<p>So my son says he wants to do a semester of foreign study, probably in his third year. He wants to go to London or Rome. Of course, he is too lazy to actually read up on the study abroad options that UA offers, so I did a little reading. </p>
<p>I think I understand it, but I was hoping somebody on here has some experience. I understand there are 3 basic kinds of programs, and that there are advantages and disadvantages to each:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>UA programs taught by UA faculty at foreign universities. Pro: You pay UA instate fees, even if you are an OOS student. Con: Summer only. If you want a full semester experience, you are out of luck.</p></li>
<li><p>UA direct-exchange programs. These are for semester and summer terms. Pro: You pay UA tuition. Con: You are responsible for arranging housing and travel yourself. The number of direct exchange programs is limited. (There is not one in London or Rome.)</p></li>
<li><p>“Partner” programs arranged through services such as API, AIFS, etc. Pro: There are numerous programs to choose from all over the world. Con: Very expensive… you are basically paying full tuition at (mostly) private foreign universities, plus housing, plus travel.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Do I have all of this right? Has anyone navigated through this to the point where they can offer any advice.</p>
<p>One thing to consider as an out of state student under option 3 is that that if you are applying tuition scholarship money to the cost of studying abroad, as an out of state student you get to apply your full out of state tuition scholarship (both the basic tuition and the out of state supplement) to the study abroad fee – making option 3 a fairly good deal for out of state students.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info!! paying4collegex4 - my DD will most likely do a semester study abroad - so option 3 is the way to go as a full tuition scholarship student! Thanks Slippy and Paying4collegex4!!</p>
<p>We learned in Option 1 that the scholarship cannot be applied to the study abroad fee but only against the actual “tuition” that is embedded in the fee. For example, the UA Honors at Oxford summer program as a program cost of $6850 of which tuition is $2370. We did not choose to use a semester of her scholarship for this. </p>
<p>After paying the program fee, we had a large balance show up on D’s student account that turned out to the be out-of-state supplement. After a couple of phone calls, it was removed. I think it was just a mistake.</p>
<p>What does the study abroad fee include? Is it just over seas tuition or does it include - airfare, room and board, transportation, etc? Do you know how outside scholarships and financial aid are handled for that semester?</p>
<p>Yankee, I don’t know if it is different for different programs. For my D’s program, it includes room and some meals, as well as a couple of group excursions. No airfare. </p>
<p>I don’t know how outside scholarships and financial aid are handled for the semester. I do know that D had to tell the school (at the point of accepting a spot in the program) whether she would be using financial aid or scholarships. We’ve also learned that any study abroad scholarships we’ve seen offered have a large need component.</p>
<p>Thanks. It gives me a starting point for the financial aspect. My D has full OOS tuition scholarship and wants to study abroad in Spring of 2015. So it looks like airfare, some food, and spending money and those costs will depend upon where she goes.</p>
<p>Yankee, if the semester works like the summer program, your scholarship won’t offset the entire program fee. I think it all depends on what is included in the program fee. The tuition scholarships appear to only be applied against tuition. That may seem like an obvious statement, but from other posts I’d read on CC I expected the percentage of the program fee that could be covered by the tuition scholarship to be much greater. Perhaps it is during a semester rather than a summer session. </p>
<p>My daughter will be doing another study abroad. We aren’t sure yet if it will be another summer session or a semester. I’ll be watching this thread to see what replies Slippy gets.</p>
<p>What about Summer Abroad Programs? Anyone have any experience with these? D wants to do Spanish Summer program next summer and I need to start saving. Anyone have any idea of costs? Seems that they are split into two sessions, and the combined two sessions count as one semester for IHC credit.</p>
<p>slippy, you forgot the best option of them all: direct enrollment in a foreign university. This is often the least expensive option and one which gets the student most in tune with the local culture.</p>
<p>Note that direct enrollment in the foreign university can often be thousands of dollars cheaper for OOS UA students on scholarship compared to the direct exchange programs. I remember looking into a program in the Netherlands where tuition through the UA exchange program was over $10,000 while directly enrolling as a foreign student was around $6,500. Using the value of ones full tuition scholarship, the remaining $3500 could be used for other expenses, but would likely be taxable on the federal level.</p>
<p>The study abroad office has been known to downplay the availability of exchange programs where UA is sending more students than it is receiving because doing so would cost UA more money, along with making it difficult to find out information about direct enrollment and study abroad programs of which UA is not a direct partner. For example, I was once told by the study abroad office that no UA students were spending the semester at the London School of Economics when in fact two students were, which was confirmed by a the dean and department chair who coordinated the credit equivalency.</p>
<p>I don’t understand this. Firstly, how can you use your UA tuition scholarship if you bypass the Study Abroad department and enroll directly at another university. And secondly, how could you use the difference of the scholarship above tuition for other items? The Student Receivables office was very clear with me that we couldn’t use D’s tuition scholarship for anything other than tuition (charged through UA).</p>
<p>I can’t answer regarding study abroad but I can tell you that scholarships can be used to cover costs outside of tuition, when tuition is covered by another source. My understanding is that this has been occurring for a while however this year this was put into writing to meet VA standards to allow students with the GI Bill and scholarships use their Gi Bill for tuition and scholarships for housing, meals etc. Any excess will be refunded.</p>
<p>lattelady, my understanding is that there are certain forms one fills out to attend any other institution for specific terms and then another form to request a check for the value of the scholarship. I seem to recall that scholarships handles the latter form.</p>
<p>Student Receivables handles payments, refunds, and some tax considerations. Other departments place charges and credits on the student’s account. technically speaking, UA’s merit scholarships are not tuition scholarships, but rather scholarships for specified values which are commonly used to pay tuition. This distinction allows students to accept scholarships from 3rd parties which can only be used for tuition without automatically reducing their UA scholarships. Many schools reduce institutional scholarships when students earn outside scholarships, but UA tries not to, certain need-based scholarships, loans, and grants being excluded from this rule as per the benefactor’s rules and regulations.</p>