PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Economic reality and money problems may be cooling the enthusiasm of U.S. college students to study abroad, just two years after students' interest in foreign study was at an all-time high.

Four times as many students went abroad in the 2007-2008 academic year as 20 years ago, according to a survey of 985 schools released this week by the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit advocacy group.

But nearly 60 percent of the schools and study-abroad groups surveyed in early September report decreased enrollment from a year ago, since the global economic crisis.

Brown University in Providence, which typically sends one-third of its junior class abroad, saw a 10 percent drop in such enrollment this fall compared with fall 2008, said Kendall Brostuen, director of the Office of International Programs and an associate dean.

"My sense is over the last year, there's probably been some very important dinner-table discussions about how to best go about using the resources that a family has," Brostuen said.

At Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., study abroad enrollment this fall dropped 25 percent from the same time last year, said spokeswoman Amy Phenix.

Liz Weaver, 23, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, is trying to decide whether to enroll in a London program next fall for more than $21,000 for one semester, compared with about $18,000 for similar expenses at Texas. Then there's airfare and the higher-interest-rate loans she'd have to rely on to pay for the program, which would saddle her with even more debt.

"You have to wonder, is it really worth it?" she asked.