- As college tuition fees soar, more American students are going abroad.
- Beyond cheaper tuition, college abroad can offer multiple benefits, including exposure to new cultures.
When it was time for Liza Jean Miezejeski to start thinking about college, she couldn't stop worrying about student debt.
"Every time I looked, there were schools that seemed interesting, but none that was worth going into debt for," she told Business Insider.
One day, while in the car with her mom, she heard on the radio that Americans were moving to Germany for free education. It sounded like a dream to her: a chance to live abroad and earn an affordable college degree.
Miezejeski, then a sophomore at a Connecticut high school, started to look into it seriously. She ended up attending a university in Prague and then moved to Brussels for graduate school. She graduated from both schools with no debt.
Miezejeski is not alone. Like her, more American students are looking abroad to complete their college education.
While study abroad programs — which allow students to spend a semester or a year overseas — are nothing new, completing a full degree outside the US has been gaining popularity.
A representative for the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit exchange organization based in New York, told BI the number of US-based students who went to college abroad has increased in the last year.
"Most US colleges and universities anticipate increased or stable student participation in study abroad in the forthcoming 2024/25 academic year," the representative said. They said this includes students in non-exchange programs and those pursuing degrees overseas.
James Edge, the owner of Beyond the States, a platform that helps students apply to bachelor's and master's programs abroad, said he's seen a 5 to 10% increase in students pursuing degrees abroad each year since he joined the company three years ago.
Greg Kaplan, a private college admissions counselor and the author of "Earning Admission: Real Strategies for Getting Into Highly Selective Colleges," said interest has increased tenfold over the past six years. "Six years ago, if we had one student applying abroad, it was interesting," he said. Now, out of the 350 high school students his company works with yearly, 10 to 20% apply to college abroad, he said.
There are several reasons for this, from an interest in specific programs to a desire to explore the world. But above all, experts and students alike have echoed the same sentiment: college in America is too expensive.
The skyrocketing prices of college in the US
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students in the US spent an average of $28,297 a year — or around $113,188 for a four-year program — on tuition and required fees at public out-of-state schools in the academic year of 2022 to 2023.
These fees have risen over the years. The U.S. News & World Report found that among the 436 colleges in its annual rankings, out-of-state tuition fees at public universities have risen by around 32% over two decades after adjustments for inflation. The same report showed that in-state tuition fees at public universities have grown by 45%.
And private colleges in the US can cost more than twice that much. Tuition this year at Pepperdine University in Malibu, which is ranked as one of the most expensive schools in the country, is $65,990.
"That sticker shock is very potent for families," said Robert Harry, an associate director of college counseling at Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut.
Harry estimates that in his 15 years of experience, the number of kids who went abroad for college increased from around 1% of any given high school class to as much as 5 or 10% of a class.
Many have their eyes set on Europe
College in Europe has become an attractive alternative. For one, tuition is generally cheaper. Beyond the States lists the average tuition fee for European bachelor's programs as $7,390 a year for international students. The average is based on calculations from its database of 12,600 English-taught bachelor's programs in Europe. In some countries, like Germany, public college education is free, even for international students.
Many European university degrees often take three years to complete, so it's also one less year of college tuition to pay for. "You get an extra year of your life back," Edge said.
American students often turn to English-speaking destinations like the UK and Ireland for their education abroad. However, college advisors said other European and Asian countries, like the Netherlands and Japan, that offer English-language programs are also gaining popularity.
The rise in interest comes as US applications become more competitive
In 2019, Jacob Zeidberg applied to almost 30 schools in the US. He was waitlisted or rejected from all of them.
A 2024 report from Common App, a college application platform, showed that application volume has grown by 171% since the 2014-15 academic year. The number of applications per applicant has risen by 46% in the same timeframe, now totaling 6.65 applications per person.
"When the Common App became ubiquitous, it started to get really hard to get into American institutions just because it's so much easier to apply to so many more of them," Harry said.
It's pushed some parents and students to look elsewhere.
For many, Europe is the answer. "Even if you haven't done all the extracurriculars, or if you haven't taken the SATs, it is much easier to get accepted to school in Europe because the way they do admissions is slightly different," Edge, owner of Beyond the States, said.
For example, he said they may focus more on the student's academic strengths than on standardized tests.
Zeidberg eventually applied to Toulouse Business School in France. He said the application process was smooth and efficient, and he was accepted two weeks later.
"It was like night and day," his mom, Jennifer Zeidberg, told BI.
The benefits of college abroad go beyond cost
In many US colleges, students declare a major after their freshman year. Many colleges outside the US are more specialized.
That system appeals to many people who are sure of their interests. "If you are definitely a math person, knowing that you can do three or four years of math and never have to write another English essay — it's intriguing for people," Harry said.
Scarlett Kiaras-Attari, who grew up in Kentucky and moved to Scotland in 2018 for undergrad, was one of them. "I was so interested in medieval history and Classics," she told BI. "I just knew that there was no other place that I had applied to that was really going to capture that the way that I thought Edinburgh could."
Some students also seek niche fields that can only be found abroad. Kaplan, for example, had a student who turned down programs in the US because he wanted more exposure to Formula 1 racing, which is primarily rooted in Europe. He ended up studying motorsports engineering at Oxford.
For many, being able to travel easily is also a huge plus.
"You can just pop on a train and go right next door to Portugal or France, for example. There's just so much more opportunities for cultural engagement," said Edge.
Important considerations
Although tuition fees are usually lower, college advisors said that students going abroad have to consider other costs, such as visas, daily expenditures, rent, and flights back home.
They should also consider the emotional impact of moving abroad.
Amanda Mrozek, who withdrew from Central Michigan University in her third year and moved to Germany to get her degree in 2021, struggled with cultural differences.
For example, her college in Germany lacked school spirit and a sports culture, she said. Most students also lived off-campus and went straight home after class instead of hanging out on campus.
"It's just not fun," she previously told BI. "I understand people will say, 'You're supposed to be learning.' But at least for me, I can learn better when I'm enjoying something about it."
Harry often tells students they won't have a typical American college experience abroad and that they will often be in the minority of kids who go abroad.
"Recognize that your experience is going to be a bit different, but it doesn't mean it's any less rich or rewarding," he said.
In the years since graduating from high school, Miezejeski only knows of three other high school classmates who left the US: one went to Canada, and two others went to the Netherlands and Italy to study. But most of them stayed in Connecticut or studied in nearby cities like Boston and New York. Where she's from, it's not common to go abroad, but it's a slow trend, she said.
Since completing her degree in 2021, she hasn't looked back.
She decided to stay in Europe and pursue a master's degree in Brussels. Her master's program was one year long and cost around $4,700 — almost a fifth of what she would have paid if she had pursued a master's at the University of Connecticut, a college in her state, based on the university's website.
More importantly, Miezejeski gained experiences money can't buy.
"I have friends now all over the world," she said. "I've learned about all their cultures, how they do things and their languages. I've met incredible people and learned so much. The learning does not stop."