financial aide at foreign colleges.

[Ohdanigirl]

I don't know why it never occurred to me to ask this before, but do any of you know anything about getting financial aide or scholarships for US students attending foreign colleges.

 

After living in Mexico for the past 9 years, I have learned that there are quite a few universities that tout US students being able to attend for free, using US based grants. Among locals, these are considered really good schools. I asked a student at one of these schools about tuition last week, and he told me it is about 6000 pesos ($460-$600 depending on exchange rate) per month. Obviously, that is a lot cheaper than many US schools.

 

So what financial aide could it be that these students are qualifying for? Pell grant? I wasn't aware that the FAFSA could be used for foreign schools. Or is it likely something else? Are there any options like this for other Universities around the world.

 

Danielle

[Laura Corin]

529 plans can be used at a lot of overseas universities. Our boys (dual US/UK citizens) will probably use their 529s in the UK where it's cheaper.

 

I don't know about financial aid.

 

ETA: You can check the FAFSA site. Enter university names (using Foreign Country for the state). I don't know how you go about using FAFSA overseas though.

 

Laura

Edited August 15, 2012 by Laura Corin

[J-rap]

I have not known of an overseas school to accept financial aid. My daughter is presently a full-time student at a U.S. accredited university in Costa Rica, but it does not accept any financial aid. However, it is an excellent private school and costs 1/6 of what a comparable university would cost here. Not bad.

[rockala]

How did you go about finding out about Cosat Rica colleges- had you lived or traveled there before?

 

I looked a little and a lot of the items do not seem as easily obtainable but I may not be on the best site.

 

This is an interesting alternative, however I am not sure how I feel about if the get ill.

 

K

[laughing lioness]

Karen in CO has a ds in college in Asia.

[Karen in CO]

Karen in CO has a ds in college in Asia.

My ds is attending a Japanese campus of an American university so his prepaid tuition plan that we had plus the FAFSA money and gov. backed student loans were all accepted. We chose an American college because at the time it was important to me that his credits transfer back to an American university in case he didn't like it. Four years later, he still loves it. While we were looking, we found many resources through the Japanese consular office for Japanese colleges that accept Americans and scholarships for qualified American students who pass the appropriate language tests. I'm pretty sure that other countries have similar programs.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Karen in CO

[Ohdanigirl]

My ds is attending a Japanese campus of an American university so his prepaid tuition plan that we had plus the FAFSA money and gov. backed student loans were all accepted. We chose an American college because at the time it was important to me that his credits transfer back to an American university in case he didn't like it. Four years later, he still loves it. While we were looking, we found many resources through the Japanese consular office for Japanese colleges that accept Americans and scholarships for qualified American students who pass the appropriate language tests. I'm pretty sure that other countries have similar programs.

 

I hadn't realized that this was an option until I saw you post about him going to Japan. Are there many American Universities abroad?

 

Danielle

[Karen in CO]

There are a variety of types of colleges. Some like Franklin are independent schools and others are branches of existing American universities. A few years ago a lot of colleges started setting up branch universities overseas and many of them have already failed due to low enrollment. As you look at the schools, look for ones that have a long history. Here is an older list of universities with foreign campuses. These are different than colleges that have study abroad programs which only offer a few courses overseas.

[K-FL]

It's interesting how few (like only 2 or 3) are in EU countries. Wonder why?

[Karen in CO]

I think there are a lot of problems with accreditation and visas for the students and other regulations in most countries. The places that do semester or year long studies seem to fall under different regulations so you'll find a lot more of those types of programs.