How much does it cost to study abroad?

Another one of our most frequently asked questions is how much does it cost to study abroad? Do you pay UC Berkeley fees? Are living expenses and airfare included? What does it all mean?

Okay, deep breath, and…release. The first thing you should know is that the cost of a program has a lot to do with where you study. A semester in London will be definitively more expensive than a semester in Vietnam, just because of the inherent costs of living.

To understand what your cost will be, the first place to start is to review the budget for your study abroad program. For programs like the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP), this budget includes set fees paid to UCEAP as well as estimates of personal expenses such as airfare, meals, housing, books, etc. You can find budgets in the Participant Page for your program on the UCEAP website (hint: if your budget isn’t available yet, look at the budget from last year to get a sense of costs).

Taken together, the UCEAP fees and personal expenses represent a comprehensive program budget, which is the best estimate of what you can expect to spend for your program (it’s recommended that you budget funds in addition to the program estimate to give yourself a financial cushion; those who have caviar tastes will definitely want to budget more). This estimate is also used by the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office to calculate your aid package, meaning that you can be awarded financial aid to cover items such as airfare (sweet!).

If you’re participating on an independent program, look carefully to see what is included or not included in its program budget. Some programs will not include airfare or living expenses in their estimates, making the budget seem lower than it really is.

You’ll want to compare your program budget to the cost of attendance at UC Berkeley to get a sense of how studying abroad compares to sticking around campus (in a few cases, it can actually be lower!). Again, everyone’s budget and spending habits are different, so take into account your own situation and financial history.

If you’re planning to go on an independent program, you won’t be registered at UC Berkeley for that term so you won’t be required to pay for registration and university fees for that period. If you participate on UCEAP, you remain registered as a UC student but you do not pay UC Berkeley tuition in addition to the program budget (whew!). However, you do continue to pay campus-specific fees (for Berkeley, it’s roughly $250 per semester) and non-resident fees (for those of you who aren’t California residents). Non-resident students can avoid paying non-resident fees on UCEAP summer programs, which usually do not charge such fees.

Once you understand what your program costs will be, you can learn how financial aid will apply toward your program and research funding opportunities to help cover your costs.