Sources of Financial Aid
There are several potential sources of financial aid:
- UCF general aid
- UCF specific program aid
- Third party opportunities
- Paid internships
Let’s go over these… 1. UCF General Financial Aid Several sources of small amounts of money are available throughout UCF
- Burnett Honors College – grants available to members of the BHC ($1,000)
- OIS – Small need-based grants are available from OIS ($1,000)
- SGA – Provides small sums of $$ to cover some expenses ($300 to 500)
- Professors who may have research funds for international collaborations
Please contact the appropriate unit indicated above to find out more about these opportunities.
For more information on scholarships and grants available for study abroad, please visit the Study Abroad Scholarships page at http://studyabroad.ucf.edu/?ak=/scholarships/.
2. UCF Specific Program Aid One program exists at UCF that has funds to support student foreign experiences.
- FIPSE – Brazil *** Only for the Spring 2015 Semester
- Provides up to $5,000 for study to Brazil
- Universidad Federal de Rio de Janeiro (Rio)
- Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Rio Sul (Porto Alegre)
For more information or to apply to this program, please contact Dr. Avelino Gonzalez at avelino.gonzalez@ucf.edu.
3. Third party opportunities There is a wealth of opportunities available from third party organizations dedicated to promote study abroad by American students. These are:
- The Gilman Foundation
- The Fulbright Program
- The Whitaker Foundation
- National Security Education Program
- Study Abroad Scholarships
- Domestic Exchange and Study Abroad Programs
- International Financial Aid and College Scholarship Search
- International Scholarships
- Financial Aid for Study Abroad
- Study Abroad Loans
- SIT Study Abroad
- Study Abroad Scholarships and Financial Aid
These opportunities are available directly to the student, so it is incumbent upon the student to apply directly for grants and loans through these organizations.
For more information on scholarships and grants available for study abroad, please visit the Study Abroad Scholarships page at http://studyabroad.ucf.edu/?ak=/scholarships/.
4. Family members Family members can be a potential source of assistance for students interested in traveling abroad. We urge you to discuss this with your parents or other family members to determine this potential.
How much does it cost?
The cost of a study abroad experience is not trivial. However, with preparation and advance planning, it need not be sufficient reason to avoid embarking on this rich experience. In general, we say that the cost of living abroad is roughly equivalent to living off campus at UCF. However, with the loss of value of the US dollar in recent months, this may no longer be true. Furthermore, this does not take into consideration the cost of air fare, which has been steadily rising lately in response to higher fuel costs, or the cost of any travel that that the student may undertake to visit other areas of the region, either during the study abroad period or afterwards. Lastly, it should be mentioned that some of our study abroad destinations are more expensive than others. If expense is a critical issue (and it almost always is), then the student should take this into consideration when selecting a partner institution at which to study. There are things a student can do to partially mitigate the cost of this experience. There are sources of financial assistance. These are listed in (link). Additionally, we have worked hard to identify potential partners for paid internships abroad of which students can take advantage. While this list is relatively small at this time, we are working hard to expand this list of industrial partners and expect this list to grow over the next few years to provide our students with practical technical experience as well as a means to subsidize their experience overseas. With the varying value of the dollar in recent months, the exact costs can be difficult to predict with any certainty. However, some things we do know.
- • Students will be registering and paying tuition at UCF. Therefore, any financial aid they may already have (i.e., Bright Futures, merit-based scholarships, outside financed scholarships or financial aid, etc.) would still be in effect.
- • There is a fixed fee of $350 for applying to the Study Abroad program.
- • Those attending universities in smaller cities will find the living costs to be more in line with those in Orlando than those attending universities in large cities of first world countries.
- • Cost of living in the large cities can be mitigated for by making living arrangements early so as to live on a university housing where it is less expensive.
- • Air fares also vary with destination, cost of jet fuel and time of year. However, one should generally budget between $500 to $1,000 for Latin America, $1,000 to $1,500 for Europe and $1,500 to $2,000 for Asia. It is likely that these costs will go up in the next few years as the cost of fuel rises.
- • Cost of passport and visa (yes, a visa is necessary in most cases because of the duration of the stay), is between $200 and $300.
- • It is unlikely that you will need or want a car while overseas. Therefore, the cost of gasoline abroad, while considerably more expensive that in the US, will be largely irrelevant to your expenses.
For more information on costs for specific locations, please visit the Study Abroad website at www.studyabroad.ucf.edu and choose your country of interest.
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