You need to be careful with some of the lower cost study abroad options.
The ticket price may be substantially lower than your kid’s college- but not all those credits will transfer.
So you are stuck with an extra semester, which you won’t find out about until AFTER your kid comes home, applies for credit for the work done overseas, and discovers that the degree-granting U will not give credit. Particularly in the major… if your kid gets Gen Ed credits for the semester, but has already fulfilled all of those requirements at home, but NOT credit for departmental specific work… you are out a semester of tuition.
Yes, life altering experience overseas, etc. But not the cost savings parents think it will be.
Check the fine print on these study abroad programs very, very carefully. Most universities will not give a blanket “we take all overseas credit” unless it is one of their OWN study abroad programs… which typically fall at the high end of the price range. And why would they? A Dean and a professor are usually responsible for vetting your kids overseas transcript and the syllabus to make sure the work is equivalent. And they don’t know that in advance.