American students may gripe about the exorbitant cost of higher education, but international students in the United States and American students studying abroad have more reason to complain about tuition rates at Boston University.
Students attending Boston University from abroad pay exactly same as students from within the United States, BU spokesman Colin Riley said, which amounts to $28,512 a year.
“Tuition rates [at BU] are exactly the same for U.S. and international students,” BU International Students and Scholars Office Director Jeanne Kelley said.
“In fact, they generally pay more,” he added, because they do not get financial assistance. Only United States citizens can receive scholarships and grants from either the government or the university.
Yarom Ophir, a 1997 School of Management graduate, who came to BU from Switzerland, said in an email that studying in America was “a very expensive investment” compared to the cost of attending college at home.
“Boston University is essentially about 40 times the cost of India’s best university,” Anand Chopra-McGowan, a College of Communication freshman from India, said in an email.
University statistics say 3,964 international students attended BU in fall of 2002, accounting for 14 percent of the university’s total population.
In the same year, 582,996 international students were enrolled in American colleges and universities nation-wide – a 6 percent increase from the year before, according to Boston Globe reports.
“We’ve had a longstanding representation of international students here,” Riley said.
During the last two decades, BU has had one of the largest international student populations in the country.
In 2002, international students at BU represented 143 countries, including more than 400 hundred students from both China and Korea and more than 300 students each from Japan, India and Taiwan.
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Noyuri Mitsuhashi, who came to BU from Japan, said she does not receive any financial aid or scholarships to help her pay for tuition.
In some cases, however, aid is available. Chopra-McGowan said he receives “almost a full scholarship – a combination of aid and merit.” Although he lived in India, he is eligible for financial assistance because he is an American citizen.
Despite BU’s high cost of tuition, international students continue to come to Boston.
Chopra-McGowan said he opted to study in America because Indian schools force students to decide on a career as early as the 10th grade, while the American college system is more flexible. He chose BU for its location and for its diverse student body.
For Ophir, who today is a successful businessman in Switzerland, the investment in an American education was well worth it. Ophir chose to study at BU for its business program.
“Having studied in BU was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life,” he said.
BU encourages international students to enroll because it is a “benefit [for students] to be working and learning alongside individuals from different cultures and backgrounds,” Riley said.
STUDY ABROAD
Students from BU who study abroad are also at a disadvantage when it comes to the cost of tuition.
On average, American students shell out between $4,000 and $14,000 during a semester in a foreign country, according to a Washington Times report.
And although many BU students study at foreign universities, where tuition is a fraction of BU’s, “the cost of study abroad normally is the same cost as a semester in Boston,” said Joe Finkhouse, director of student affairs for the Division of International Programs, in an email.
The cost of the various study abroad programs is determined by the Board of Trustees, Finkhouse said, not the host school.
Exchange rates may further affect the perceived cost of studying abroad, Riley added.
CAS junior Kate Van Akin, who is currently enrolled in the $11,600 per semester BU London Internship Program, said in an email that “international students typically have to pay more in places like England and Australia because locals go for free [or] very cheap, so the university makes its money off the exchange students.”
According to the United Kingdom Department for Education and Skills website, British students never pay more than £1,150 (approximately $2,000) per year to attend college in England because “the balance of the cost is automatically paid for [them] by the government.”
Students planning to study abroad should not worry about losing their financial aid or scholarships, according to the International Programs website. Even if the cost of tuition changes, the amount of financial assistance they receive does not change.
CAS junior Ariella Schulman is currently studying in London and said in an email that she is still receiving a scholarship that covers half of her tuition costs.
Although they typically pay more for tuition than local students, the number of study abroad students has also been increasing. More than 1,200 BU students go overseas each year to internationalize their education, learn about other cultures and gain work experience, according to Finkhouse.
“Generally students have a wonderful experience,” Riley said, calling study abroad one of BU’s most exciting programs.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
