Christian Dasilva, from the United States, is in his second year at University College London (UCL). He praises UCL’s world-class academics and notes the school’s high place in the QS World University Rankings—the eighth position—just behind Caltech and ahead of the University of Chicago.
Yet the extracurricular aspects of going to UCL as a U.S. student abroad are what excite him the most. He celebrates his circle of friends from the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and South Africa and his travels around London, the UK, and Europe.
“I’ve had so many experiences that I wouldn’t have had in the U.S.,” he says.
However, studying overseas for an entire undergraduate degree is still uncommon for U.S. students.
According to the Institute of International Education (IIE), 51,000 U.S. students pursued full degrees internationally in 2021, down from a 2019 pre-pandemic peak of 58,000. This 2021 figure is just a quarter of a percent of all U.S. higher education enrollments.
As pandemic-era concerns and international travel restrictions abate, international education experts believe that a greater number of U.S. students and their families will pursue college abroad in the coming years.
“The benefits of international education are extraordinary,” says Jessica Sandberg, a thought leader on international education and the dean of international enrollment at Duke Kunshan University, a joint venture of North Carolina’s Duke University (NC) and China’s Wuhan University located outside of Shanghai.
“There is a pent-up desire for exploration. Many students are hungry to get out of their comfort zones,” says Sandberg. “The world was withheld from them, and now they are going out into the world. For some, studying abroad for a semester just isn’t enough.”
International adventure is the main pull factor for U.S. students who enroll internationally. In Dasilva’s case, London appealed as a departure from his hometown of Darien, Connecticut, a suburb of New York City.
For others, the choice to pursue degrees abroad builds on prior international living experiences and family connections.
Ian Graham Martinez, a Stuyvesant High School alumnus from New York City, is in his first year at Oxford University in the UK. For third through fifth grade, he and his family lived in Mexico City.
When he made the choice to attend Oxford, he says, “I was not intimidated by moving abroad for college.” After all, he had previously lived internationally and in a non-English-speaking country.
Samantha Harada, a student from Hawaii with a Japanese background, is in her senior year at Temple University Japan (TUJ), a branch campus of the Philadelphia-based Temple University.
She explains that she chose the institution over universities in Hawaii or the continental U.S. because she wanted to learn more about her Japanese culture and heritage.
“I visited Japan while in high school,” she says, “and it felt like I belonged there.”
Anya Berchtold, who is from Colorado, traces her decision to attend university at ESCP Business School to her Austrian-born father. The school has six campuses in Europe. As a child, she and her family visited her Austrian family and toured European sights. Awestruck, she developed an early desire to be “immersed in a different culture.”
During her sophomore year of high school, she spent a semester living in Paris with a host family and studying French. “It was a unique experience at a young age.”
When it came time to apply to college, her Austrian cousins shared stories from their “awesome university experiences.” She decided to apply to European institutions and spent dozens of hours researching options.
Eventually, she chose the threeyear management program at the Paris-headquartered ESCP Business School because it would allow her to study in London for the first year, in Paris for the second, and in Berlin for the third. “How often do you get to say that you studied in three countries in three years?”
Unsurprisingly, U.S. students who pursue degrees abroad extol the opportunities for eye-opening travel and friendships with internationally diverse peers.
Dasilva reports that his “global outlook and network” is the most valuable part of his UCL experience. He points out that the 43,000-student UCL is branded as “London’s Global University” and that the student body is among the most internationally diverse in the world. Only 47 percent of UCL students are UK passport holders, with the remainder coming from Asia (34 percent), the European Union (10 percent), North America (3 percent), and elsewhere (5 percent).
Harada, like Dasilva, embraces her international friends from Nepal, Japan, and China. She enthusiastically shares, “You can’t get that diversity in the U.S.!”
Dasilva says that his travels have been fun and a means for learning European history, geography, and culture. A visit to a friend’s chalet in the French Alps was a last-minute excursion to eat fondue and hike. With his debate club, he toured Amsterdam and Brussels while returning from a tournament in the Netherlands. A trip to Milan is planned, with the flight costing just 20 pounds on easyJet, a low-cost carrier.
Harada also recounts “unreal experiences.” The word “breathtaking” is how she describes a trip to Okinawa where she and TUJ friends saw whale sharks. Attending a K-pop concert in an immense domed stadium pre-pandemic was “cool but weirdly different,” she says. Japanese crowds, in contrast to American ones, “are super calm and don’t push or shove.”
Berchtold’s experience studying in Europe has been so enriching that she plans to continue her adventures on the continent after ESCP. Following graduation, she has a full-time position lined up with a digital strategy firm in Berlin.
“Diversity and internationalism are my favorite parts of living in Europe. I love how physically close the cultures are. It’s insane how you can travel over a weekend to Spain, Budapest, Stockholm, or somewhere in France and experience so many differences in terms of food, culture, language, and how people live. It’s astonishing.” She adds that she also loves “the work-life balance and the way that people live in Europe.”
Regardless of where U.S. students study internationally, maturing quickly and developing independent life skills are often cited as positive impacts.
Mark Walsh, a student from northern New Jersey attending McGill University in Montreal, Canada, signed his first apartment lease at the end of his first year at McGill. If he had stayed in the U.S. for college, he’d probably have been in dormitory housing for a longer period, he says. He was only 18 and shares, “I had to grow up pretty quickly.”
Dasilva says about his UCL experience, “There’s not a lot of hand-holding, and you really have to think and act like an adult.” At UK universities, some final grades are determined solely by marks on one or two exams, and there are no regular assignments to scaffold the learning and limit procrastination.
Sandy Furth, an independent educational consultant and founder of World Student Support, says that students heading overseas must understand this approach and be “good independent learners.”
