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Financing Study Abroad
Below is a simplified summary of information. Click here for more detailed answers to frequently asked questions.
If Macalester approves your study abroad proposal, your financial aid will apply to the costs of your off-campus semester. The aid amount will change somewhat. You will lose any Work Study income, for example. Estimates of living costs and transportation at your off-campus location will be figured in. But because you will pay Macalester tuition for your off-campus semester, your main educational expense for the semester will be the same whether you are on campus or away. For more detail, click Finances.
Most off-campus programs require a deposit of a few hundred dollars to reserve a place. You have to pay that up front; Macalester will not do that. The deposit will be applied against your program cost, so eventually what you pay as a deposit will show up as a reduction, or credit, on your Macalester bill. But not until you get the bill for that semester. In the meantime you will be out the deposit money, and if something bad should happen -- you change your mind, Macalester rejects your proposal, the study away enrollment cap comes into play -- you may lose the desposit, period. There are no guarantees.
Transportation and cost of living abroad:
These are the biggest variables in the equation. It's relatively cheap to live in South Africa, for example, but expensive to get there. In most cases you will have to pay for your transportation out of pocket. An estimate of this cost (not your actual cost) will be used to calculate your financial aid, but of course financial aid does not kick in until your semester abroad has already begun. Macalester will not help you with this cost in advance. Living costs in the UK and Western Europe are high. In some cities -- London, Paris, Amsterdam -- Macalester students have found that the high costs limit what they can afford to do. Be warned.
If you get a Pell Grant, it will apply to study abroad, just like all other financial aid. We mention it specifically here just because Pell recipients are also eligible for the best study abroad scholarship program to go anywhere, the Gilman Scholarship. Check it out.
Check out our Scholarship page. There is a lot of money out there for study abroad, and Macalester students have been very successful in getting it. Additional scholarship money reduces your Macalester tuition bill.
If you seek additional information that is not found on our website, please contact International Center Assistant Director Paula Paul-Wagner at x6300 or paulwagner@macalester.edu.