Financial Aid and College Education Abroad Basics for High School Guidance Counselors and Students

This document is one of several new Web-based resources called NAFSA e-Publications. E-Publications offer special features including Web pages, downloadable and printable PDFs, and customized tools.

Designed for high school guidance counselors and their students, this resource provides a brief overview of education abroad financial aid and its rules, along with guidelines on how aid can be used. The first chapter is written for guidance counselors, while the second chapter provides students with a series of questions they should ask college admissions advisers and financial aid officers during their college search. It also includes a sample budget worksheet to help with determining the cost of study abroad and how any gain/loss of financial aid would impact their budget.

More and more, college-bound students believe that education abroad is important, and they expect to pursue an experience abroad during their undergraduate careers. And, many forms of financial aid are readily available to help support students as they pursue that experience. But because students' access to financial aid for education abroad will be governed by the policies of the college or university they choose to attend, it is increasingly imperative that both students and guidance counselors actively engage with college admissions advisers and financial aid officers about these policies before accepting an offer to enroll at a particular university.

NAFSA gratefully acknowledges American Institute For Foreign Study and Cultural Insurance Services International, NAFSA Global Partners, for underwriting this project.

Notice of Liability

The information in this document is distributed on an "As is" basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, neither the author(s) nor NAFSA shall have any liability to any persons nor entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instruction (s) contained in this document. Please note that while NAFSA periodically checks and updates the Web site links included in this e-Publication, NAFSA cannot guarantee that every link to another institution’s Web site is current.

Acceptable Use Guidelines

Electronic resources are provided for the benefit of the international education community. However, commercial use, systematic or excessive downloading, or electronic redistribution of this publication are all expressly prohibited.

Released January 2008
© 2008 NAFSA: Association of International Educators. All rights reserved.