Study abroad

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Our son - Strathclyde Uni - has just announced he wants to do study abroad next year, preferably at a Uni in USA. The course would be in Electrical Engineering.

Does anyone have any experience/ advice about this - especially the costs involved.

Also how it might affect his final Degree. This would be the fourth year of a five year Degree (Masters).

He is Scottish and entitled to the free fees here.

Thanks

AFAIK if he arranges it through the uni then he doesn't need to pay fees. He would need to pay accommodation, etc and when my DD was looking at it, the states was one of the dearer places to go. It's been a few years though because her options were to go abroad for third year or do a semester abroad for her fifth year and her third year placement got cancelled due to covid, so she's in Europe now for fifth year semester.

She did fancy doing the US at one point and I remember my husband and I were both a bit 🤔about some of the location choices available through Strathclyde (engineering but different discipline) - but TBF partly cause she's mixed race and is also a bit of a pollyanna who wasn't even considering "social issues" when looking at options...

You pay minimal tuition fees but cost of accommodation, visas etc can be higher. There may be Turing funding available but it is limited, discretionary and tends to be prioritised towards those whose courses require a year overseas or from low income or deprived backgrounds. Decisions were also very late this year, dd left the week after finding out by which time she had already paid out for visa, flight, accommodation etc, so you cannot depend on it. Unis may have their own funding to allocate too and there should be a coordinator in the uni who can signpost and offer support.

Not engineering but DDs uni warned about the costs particularly in some UCal locations and also watch the campus allocations (you might end up not quite where you intended)

I have looked into this as my DD is hoping to do similar.

If the Uni has a reciprocal agreement - and many Scottish students do - then it's all done on the same basis as a home student. He would still be a Strathclyde student, on placement overseas. If he pays no fees in Scotland, he pays no fees in America. Similarly, a US student coming to Scotland pays fees to their home institution.

Fees are one thing - living costs quite another.

Thank you for all your help. That does confirm some of my concerns.
How could I find out more? I looked at the SAAS website for study abroad - but didn’t find out much.
I don’t want to spoil his enthusiasm- but was concerned USA might be especially expensive.

Strathy should have Study Abroad web pages. Get him to check department info too. My DD (other Scottish uni) decided against a year abroad. Grades from time abroad wouldn't count for final degree (still needed to pass all courses though) so she felt that this would make her final year more stressful. Also I took advice from colleagues about the unis which department recommended. They thought the transfer unis were not so good.

Not in Scotland but my son is hoping to go to America next year as well. His is an international course and he has a range of countries and unis to choose from. He is very keen on the states and they have 9 US universities on the list. I’ve checked out a couple of them on the web and looked at accommodation and food costs (many US universities do a food plan). Prices vary massively, from about $10k to $18k and that doesn’t include flights, visas or spending money.

Thanks. I’m glad I posted, this is proving helpful.