Money and Mickey Mouse

The program I’m going to be a part of during my time at Disney is the 12-month Academic Exchange Program. This program is quite different to the other international programs Disney offers (here are some of the other programs they offer). I believe this program can be completed as either a 6-month or 12-month placement. This specific program can only be completed if you are currently studying at a university (not all universities have this opportunity, see if yours do here), be on a relevant course and are going to be taking a 12-month placement (or sandwich) year, before carrying on to final year. 

I go to the University of Central Lancashire and study Events Management. The opportunity of this program was actually one of the reasons that swayed me to choose UCLan. After attending a few open days, I knew that they had a solid relationship with Disney and that it was one of the schools they chose participants from.

The last time I went to WDW in 2010 I met a girl in Downtown Disney, in the World of Disney store, who was currently on her placement there and she told me all about her experience so far. The information she told me got me SO ridiculously excited about the possibility of working there I just knew that I had to pursue it when the time came. I didn’t realise at the time that she wasn’t on the CRP, as I thought this was the only option for International participants. I, of course, researched into this when I got home and found how many different programs they offer.

As I previously mentioned, this specific program is a little different than the rest. In this program we have to enrol with a partnering school from the US. For the students of UCLan our partner school is the Central Michigan University. This means that the classes that we take whilst we’re out there are ran by CMU but of course, will be held at Disney University as I’m pretty sure it would be quite difficult to get to Michigan every time we have class. We have to choose two classes (one each semester) that we have to attend over the 12-month period, and they all sound so interesting it’s going to be hard to choose just two (for my first semester I've chosen to do Guest Service because where else could they teach you it any better, also Disney Heritage was full)! Of course, because we are attending classes over there, it means we do have to pay (a lot) more than the other available programs as we will not only be employees of Disney but students of CMU. So that’s pretty cool! I believe that we will have up to 3-4 hours of class a week, as well as working the minimum of roughly 32 hours on location.

So, moving on to the point of this post. Money. So far it has cost my family quite a lot of money to be able to let me take advantage of this opportunity. There are so many little details that must be completed and checked off the list before you go even think about flying out there, and they all cost £££, or in this case $$$. 

1)   Before even being accepted into the program, it’s possibly going to cost you money to travel to the interview stages. My fellow UCLan-ers and I were lucky enough that both stages of the interview process took place on campus, so we didn’t have to pay anything extra for travel expenses. I did however spend money of new outfits!

2)   Once we were accepted we had to go ahead and complete a CRB Police check to make sure we have a clean record since we will be working closely with children. It cost me £60 to get my CRB check certificate!

3)   Next, the more exciting part. Flights!  We were given an estimate of up to £670 from Yummy Jobs. However, I paid £470 for mine and I know people on my exact same flight paid even less! Oh, and that’s for a one-way ticket!

4)   Attaining J1 Visa status costs quite a bit of money too! Now, I can’t remember exactly how much everything was as there’s two separate payments to make. You first pay your SEVIS fee which was $180, and then when you are booking you’re interview appointment which is a further $160. If your Visa granted you then have to pay to send back your passport, which is a further £14. It’s also important to realise that you’re gonna have to be able to pay for transportation and a possible over night stay in the city of the US Embassy, which for people from the UK is Belfast or London. 

5)   You then pay the Program Assessment Fee, which was $100, and this goes towards the housing events Disney hold for program participants.

6)   Medical Insurance. I was lucky enough that my university are actually covering us for this during our program so we won’t have to take this out with CMU. There are two options of Medical Insurance available to us this year, but I think it would cost roughly $260 for the year.

7)   Tuition. This is where you really need to save up money. The tuition fee to take part on this program this year (2013) is $3900.  Which roughly translates to around £2600.  As far as I know, this is the only program that does need to pay a tuition fee, which is what makes this program a little more special.

I believe that’s everything that we have had to pay for. Although it has costs my family a lot of money, I do believe that this opportunity is going to be priceless. I’ve been told you meet friends and make memories that last a lifetime, as well as the fact that you’ve been privileged enough to be picked to work at the Walt Disney World Resort! I hope this post helps people out a little if they're thinking of doing this program but aren't too sure about how much it's going to cost them!

18 days to go now, oh my lucky number! 

Here, have a baby Mike Wazowski!