The Traveling Diaries No. 23

"The Burden of the Budget"

by Angelic Roman 

Relax and read on!

So, I noticed that the number one thing that anyone can say upon my eager tale of study abroad   

(forgive me, it was a great experience and I just can't stop talking about it) is that they would love to do something similar if they had the money. Well, I decided that a full break-down of how I did it would be something worth posting in addition to some great resources for people to check out. 

So, the number one thing that helped me was the award of The Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship  as I've stated before in a previous post. (You can find this here). The Gilman Scholarship awarded me $5,000. Now the City College of San Francisco program fee is less than half of what it might cost at a  U.C.   (insiders tip: The classes for both CCSF and UC students are taught in the same school by the same teachers!)

The CCSF cost is currently about $6,300. This, of course, is only the program costs and does not include airfare or meals. 

For an additional amount you can pay for home-stay in some of the programs, which includes meals. Additionally, you can pay about $700 for single-room occupancy. 

So the Gilman helped cover almost all of my program cost. Before my trip I also started working a seasonal job, which included holidays and managed to earn a little over $2,000. In addition to this, I also took advantage of the scholarships listed on the CCSF Scholarship page. 

And there are so many more resources out there to help you achieve your dreams! I would encourage anyone to check out www.studyabroadfunding.org. 

Plus, while abroad I would recommend anyone to check out http://www.helpx.net to see what exchanges are available ( this usually is volunteer work for room and board). 

There are a bunch of resources out there and my best advice to ask anyone who has studied abroad to see how they did it as well as talking to your Study Abroad Coordinator. PS: Even if you are not a CCSF student, you can enroll specifically for the Study Abroad program.