Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: News

"I think it's an extraordinary city with a lot to offer, and one can survive a semester there," Daly said. However, "it's a deterrent for people who are considering a year."

Nevertheless, the United Kingdom remained students' destination of choice, with 153 students studying there this year. Australia came in second with 92 students.

Gee explained that financial-aid packages adjust to the cost of being abroad, so financially aided students are "in less bad shape than the people who are in the economic middle class."

He added that there is not a lot of outside scholarship aid available to students at the undergraduate level, though some does exist, such as the National Security Education Program for the Study of Critical Languages.

The Penn Abroad office tries to prepare people for dealing with the exchange rate at the orientation sessions, Gee said.

But ultimately, many students have to fend for themselves. For College Senior Eric Schwartz, who spent the Fall 2006 semester in Barcelona, it was a matter of trial and error.

"Truthfully, I brought a bunch of different options for payment, and I just ended up figuring out which ones worked," he said.

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