the cost of the program.

While Lopes received a small scholarship from the University to cover additional expenses while abroad, she is also working four jobs while still in Providence to help finance her time in Brazil.