Hi! This is my second blog post. If you haven’t read my first, my name is Lan Nguyen. I’m a fourth-year Environmental Resource Science major and I was fortunate enough to participate in the Europe: Flowers and Photography faculty-led Maymester. In my other blog, I talked about how I prepared for the program and one of the countries we visited the Netherlands. For this blog, I’d like to take the time to discuss the budget and activities. Any study abroad experience is going to be expensive. From experience, it is better to be overprepared for it rather than underprepared. Because of that, I like to create spreadsheets months beforehand to help me understand how much and where my money will be going towards. I separated the spreadsheet into three categories: fixed expenses, variable expenses, and financial aid. Fixed expenses included flight, program deposit, program fee, summer tuition, UG fees, and my international data plan. I had to pay for that list before leaving the country, so I also nicknamed it “pre-trip”. The variable expenses were for food, souvenirs, and activities (museums) that were estimated amounts beforehand. Souvenirs are relatively inexpensive, but food was costly in larger cities like Amsterdam and Paris. As of May 2023, the average price for one decent meal was 15 to 20 euros. For me, I had nicknamed this list as “during trip” which meant I would be paying for these items while I was abroad. The last category is financial aid. This category contained all of my scholarships, including the HOPE scholarship. This last section helped me understand how my overall budget would total. Also, keep in mind that this is what worked for me. You are able to create your own spreadsheet that caters to your program, budget, and preferences. If this budget spreadsheet interests you or if you have any questions about this program in general, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!
