Travelers face falling dollar

As the value of the U.S. dollar continues to plunge, University students planning to study or work in Europe will have to contend with increased expenses during their travels due to the less favorable exchange rate.

To compensate for the dollar's depreciation against the Euro and British pound, the Study Abroad Program will eventually redistribute funding "to help more students who are going to areas of the world where the dollar's fall has impacted expenses," said Elena Uribe, assistant director of study abroad and director of international internships.

But in the short run, Uribe said, it will be difficult for the University to give additional funding to students traveling to Europe, despite rising demand for opportunities to go abroad. "We don't really have a possibility to increase the grants in the same proportion as the European currencies are gaining ground against the U.S. dollar," she said.

Paul Boswell '10 spent last summer working in Paris through the Princeton-in-France program. During his seven weeks there, he saw the value of the Euro rise from $1.30 to $1.37.

"The smart thing to do would have been to take out a lot of Euros all at once at the beginning," he said in an email, explaining that though he received a "generous" grant from the program, spending the summer in France ended up costing him money. "Paris is simply an expensive city," he said, "but I realize the point of the grant was simply to help defray the cost of what is essentially an unpaid internship."

Uribe acknowledged the difficulties experienced by students who spent the summer abroad. "Last year's students found it quite hard," she said. "In many cases, it was quite hard to get our budget and funding to fit their needs."

Boswell said the University should make an effort to compensate students who encounter these sorts of increased costs. While students may inevitably lose money when choosing to work in expensive cities, "the University should make adjustments to its grants if there is a persistent trend in the exchange value of the dollar," he said. "Otherwise it will be giving too much to some students and too little to others."

Though the University cannot control the price of an airplane ticket, Uribe said that the Study Abroad office is looking into establishing a "travel fund" which would contain funds specifically earmarked for flights abroad. The money would be separate from any internship funding.

Likewise, the Study Abroad office is searching for cheaper housing options for Europe-bound Princetonians, primarily by working with European schools to secure dormitory housing, Uribe said.

"Anything they could do to help students obtain housing would be great," Sandra Katz '08, who interned last summer at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, said.

Nevertheless, the dollar's fall relative to the Euro does not seem to have noticeably decreased the percentage of students choosing to study abroad in Europe, Study Abroad Director Nancy Kanach said.

While 57 percent of students who studied abroad last year went to Europe, this year the number is 55 percent. She added that last year's elimination of the $2,750-per-semester study abroad fee may have offset the dollar's decline and helped keep the percentage of students who travel to Europe essentially the same.

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Kanach said the fee was eliminated specifically to make it easier for students to go abroad. "I think if the fee were still in place, the depreciation of the dollar would have had [a] more serious effect on participation."

Despite that extra funding, Kanach acknowledged that students will have to plan their time abroad with greater care in order to avoid significant financial costs. "Students will have to budget carefully when they are abroad and take advantage of the many student fares and discounts that are available to them," Kanach said.

Katz said studying abroad helped her "learn to live like a student ... if you watch how other native students live, you learn how to live on a student budget." During her time in Paris, for example, she ate most of her meals at home and avoided the temptation to go shopping.

While Europe has become more expensive, some countries have been more affected than others. After studying abroad in Berlin in spring 2006, Katz said that since Berlin is a "cheap city," the dollar's falling value didn't prove too much of a burden. "Even with the higher exchange rate," she said, "life was still relatively cheap, much cheaper than living in NYC." She added that she specifically picked a semester in Berlin over one in Paris because of the difference in cost.

For some students, though, no degree of depreciation or financial burden will stop them from pursuing work or study abroad. "I was aware that [the dollar might depreciate] before I went to Paris, but it in no way affected my decision to go," Boswell said. "For me, it was France or bust."