Written by Tucker Smith
Starting this year, students who matriculated at Colorado College on or after July 1, 2015, will continue to pay the same CC tuition when studying off-campus for a semester or a year, instead of paying the actual tuition cost assessed by the program or university abroad. This new policy has been dubbed the “New Home School Tuition Policy” and is not new among college study abroad policies. Many selective liberal arts institutions have implemented this policy in the last decade. The idea behind this tuition change is that it will make off-campus study available to all undergraduates.
The CC International Program webpage reads: “Under the Home School Tuition Policy, students will pay the same tuition cost for the semester, whether studying at Colorado College or off-campus. The program fee (sometimes called room & board) of the program they choose will be assessed to their CC student account instead of Colorado College room and board.”
Current sophomores and first-years who choose to study abroad will pay their CC tuition as if they were on campus, not the tuition of the program they choose, and will pay the fee of the program of their choice in lieu of CC room and board.
“I started here in May of 2011 and the rule was that students on financial aid could only do CC semesters abroad or the Exchange and ACM programs,” said Inger Bull, Director of International programs. “Then January 2012, we changed it so that students on financial aid could choose any program and the financial aid would follow them. It was to equal out the playing field.”
This was the “pilot program,” and the current juniors and seniors are the last of CC’s student body to participate. The program was deemed inefficient because the data from the three years following showed that, as Bull said, “it’s not affordable to not receive tuition from 250 students every semester.” The Home School Tuition Policy has been put in place to correct this issue and still give the opportunity for students receiving financial aid to study abroad with the program of their choice.
For the 35 percent of students who receive need-based financial aid at CC, the new tuition policy benefits them if the program they choose is more expensive than what their usual semester tuition at CC is. Due to the new program, students will be able to rely on their current financial aid for whichever program they choose, and on what aid the International Office can give them.
For the rest of the sophomores and first-years, this new policy means study abroad just got more expensive. The programs that CC students choose to study abroad in vary between disciplines and locations; however, they are consistently less expensive than a full semester at CC. The discrepancy is not huge, but it is enough to change how one might think about study abroad.
When asked how she might respond to students’ anger at having to now pay more for study abroad, Bull responded, “The reason we chose to initiate this policy class by class is because we recognized we couldn’t change the story half-way through. We had to tell you [Class of 2019] at the orientation of your first year. This is what we tried, but in order to sustain a program like this you can’t let that many students not pay tuition for a semester.”
Many students may feel slighted by this new policy. Sophomore Bridget O’Neill said, “From my current understanding, I’m paying approximately the same as I would be if I were staying on campus, whereas if I was a grade above I would have saved money. It makes it more expensive for students across the board yet possible for everyone to study abroad.”
Other students had a less diplomatic approach, using descriptions such as “lame,” “upsetting,” and other more explicit terms. This policy is by no means radical, yet it is a change that can feel unjust for students who have friends in the years above that studied abroad for less. However, this is a policy the majority of selective liberal arts colleges have turned to in recent years and, in all likelihood, a permanent fix at CC.
Have questions about how the new policy will personally affect your plans? Contact the Assistant Director of Off-Campus Study Heather Powell Browne at heather.powellbrowne@coloradocollege.edu.