<p>I need some help understanding how a summer study abroad program affects total COA. My son receives a very generous aid package, both merit and need based, from his school. He was accepted into a university sponsored study abroad program for this summer. The school has both a summer FA addendum and a summer study abroad FA addendum. The schools FA website makes it clear that there is very little, if any, free money for summer FA, which makes sense as I assume other students whose stats are similar to my sons also receive generous aid packages .The website doesnt specially address summer study abroad programs, but I would guess the policy is the same. So I am expecting sons FA package to consist of loans. </p>
<p>The school offers the option to either treat the summer session as the end of the 12/13 year or the beginning of the 13/14 year. They strongly recommend that you dont chose the latter option unless 13/14 is the last year and the student can either graduate in the fall or doesnt need a full load to graduate in the spring. So, I went with the 12/13 year end option, I know hes used all the free money he is awarded, so thats why I am anticipating only loans. </p>
<p>I discussed this with my son, hes going to try to do some tutoring the 4 weeks home he has before he leaves, Im going to pickup what extra hours I can, some relatives will pay him for odd jobs and hell see if he can pick up any extra work study hours, though that money is normally used to cover his personal expenses. The chance to study abroad was an important factor in his school choice. If he did a fall or spring semester abroad, he could use his full package to cover it, however he is an engineering major, and even though hes taken 18 to 20 hours each semester, he couldnt get the engineering classes he would need to graduate in 4 years, if he were to spend a full semester abroad. He has to graduate in 4 years, that is all his merit and institutional scholarships cover, so a summer program is really the only way he can stay on track. </p>
<p>He has applied for a need based scholarship that he stands a decent chance of receiving. The scholarship mentions that they try to award in such a way that it doesnt interfere with the students regular FA aid, but it is possible that it could. </p>
<p>If the university adds the total cost of the study abroad program to his 2012-2013 COA, he should be fine, as he is full Pell eligible, and I dont see him receiving a scholarship in an amount over the cost. However, if the university only adds the tuition and fees to the 2012-2013 COA and he were to be awarded a scholarship above that amount, it seems to me that he would in theory have been awarded too much FA and would be faced with having to pay some back. He received the full 2012-2013 COA as FA, with limited loans, so if I understand the rules correctly he should still have some loan eligibility left for 2012-2013. </p>
<p>What is typically considered to be the real COA of a study abroad summer program? I cant find any information on the website and I know the FA office is very busy this time of year. He did visit with his FA counselor when he applied for the scholarship as she had to certify as to his FA status and she gave him no indication that the scholarship could cause any problems.
He wont know about the scholarship till sometime in May. Surprisingly the school does not require the full amount of the study abroad program to be paid in full before he leaves (I found that very strange, though it certainly will be helpful), so I thought I wouldnt accept any loan FA aid, until he heard about the scholarship, work as many extra hours as I can before the payment deadline and then accept whatever amount of loan he needed at the last minute to meet the deadline. Does this seem like the correct strategy?</p>