<p>When a college charges a full semester’s tuition for a program that doesn’t cost that much . . . </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/education/09studyabroad.html?ref=education[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/education/09studyabroad.html?ref=education</a></p>
<p>or</p>
<p><a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/ype348[/url]”>http://■■■■■■■.com/ype348</a></p>
<p>Another article with some more details on this lawsuit:</p>
<p>[Legal</a> Test of Study Abroad Fee Structure :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, and Views and Jobs](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/12/fees]Legal”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/12/fees)</p>
<p>It seems like the <em>smart</em> thing from a college’s point of view would be to have students pay the costs directly to the sponsoring organization, and of course raise tuition to cover the lost revenue. What’s really <em>fair</em> when you’re concerned about access, operate in an unusual environment where people are charged differing amounts according to their ability to pay, and are routinely charged the same fee for services that cost wildly different amounts to provide doesn’t seem quite so simple.</p>
<p>I hope they win the lawsuit. I have long felt that the policy was unfair. We paid full Penn tuition, R&B, for Junior Year in Munich. We knew going in that Penn’s website said a study abroad would cost the same. But somehow we were lead to believe that was saving us money. Of course, the plane flight and other expenses were all ours. </p>
<p>Once S got to JYM, he found out that many of the students there were saving money to be there. German colleges don’t charge tuition, so their schools let them off for it. One girl from a GA school (with HOPE scholarship) was paying next to nothing. It’s the same feeling when your seat mate on an airplane announces how much less he paid for his plane ticket! </p>
<p>In hindsight, I think it might have been better to withdraw from school for a semester, and do the program on our own.</p>
<p>Binx notes,“In hindsight, I think it might have been better to withdraw from school for a semester, and do the program on our own”</p>
<p>Response: The catch is that you probably won’t guarantee any transfer credit by dropping out of your ivy school and taking courses in Munich. Paying the same tuition is the cost of geting those credits to transfer! This way the college is encouraging students to take courses abroad, and the college is motivated to accept these transfer credits. Wtihout such as policy, few colleges would accept credits from foreign schools. Heck, they don’t even want to accept credits from AP and American schools.</p>
<p>Do you think that colleges who either don’t accept AP credit or who put limits or higher scoring requirements for APs ( such as requiring a “4” or “5”)are doing so because they don’t think that the AP courses/exams are up to college level? It’s all about money! Make no mistake about this! I would bet that if there were a policy to pay the colleges full tuition for every AP course accepted as full credit towards their individual requirements, most colleges would not only accept all AP credits but lower the scoring needed to obtain the credit to that of a “3” for almost all courses.</p>
<p>I wish Barnard was paying R+B from our standard tuition + R+B. Instead, it covered tuition, but they did not charge us for room and board, the host institution did. Because the dollar is so weak D’s semester in London is very expensive indeed. I don’t know if we are overpaying tuition; likely. </p>
<p>I think the tuition is as a matriculated member of the college which makes the study abroad part of the college experience and eligible for credit. It maybe a bit of highway robbery, but I can see the college’s point.</p>
<p>I like Rice’s policy; you pay the study abroad program directly, your financial aid travels with you, and you only pay a $250 a semester study-abroad fee. It’s very fair.</p>
<p>S’s college even has abroad programs and affiliated programs with foreign colleges and universities where S’s merit scholarship $$ transfers to those courses. </p>
<p>As mythmom indicated, depending on where the student goes abroad, paying the US college’s scheduled fees may be cheaper than those at the abroad program.</p>