Booking and payment

An application can be made on this website. You will be asked to submit a copy of your latest school grades and invited to a interview with a STS representative. Within two weeks of the interview, providing all necessary documents have been submitted, you will receive a notification advising preliminary acceptance or non-acceptance. Final acceptance will be notified upon completion of your full application and the receiving country’s assessment of your file.

The program fee is payable in 4 instalments. The first instalment of $1 000 will confirm your application on the program. The further 3 instalments are to be paid as follows:

Instalment 2, 25% (1 September for January departure and 1 April for August departure)

Instalment 3, 40% (1 October for January departure and 1 May for August departure)

Instalment 4, final balance (1 November for January departure and 1 June for August departure)

The program fee is due in full before departure. Any discounts, scholarships and/or add-ons are reflected in the final invoice. Find out more about what is included in the program fee and what costs may be added.

Cancellation and refund policy

If cancellation is received more than 60 days before departure 50% of the programme fee is forfeited. Within 60 days of departure the cancellation fee is 75% of the programme fee. If at any stage it is felt by STS that a suitable placement cannot be offered the full amount paid will be refunded.

Cancellation protection

We offer two different types of cancellation protections as additional options when you book your exchange program with us:

Standard Cancellation Protection: Our most popular travel cancellation protection is now even better: It reimburses the paid program fees* in full in case of illness, accident or a death in the family, with proof by a medical certificate.

Price: $710

Extended Cancellation Protection: The Extended Cancellation Protection reimburses the paid program fees* in full, regardless of the reason for cancellation, as long as you do not cancel later than 10 days before departure.

Price: $2 700 for our Classic program, $1 400 for our Select program (this covers only the fees that are being paid to STS).

*except for the cost of the cancellation protection itself.

Price guarantee

STS reserves the right to increase programme prices, but we guarantee that once you have paid your $900 deposit there will be no nasty surprises. At the time of paying your $900 deposit you will secure the published programme prices, thus be protected from increase.

Questions about your payment

If you have questions about your payment, financing, insurance, host family, add-on options etc., please contact us and we will help you!