U.S. Financial Aid at Foreign Universities?

Has anyone ever received a Stafford or other U.S. government loan to study at a foreign university? Is such a thing possible?

My apologies if this topic has been covered elsewhere. Someone who started a recent thread about financial aid was advised to search the list for other postings on that topic. When I used "financial aid" as a search term, however, the system informed me that "aid" was too short a word to be searched!

TIA,

 

Michael,

This may be far from helpful but I believe there is a link of the US Dept. of Ed. web site where you can search for schools that are approved for loans. This includes foreign schools. So yes it is possible. Whether you can use it for DL I do not know. I suspect that you may not but I do not know for sure. As an example, Berne University (St.Kitts & Nevis) is approved but the understanding here is that this is only for the residential portion. If you were going to attend Med school or Vet school it may be possible to get the loans.

What kind of program are you looking for?

North

 

I'm no expert in this area, but I did call the Department of Education a couple of years ago regarding this subject. The school would have to apply to get a financial aid code, which you would then use on your application. This isn't as simple as it sounds, however. The USDOE inspects the school's financial records and makes a determination. That would, IMHO, be a very difficult thing to convince a school to do, unless perhaps it saw the benefit of being able to attract other U.S. students.

 

Rich and North, thanks for your replies. North, your suggestion was a good one. I found my target school in the list you were referring to. Thanks!

 

One other thing: check to see if it is the school that gets approved for financial aid, or the particular program. IIRC, this is done program-by-program.

 

This thread has been of great benefit to me. I was delighted to discover, by means of the USDOE website, that the South African institution to which I am applying for doctoral research has already received approval.

Great news!

Cory Seibel

 

Where are you wanting to go?

I'm nopt a great expert on this subject and others have posted indicating your best reference sources. However, if you are wanting to attend a British university have a look at the Flubright Commission that organizes exchange programmes and scholasrhsips between the USA and UK and vice versa.

May be of some help.

 

Fulbright!

It should read in my previous posting -'FULBRIGHT COMMISSION'!!

 

Federal loans and foreign institutions

Thanks for this information! I found out that Lancaster University in Lancaster, England is an approved institution. I called the DOE's federal loan inquiry line and was told that my anticipated status as a distance learning student would not affect my ability to receive federal funds through the Stafford. That was a really helpful post.

John Ryan