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Author: Riley Hooper

Next fall, 90 Occidental students will board planes and fly to various parts of the world to study off-campus. They will study in countries from Japan to Spain to Tanzania, and 17 of them will head to New York to participate in the Oxy-at-the-United Nations program.

They will participate in programs whose costs range from about $10,000 to $24,000.

They all will be charged $24,857.50, the comprehensive fee for off-campus study. Just like on campus, any financial aid they have will go toward covering this fee.

Why is every student charged the same amount when their programs differ in price? What is the justification of the disparity between the comprehensive fee and the actual program costs? How does this play out with individual students and their specific financial situations?

Off-campus study is not directly funded by the comprehensive fee that each participating student pays, Director of International Programs Susan Popko said. During a semester abroad, just like any semester on campus, the tuition and fees that students pay go into the college’s funds, to be distributed amongst its departments and programs.

From faculty salaries to athletic programs to building renovations, the college’s business office and board of trustees decide how much money goes to each department or program, based on historical precedent. It is through this process that the international programs budget is established, Popko said.

Therefore, just like any other department or program on campus, the amount given to international programs is not based upon the tuition paid by the students who participate in that particular department or program.

What this means is that students subsidize other students in every facet of the college experience, said Popko. Since it costs more to educate a bio-chem major than an English major, English majors subsidize science majors. Students who don’t utilize the library’s facilities subsidize those who do. Students who don’t participate in sports, theater or clubs subsidize those who do. Students without financial aid subsidize those who do have financial aid.

“All of those endeavors have costs associated with them that are born by the entire student body, not only by the participants in those particular activities,” Popko said. “And it’s the same thing with study abroad.”

In fact, students who don’t study abroad subsidize those who do. International programs receives a substantial amount of funding each year due to the fact that the college allows students to use their normal financial aid while abroad. “My program is a very expensive program for Oxy to maintain because essentially it comes down to taking financial aid dollars and sending them off campus,” Popko said.

She explained that on campus, financial aid isn’t “real money”-it’s just money that some students don’t pay. Off-campus, however, financial aid becomes “real,” as that money goes toward the checks the International Programs Office (IPO) must write for every international program Oxy students attend each semester.

In other words, during a normal semester studying on campus, the college does not lose nor gain money from a student who is on full financial aid. However, when that student chooses to study abroad, the college must write a check for the cost of that student’s program of choice, of which the college pays for in its entirety.

The IPO allows students to use their financial aid while abroad because of the college’s mission, emphasis on study abroad, and desire to provide equal access, said Popko.Most small liberal arts colleges have international programs offices that function the same as Oxy’s. However other schools, particularly public universities, don’t allow financial aid to travel, she said.

At these schools, said Popko, “there is a great disparity between who can access that international program. If you’re not on financial aid you have all kinds of opportunities available to you. If you are on financial aid, you may have few if any programs that you can afford, keeping to the costs that you’re used to paying.”

Many students on financial aid would not be able to study abroad if Oxy’s international programs department wasn’t the way it is, Popko said.

However, because the IPO receives a budget each year and is not dependent solely upon the fees paid by participating students, the office has enough funds to send abroad a majority of the students who are qualified.

Each semester, the IPO staff grade the components, such as the academic essay and faculty recommendation, of each individual’s application and then rank their applications from strongest to weakest. Each semester there are a few students who apply who are not qualified to go abroad, due reasons such as a low GPA or disciplinary probation, Popko said.

The office then approves and funds as many qualified students, starting from the top, as its budget will allow.For the upcoming fall semester, out of 99 applicants, 90 were approved and funded to go. The remaining nine students were not approved and funded because they were either not qualified, or the program to which they applied was internally competitive (such as the London dramatic arts program) and they were not accepted on the program’s end. Often times, the IPO is not able to approve and fund 100 percent of students who are qualified to go abroad due to funding limitations, Popko said. However, this year and for the last two years, the IPO was able to approve and fund every student who was qualified and accepted to go abroad.

