< updated for summer 2020 >
Program Fee $2,600
How to calculate the total cost…
| 2,600 | Program Fee |
| 1,500 | Airfare US-Lima round-trip (estimated) |
| 500 | Spending Money (minimum) |
| 40 | Phone plan |
| 8,758 | Summer Tuition & Fees (estimated, based on 6 credit hours, exact amount can only be determined by cashier’s office) |
| 13,398 | Total Cost |
Scholarships
The Glennis McCrary Goodrich Scholarship is a scholarship specifically for study abroad students at Baylor. The Goodrich committee gives priority to students who are studying in “an under-represented world region,” which includes Peru. Read more here…
If this is your first time outside the USA, there is a scholarship just for people you. And, Peru is one of the eligible countries for this scholarship!
You can learn about other scholarships on the website for Baylor’s Center for Global Engagement…
Program Fee
The program fee covers almost all of your expenses while in Peru. For example, your hotel room in Lima, your room in Cusco, airplane ticket Lima-Cusco round-trip, all expenses on excursions, as well as breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. We’re taking care of all the stressful parts of the trip for you. We’ll travel as a group and have a travel agency and guides helping us move around at every stage.
We will also have exciting excursions planned for every weekend, all included in the program fee. Financially, this means the program fee is the cost of the trip; there are no hidden weekend travel costs that have to be paid on top of the program fee.
Things NOT covered by the program fee:
- Baylor tuition (6 credit hours)
- airplane tickets USA-Lima round-trip
- medicines, personal care items, snacks, and laundry (c. $100)
- extra money to buy more food and bottled water than budgeted in the program fee (c. $400)
- local pay-as-you-go phone plan (c. $40 plan)
Baylor Summer Tuition & Fees
This cost is highly variable, so you’ll want to review the Student Financial Services website and talk to a financial aid counselor to get the best estimate for your situation.
To estimate tuition and fees, I multiplied the 2020 per hour summer tuition ($1,393) times 6 (two courses, 3 credit hours each).
Then, I multiplied the per credit hour study abroad fee ($50) times 6 (total credit hours) and added the $100 flat general student fee for study abroad students. The tuition charge, plus these fees added together equal the amount in the table above.
Do not rely on this estimate to determine your cost of tuition. This number is provided as an estimate only.
Airfare US-Lima round-trip
I’ll let you know my travel itinerary early in the spring, and it would be great if everyone flew in and out with me. However, feel free to purchase tickets on a different flight if you have a special situation or find a better deal. My tickets usually run between $1,200 and $1,600, but I’ve seen tickets for $900, generally on budget airlines and requiring a stop in Mexico City or another Latin American country.
If you’d like to work with a tour company to purchase your airline tickets, I recommend Millennium Tours of Austin, a leader in specialized group travel. Millennium has partnered with Baylor for years and sent thousands of Bears abroad.
- https://mltours.com/ (800) 929-9330 info@mltours.com
See the “What should I do once I’m accepted?” page for important notes about your international flight.
Your in-country flights (Lima-Cusco and Cusco-Lima) will be purchased for you, and you’ll need to coordinate your international arrival and departure around those flights.
Spending Money
As far as cash to bring, a frugal traveler should be fine with $500, but a more lavish traveler may want $800-1,000. Most of your required expenses are covered in the program fee, but you may want to spend more for dinner than allotted, eat lunch out rather than at the school, or enjoy afternoons drinking coffee at one of the many cafes.
One of your regular expenses will be buying bottled water. The tap water in Peru is not safe to drink. There will always be safe juice, coffee, and tea available at meals, but you’ll need to buy bottled water (about $0.40 per liter) for all your other drinking.
You’ll want to have cash on hand in case you need medicine. Another regular expense will be adding “minutes” to your phone plan (see below), if you’re using a local plan. Finally, you won’t need to do laundry while you’re in Cusco. The school has a service that will wash your clothes, returning them in 24 hours. They charge about $2 per kilo (4.4 lbs).
Everyone should bring a credit card to help with expenses in an emergency, such as paying for a doctor’s visit. You will have traveler’s health insurance (part of the program fee) to cover hospital and doctor costs, but the insurance is setup to reimburse you later. You will need to cover the upfront cost at the time of the visit.
Credit cards are also accepted at most of the restaurants and stores near the school. Visa seems to be more widely accepted than MasterCard or other cards.
The best way to get cash is to withdraw money from an ATM using a debit card. There is a ScotiaBank with an ATM in the town square where I will be getting cash. There are also Western Union locations nearby, but these are more expensive than using an ATM. Traveler’s checks are NOT used in Peru.
Other Expenses
It is a Baylor requirement for participating in the trip that you be reachable by phone at all times. The easiest option is to use an international plan with your current provider. All of the major carriers have contracts in Peru and should work fine.
An alternative is to acquire an “unlocked GSM” phone and buy a pay-as-you-go Peruvian plan. This is generally the cheaper option (between $20-40, including data), but creates hassles since you have to use an “unlocked” phone, and you’ll be using a new number all summer.
If you currently have a contract with a major carrier, your phone is most likely “locked” and only usable with that company. If you have an old phone that is unlocked or can be unlocked before you leave for Peru, and it’s GSM compatible, you may use that phone.
If you have a old phone that you own (not still paying for it under your monthly contract), your carrier may be able to unlock your phone.
If you don’t own a compatible phone, you can buy an unlocked GSM phone from a retailer in the US and use that phone while in Peru, or you can wait and buy one at a store in Cusco.
