More and more American students are considering attending college in Europe. Millions of Americans are having difficulty repaying their student debts, and attending college in the United States can cost families $100,000 annually.
Therefore, more families are choosing schools in Europe, Canada, and Asia in order to save money while still receiving a high-quality education.
Even though tuition at universities elsewhere is significantly cheaper—a French college only costs $3,300 annually—navigating tuition, scholarships, and visas in other nations requires more effort. This article serves as a guide.
According to the nonprofit Institute of International Education, about 300,000 American students studied overseas in the 2023–2024 school year, a 6% increase from the year before. The top travel destinations are France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
According to Mandee Heller Adler, CEO of the Florida-based consulting business International College Counselors, American students studying overseas are already becoming more financially aware. She stated, “They appear to be more familiar with universities outside of the United States and are cognizant of the expense gap.”
Adler advises students to be mindful of hidden expenses including visa fees and flights back to the United States, in addition to currency fluctuations and the growing cost of living in some major European cities.Although studying overseas will cost more than attending a community college in the United States, it is a fantastic choice for middle-class families with some extra cash, she added.
Stillwater, Minnesota, freshman Catriona Formby concurs. Last year, the 19-year-old relocated to Germany to attend the University of Bonn to study mathematics. She lives on less than €900 a month, which includes €420 for a bedroom in a sublet, and spends €345 ($407) for tuition each semester. At €140 per month, her health insurance is a fraction of what it would cost in the United States.
She remarked, “It is so inexpensive; I could not possibly survive in the United States on such a meager income.” Flights home have been her only significant expense. Her parents paid the approximately $1,300 cost of her flight back to Minnesota over Christmas.
She also needed to demonstrate that she had at least €12,000 in savings in a bank account in order to obtain her student visa. To pay for that, she spent nine months working in retail.
“Everything has been worthwhile,” she remarked.
Pieter Funnekotter, senior vice president of the global education platform QS, stated that studying overseas is typically less expensive, especially at prestigious universities like Cambridge University in the United Kingdom or ETH Zurich in Switzerland, which are among the best in the country in terms of academic standing and recognition.
According to him, students will seek out these universities because they provide job opportunities that are comparable to those available to graduates of U.S. Ivys. He claimed that graduates of reputable foreign universities typically have little trouble finding decent employment in the United States.
That is what 22-year-old Gavin Baxa hopes. This year, the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, college senior who studied culinary entrepreneurship at Technological University Dublin, Ireland, will receive his degree.
He is currently searching for manager training programs in coastal towns like Boston and San Francisco, as well as Houston, where he has family.
He chose to study in Dublin partly because of the high expense of tuition—€13,500 annually for a four-year degree. He pays €1,000 a month for a housing share. He spends roughly €450 a year on health insurance and €180 a month on groceries. “Tuition and housing costs are absurd in the United States,” he stated.
Although generally less expensive than in the United States, the cost of attending university abroad varies widely, according to Funnekotter. English-speaking countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, and Australia are frequently more expensive than Western European countries like Germany, France, and Italy.
Undergraduate tuition at Oxford in the United Kingdom starts around £38,000 ($52,000) per year. The annual cost of other European colleges, such as Bocconi in Italy and the Sorbonne in France, is about $5,000. In Germany, tuition is either free or very inexpensive.
In Canada, McGill offers a more clear admissions process and tuition that is marginally less expensive than in the United States, ranging from 30,000 to 70,000 Canadian dollars each year. It is more like $25,000 in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Colleges with reduced tuition costs draw a lot of students, according to Adler. Additionally, some people give priority to Europe because undergraduate degrees there often last three years rather than four, which lowers overall costs. However, Adler cautioned that scholarships are more difficult to obtain than in the United States.
Local or European students are frequently the only ones eligible for aid. Additionally, only young people studying in the United States are eligible for financial needs-based grants like Pell grants. However, studying overseas is appealing given the high expense of tuition in the United States and the deteriorating job environment for fresh grads.
Adler stated, “Many children in the United States are having difficulty finding employment. Therefore, if you can get a nice experience overseas for excellent money and a good education, it is tempting to a lot of families.” One of the main reasons Cristi Viera urged her kids to pursue their studies in Europe was the expense.
The 50-year-old teacher from Newark, New Jersey, who now resides in Alicante, Spain, stated that she did not want her children to enter the profession with a lot of school loan debt. She remarked, “It is unfair for someone so young to begin their adult life in such substantial debt.”
After completing her communications degree at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Viera’s oldest daughter, who is 21 years old, plans to pursue a master’s degree in marketing in Spain as a result of her support. She used a scholarship and the GI Bill (her father is a veteran) to pay for college, but she wants to pursue her master’s degree in Europe at a lower cost.
Viera’s 17-year-old daughter, Mia, plans to enroll in college in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, or Italy in the fall.
“In the end, money is the most important factor in choosing a university,” Viera stated. “We are quite fortunate that our kids can travel anywhere in the globe; they are not just in the United States,” she remarked.
