For some students, earning a college degree in another country could be a smart financial move.
American students who are accepted to U.S. colleges ranked among the World's Best Universities may be able to score a good deal. But for those willing to stray further afield, the costs can be even lower.
"I think anyone who is looking at the least expensive option is staying close to home, but there are universities abroad that are less expensive than U.S. universities," says Susanna Cerasuolo, founder of virtual guidance counseling website CollegeMapper.com.
Top-ranked U.S. schools on this year's list of World's Best Universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No. 1), Harvard University (No. 3), and Yale University (No. 7), award grants that can decrease their $50,000-plus price tags. At MIT, about 65 percent of students received need-based grants from the school in 2011-2012, bringing down the average net cost to $20,397, the school reported to U.S. News.
[Read more about the 2012 World's Best Universities rankings.]
But when all is tallied, some students may pay less to earn a degree abroad. No public universities in Norway, including the No. 111-ranked University of Oslo, charge tuition—which could be a great deal for students fluent in the country's language. And for a deal that's closer to home, U.S. students may find lower rates at Canadian institutions, too.
Going to college in a foreign country wasn't an option Elliott Bent initially considered while in high school in Vermont, but at the urging of his father, he looked at relatively inexpensive colleges in Canada, including Nova Scotia's University of King's College. After a visit, Bent realized that attending the Canadian university would not only be "substantially cheaper" in flat tuition costs—the 2006 grad estimates he paid about $8,000 a year—but also carried the added benefit of a favorable exchange rate.
"It's not just the tuition; it's a lot of different things," Bent says, "[including] the exchange rate. Anything I bought was 30 percent off."
Canada, which is also home to top-ranked McGill University (No. 18) and the University of Toronto (No. 19), is an increasingly popular destination for American students hunting for a deal, says CollegeMapper.com's Cerasuolo.
"I really think you're going to see a huge rise of Americans looking at Canadian universities in the coming years with the increasing costs in the United States," she says.
[Find out how to pay for college in the United States.]
To further offset costs, students may be able to receive scholarships to attend foreign institutions. All incoming first year students at McGill University, for instance, are automatically considered for $3,000 scholarships (in Canadian dollars); at Sweden's Lund University, ranked 71st, students from countries outside of the European Union/European Economic Area may be eligible for merit-based Global Scholarships that could cover 25 to 100 percent of the school's tuition.
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