Study abroad can be a worthwhile experience, and many students who take advantage of Penn's programs return satisfied with their experiences.
There is great value in a change of scenery and culture for college students.
And Penn has calculated that value to be precisely $1,220. That's the added fee the University charges students who choose to study abroad -- on top of the Penn tuition they already have to pay, which is almost always more than what students would pay directly to the foreign school if they were to enroll independent of the Penn program.
This seems a bit excessive.
For Penn, there is a cost associated with running the Office of International Programs, which administers the study abroad program, and for this students should pay something. But why is this any different than the myriad of other offices that are already funded by student tuition and do not require an additional fee?
Essentially what the study abroad equation boils down to is how your Penn credits -- obtained either here or at another institution -- are paid for.
It makes sense for the University to charge students for the credits that appear on their transcripts, even if they are earned while studying abroad. In this case, charging full tuition seems fair.
It also makes sense for the University to charge students a fee to convert their credits from an international institution to Penn credit.
But under the current system, students have to shoulder both costs -- and that's not fair.
Other schools, such as Harvard and Princeton, charge a fee to study abroad, allowing students to pay tuition to the foreign university directly, often at a considerable savings to the student. While the cost of some elite universities worldwide is comparable to the Ivy League average, many are less expensive. Why not allow students to take advantage of this savings?
Cornell has assembled a reasonable package of study-abroad programs that are comparable in price to a semester in Ithaca -- including the program fee.
There is some merit to the idea of paying full tuition to Penn while abroad, since students are receiving Penn credit in the end. Additionally, with the current weakness of the U.S. dollar, the $13,772 Penn tuition may actually be a better deal. But this does not explain the additional fee.
A fair compromise would be to either charge a program fee and waive Penn tuition, or charge tuition and eliminate the fee. It's unfair to charge students twice.