Rachel McCandliss (junior), who studied abroad in South Africa last semester, said she appreciates that Oxy lets students use their financial aid while abroad. At Oxy, McCandliss receives financial aid that covers part of her tuition costs. Applied to the comprehensive fee for study abroad, this aid brought her fees down to just barely under that of her program, she said.

“I was a little perturbed at first that Oxy charged me more than my program cost, but I was satisfied when I realized that my price tag had not gone up,” McCandliss said. “I was very lucky to have all of my scholarships transfer, which is not the case at many schools.”

Having previously worked as a student aid in the IPO, when it came time for Sara Fulton-Koerbling (senior) to study abroad in Amsterdam the spring of her junior year, she understood the IPO’s funding process and was not upset about paying the comprehensive fee.

“I think for most people it’s equitable,” she said. “In order for the school to pay for the more expensive programs and to send people abroad, this system works.”

But what about students who don’t receive financial aid?Lizzy Furth (junior) is currently abroad in Norwich, England studying at the University of East Anglia (UEA). At Oxy, she does not receive any financial aid. A year’s tuition at UEA is £10,400 (or about 15,000, per year or $7,500 per semester) for international students.

Furth said she is frustrated that she is paying Oxy’s full comprehensive fee in addition to food and travel expenses when other students are paying much less for the same experience.”It’s somewhat false for Oxy to claim it’s an ‘advantage’ to pay normal tuition to go abroad when so many people don’t get financial aid,” Furth said.

Before studying in England, Furth said she had looked into other ways to study abroad without “over-paying.” When she found out that she would not be able to receive credit unless she paid Oxy’s comprehensive fee, she looked into non-academic options. This past fall she ended up taking a leave of absence and going on a trip to Thailand, India and Vietnam with a group called Youth International.

Popko said students are welcome to take a leave of absence from the college and pursue whatever they wish, academic or recreational, abroad or closer to home. However, if a student chooses to study abroad independent of Oxy, he or she will not receive credit of any kind from the school.

Many students who study abroad are not in a financial
position like Furth. Because close to 75 percent of Oxy students are on financial aid, according to Oxy’s financial-aid Web site, the college would not be able to send abroad as many students as it does if international programs were funded internally only by the comprehensive fees paid by participating students. This is because, due to financial aid, the sum of these comprehensive fees is not enough to send qualified students abroad.

Although it varies each semester, the sum of every students’ comprehensive fee for off-campus study minus their financial aid amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars less than the sum of the costs of their programs, Popko said.

“The financial aid component should not be underestimated,” she said. “We’ve really looked at that and the amount of financial aid that Oxy awards to students who then study abroad is so significant that it far outweighs any possible disparity between the cost of the program and the comprehensive fee.”

To students who are frustrated by the disparity between the comprehensive study abroad fee and the actual costs of programs, Popko answers that “there is really one price for an Occidental education.”

A semester abroad is treated like a semester at Oxy, she said. The IPO has selected programs that fit with the college’s mission and academics. The office has contact with these programs and monitors them every semester. In addition, credit from study abroad shows up on a student’s transcript as in-residence credit, not transfer credit, Popko said.

“When we approve a program we really perceive this as an Oxy program,” she said. “Our study abroad programs extend our on campus curriculum, so we view it as part of that whole experience for students when they go.”

Just like the academic experience, the financial situation is essentially the same abroad as it is on campus, Popko said.Whether students are abroad or on campus, the fees and tuition they pay go toward a variety of programs, some or many of which they are not involved with.

And while abroad, just like on campus, students without financial aid subsidize students with financial aid.

Students who study abroad and end up paying more than the listed price of their international program may feel like they are paying for something they aren’t getting. However, the same thing may be happening to them on campus. Unless you’re a football playing bio-chem major with a lead role in the upcoming play and the president of three student clubs, you may not be getting your Oxy tuition’s worth.

But then again, it’s hard to put a price on an education.

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