Traveling During/After College

[ACL]

Most of these ideas won't work for those with jobs, families, etc but due to the relative freedoms you have during and immediately after college there are some amazing opportunities to experience countries for longer periods of time and in many cases actually make money doing so. I think my first exposure to the "way of thinking" that under grids travel hacking started in college when I began exploring ways to pay for international trips. Just some ideas:

1. During college if you do a study abroad check both for nationally competitive scholarships (Boren, etc) and also scholarships for study abroad offered by your school. During college I received fairly substantial scholarships to study in Europe (undergrad) and Brazil (grad school).

2. After college if you do not have a career lined up and want to travel, consider spending time overseas. I was able to secure a Fulbright scholarship after college and spent a year in Central Asia while getting paid fairly well. There are lots of opportunities like this from Fulbright to teaching English to Peace Corps. Another option is the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, which is now allowing me to live in Africa for a year.

Although I have only done a few of these things, I have research and applied for many I have not ended up doing. Feel free to PM me if anyone is interested in these amazing option for international travel. Compared with travel hacking they've allowed me (a mid-20-something who has never had a real career) to go to nearly 40 countries without asking my parents for a dime

 

[MotownMan]

Great ideas! Love this post. I'm not far out of undergrad and was able to spend nearly a year in Syria studying Arabic. I'll add this tip-

Most of my friends that studied abroad ended up paying $10-20k/semester (~4 months) plus airfare- an absurd amount. My school let me directly enroll at the University of Damascus in Arabic classes and, after arriving to Syria, I rented an apartment using local classifieds ads translated by the concierge at my hotel. After rent, tuition, food, travel (saw most of the country), and entertainment (opera was CHEAP in Damascus), I was at about $800/month. So, if you've traveled or have the willingness to put yourself out there, try directly enrolling into a university abroad and figuring the details out yourself. Study abroad programs might give you a place to sleep, cell phone, and help with getting around, but they are gouging you on price. As a 19 year old, I grew a ton because I figured it out myself.

EDITED- A quick google search showed the average semester cost to study abroad is $18k!

 

[ACL]

Good points @MotownMan. Colleges in America take far too much advantage of people's willingness to take on massive student loan debt in the name of pursuing "education" and the overpriced nature of study abroad programs is just one example of that. I'm actually directly enrolled in a postgrad program in Africa at the moment, although thankfully I didn't have to ask anyone to translate classified ads to help me find lodging as English is spoken here haha.

 

[MotownMan]

@ACL That's great! Pre-congrats on your postgrad degree. Lots of work I'm sure. My guess is that its slightly offset with some great travel and fun cultural experiences though! And its great you enrolled directly! Tuition overseas is so much better than here, plus you're getting a great new perspective I bet.

You have done a great job outlining awesome ways to get around those big fees and save students the stress of big loans. Hope some see this thread and are inspired by your example- sounds like you have worked hard to take advantage of them!

My university offers travel grants to international relations undergrads (of which I was one) for winter travel to London and Brussels. You're required to see specific historic/government sites and are given $1700. I applied one year and received the funding. Later I found out- I kid you not- that 6 people applied (this from a professor, not hearsay). They awarded 5 grants... So, it was my experience that people need to just try. Sure, there was some leg work involved, but it wasn't much. It can't hurt to apply for something, especially if there isn't a fee. You said that in your first post and it was such great advice. Once again, hope some students are listening. I wish I would have traveled even more in undergrad.

 

[jmw]

I think a year in a foreign country, especially if it is very different from the US and non-English speaking, is a great way to become a well-rounded person and allows for a lot of personal growth. That type of experience will make you a better person and is not "wasted time." But it's a lot better to do this during undergrad rather than afterwards. Consider the opportunity cost of travel instead of working after that BA/BS degree or taking 5 years to earn that BA/BS.

The cost is more than just a year of your life + your first year's salary. The cost is the salary during your peak earning year way down in the future. You might make $30k during your first year out of college, but you might make $90k inflation adjusted during your final year of work. The opportunity cost is $90k, not $25k. Multiply that by the number of years you're going to spend as a "professional student." In my own family, I warn young family members who seem to be becoming "professional students" with no clear career goal and are picking a major with a dart board and a blindfold.

 

[MarkD]

This is very timely as our 20-year old daughter has informed us that she would like to study abroad in Copenhagen next year through a program offered by her California State University. The cost comes in at around $35K for the year (note that her CSU costs would be about $25K for the same) so she'd be financing the whole thing herself as our 529 college savings plan is tapped out after three years of school.

 

[slickmouse]

I realize this post was specific to college-age...but thought I'd add....

My daughter studied abroad her Jr year of High School through Rotary for less than $6000 for the entire year. Some Rotary programs will allow a HS Senior to apply as well (although the countries they are eligible to attend are limited due to age restrictions).

She lived in Denmark for a full year. Traveled to Manchester England with her Danish School. Spent Spring Break in Germany visiting a friend and then ended her year with a 3wk EuroTour covering 7 countries and 13 cities.

Without the Rotary Youth Exchange Program - we could never have afforded it.