In many continental European countries, students who fail the exams at the end of the first year are dismissed from their programs. Students must demonstrate work autonomy and personal responsibility right away—or there won’t be a second year.
Some U.S. students who opt to study overseas enroll in institutions with U.S.-style academic approaches. That is the case for students who attend TUJ in Tokyo and other branch campuses of U.S. universities, such as NYU Shanghai and New York University Abu Dhabi, and joint-venture institutions such as DKU.
TUJ enrolls more than 1,800 students, about 40 percent of whom are from the U.S. Harada considers this the best of both worlds—living and learning in Japan yet in a collegiate environment that comfortably feels as if it is sometimes in the United States.
All TUJ classes are in English. Degrees are four years in duration and the requirements of college majors mirror those of the main campus in Philadelphia. Student support services are similar too. Moreover, when Harada returns to her apartment, her roommates hail from Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii.
Chie Kato, senior associate dean at TUJ, says, “Our American students want to study overseas in an American system. Plus, they want an experience that is new and adventurous.”
U.S. academic and campus experiences can also be found at private universities abroad that follow US accreditation standards. The American University in Cairo, Franklin University Switzerland (Lugano), and John Cabot University (Rome) are three examples. All hold accreditations from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. They offer four-year degrees, general education curricula, U.S.-style grading procedures, residence life options, and collegeorganized social activities.
The tuition prices at international universities can sometimes be shockingly low.
Germany’s Technical University of Munich is tuition-free across most programs, even for international students pursuing their studies in English. (Yes, really!)
In the Netherlands, at the University of Groningen, annual international tuition costs range from 10,189 to 15,080 pounds ($10,000–$15,000), including for a three-year program in American studies.
In her book, Beyond the States: European Schools That Will Change Your Life Without Breaking the Bank, Jennifer Viemont writes for an audience of readers squeezed by rising tuition sticker prices at U.S. private universities and out-of-state public institutions. The book states, “In many cases, it costs less to obtain a full bachelor’s degree in Europe, including cost of travel, than ONE year of U.S. out-of-state or private school tuition.” She founded a consultancy and has a podcast—both called Beyond the States—that bring attention to English-language programs in continental Europe as under-theradar and cost-effective opportunities.
For Berchtold and her family who worked with Viemont, the tuition fees at ESCP were a “cherry on top of the cake” of ESCP. ESCP’s tuition is on the high side for continental Europe (currently at 22,250 pounds, or $21,500), but the expense would only need to be shouldered for three years, rather than for the U.S. standard of four years.
In the UK, the most popular destination country for U.S. pursuing degrees abroad, tuition can be higher. This is because the country leverages international enrollments to generate revenues that then subsidize homecountry students.
University of St Andrews in Scotland is the most popular institution in the UK for U.S. students. It has international student tuition fees of 33,860 pounds ($43,900).
Canada is the second most popular destination country. At McGill University, international student tuition and fees range from CA$26,700 to CA$34,600 ($20,000–$25,500) for most academic programs. McGill draws U.S. students and families not eligible for much or any need-based financial aid in the U.S. who are attracted to a worldclass university located just 45 minutes from the Buffalo-Niagara Falls border.
Walsh chose McGill over a U.S.- based institution. “Another school was my top choice, but I leaned towards McGill—a close second choice—because of the cost,” he explains. “I didn’t want to take on any debt.”
Now in his final year, Walsh praises McGill’s academic flexibility for enabling him to study both music (trumpet) and computer science and extols Montreal as vibrant and student friendly. He is also deeply relieved that he will be graduating debt-free.
For U.S. students with dual Canadian citizenship, the tuition rates at Canadian universities and colleges are even lower, as Canadian citizenship typically affords access to domestic tuition fees even without prior residency.
In a contrast, the tuition rates at U.S.-style overseas branch campuses can be like those at highly selective private US universities. For instance, tuition at New York University Abu Dhabi is $55,383, though need-based aid is available based upon completion of the CSS Profile.
TUJ’s tuition is 2,573,700 yen ($17,800) for the first year and 1,651,600 yen ($11,400) for subsequent years. Those figures are an exception to the general rule of high-priced branch campus tuitions. Kato explains TUJ’s tuition as “reasonabl(y) priced as TUJ has to compete with Japanese universities.”
Even in cases of relatively low or even free tuition, the costs for living expenses, travel, health insurance, and visa processing can be significant.
The costs also can be a moving target. “The value of most foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar is in continual flux,” reminds NACAC’s Guide to International University Admission. “Costs can increase or decrease considerably over a period of years.”
Even considering a low tuition fee, pursuing degrees abroad is still financially untenable for many lowerincome U.S college-bound students. Significant need-based grant aid is rarely available to international students when attending other countries’ public institutions. As a result, experts advise that for students with financial aid eligibility, studying abroad for less than a full degree might be the best option to experience living and learning internationally.
Ashley McNaughton, an independent educational consultant working with students and families interested in international options, is an enthusiastic advocate for college overseas. She personally has enjoyed living in Europe, including at her current base in Germany.
She believes that, over the coming years, American “enrollments (at European universities) will climb.” She explains, “COVID has settled a bit, and the tuition costs in the US are continuing to rise.”
In the UK, Patrick Cosh, deputy head of international recruitment at Cardiff University in Wales, predicts increased interest in UK universities. “The UK universities have put extra resources into traveling more regularly to the U.S. and developing links to school counselors,” he says.
From the perspective of the students interviewed for this article, a greater number of U.S. students and their families should explore international options.
“For many students, it doesn’t cross their mind to fully go abroad for college, but it should,” encourages Martinez, the Oxford first-year student. The benefits are immense, diverse, and life-enriching.
Eric Neutuch is a freelance writer.