Meet with your financial aid officer
Contractual agreements
Types of transferable financial aid
Award letters
Additional financial aid resources


Meet with your financial aid officer
Make an appointment with your financial aid advisor immediately. Your federal financial aid should be transferable to your study abroad program. IFSA-Butler can't process financial aid, so you must make arrangements through your home college or university's financial aid office.

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Contractual agreements
Ask your financial aid officer to send a contractual agreement to IFSA-Butler. This written agreement certifies that your home university will process your financial aid and then pay IFSA-Butler on your behalf. The contractual agreement is the only guarantee that your financial aid will be transferred to your study abroad program.

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Types of transferable financial aid
Generally speaking, you should be able to take federally funded financial aid with you overseas. Many IFSA-Butler students use Guaranteed Student Loans (GSL/Stafford), Pell Grants and Parent/PLUS Loans to help pay for their period of study abroad. Many colleges and universities recognize these loans as transferable financial aid and they are usually applicable for study abroad.

Perkins Loans are usually not applicable since these federal loans are for campus disbursement rather than individual disbursement. However, your home institution makes the final decision with regard to your aid package and transfer policies vary from university to university. Call your home university study abroad advisor if you run into problems transferring your financial aid.

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Award letters
If you plan to transfer financial aid to pay for your IFSA-Butler program, please have an award letter sent to our office as soon as possible. Often financial aid payments are not made until after your study abroad program begins, so the award letter is proof that financial aid will pay for part or all of your program. If we do not receive your award letter, you must pay the program fee in full by the due date.

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Additional financial aid resources
IFSA-Butler scholarship program

Money Matters, an IFSA-Butler financial resource booklet. We send this booklet to students and parents upon receipt of an application.

FinAid, the Smart Student's Guide to Financial Aid
This professional organization for financial aid officers offers a search function for scholarships and extensive information about financial aid.

Institute of International Education
The free searches on this site provide access to a database of international scholarships.

Department of Education
U.S. Department of Education Official Guide to Financial Aid.

Other Scholarship Opportunities
Provides links to non-IFSA-Butler scholarship and financing opportunities for study abroad.


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