@ovrseasmom
Save money. We are full pay and I think it’s actually cheaper for her to study abroad for a semester than enrolling at her school. I think it’s not that much but the difference probably pays our plane ticket and accommodation to visit her.
Sent DS back to school with a car after Thanksgiving break. I was very reluctant to do so, but he legitimately needs it to get back and forth from his internship.
RenaissanceMom and akmon124 - regarding Edinburgh. The program was coordinated through Georgetown but he was registered as an Edinburgh student and his credits were transferred back to GU as credit hours but didn’t count in his GPA. The housing was coordinated through Edinburgh as it was one of the University flats. There were no meals but the flat had a kitchen and between them, the boys learned to cook and survived rather well. He had 4 flat mates. Two were English, one was Scottish and the fourth was a Russian whose father was a diplomat. S said he expounded the virtues of Putin too much so then tended to let him go on his own. Otherwise the four of them became good friends. His (our) share of the flat was around $2,700 for the semester - less than his dorm bill at GU. This had to be prepaid before he arrived. He applied for his student visa through the instructions provided by the overseas student department at GU. There were a couple of condition regarding both initial entry (you can’t initially enter from Ireland) as well as subsequent reentry following trips to mainland European destinations.
Banking - at the time, the only bank that would cater to one semester international students was Santander. They offered a low to no fee checking/debit card account. They accepted our US bank check for funding the account and if I recall, the funds were available within a week to ten days. I believe that I also wired funds to him one time.
Cell phone - We researched ahead of time and he planned to get a pay as you go phone and plan with a UK cell company named Three. It turned out that they were able to swap out the SIM card in his Apple iPhone and he had a UK number and was up and running in about ten minutes. I think he had to prepay about 25 - 30 GBP in the account. We put his home Verizon account on “vacation” for the few months he was gone at no charge to us. When he was flying home he changed the SIM card back on his own and as soon as he landed in Newark he powered up and was back on the Verizon network. We had the account reactivated just ahead of his scheduled arrival date. The whole process was quite seamless.
Disclaimer - The banking and cell phone service described above occurred in fall of 2013. I don’t know if these programs are still available or what may be currently offered. I hope this answers some of your questions. Good luck to your kids if they opt to study abroad. It seems like a great experience for them.
Great info, @AvonHSDad! Thanks.
@2018dad, I have never thought of it that way. That is definitely worth doing particularly if the credits count for graduation.
Thanks @AvonHSDad for all the info - especially the banking info. I didn’t realize one semester banking would be a problem. Good to have a heads up about that and the phone situation.
@2018dad I hadn’t thought of the cost either. Can they still graduate on time or early if they do a semester abroad?
I think for engineering majors you cannot, at least thats my understanding from my kids’ University.
At my son’s engineering school, it’s possible but requires extremely careful planning and possibly extra time. It also would be harder for, say, mechanical engineering than for computer science.
@AvonHSDad, thank you so much for that information! I can only hope that my son has as good an experience as yours did.
@overseasmom, my mechanical engineering 2nd year DD did a study abroad in China this summer that actually put her ahead for credits. She took required courses in engineering from her university offered by the program (statics, engineering ethics, etc.) For engineering I think it depends on what the program offers. Her college has a huge engineering school so they offer a ton of study abroad programs in engineering and for specific engineering majors. Plus her college has a campus in France that runs study abroad programs year-round where they send faculty from her college to teach the actual university’s classes. Clemson has a similar program in Belgium. I believe students from other universities can attend any of my DD’s university’s study abroad programs if space is available.
The great thing about my DD studying abroad is that it saves me a ton of money. Out of state students pay instate tuition on any study abroad program so it saved me $13K. Tuition, airfare, housing, food, program fees etc ran me about $9K for the summer. Our whole plan for making my DD’s university affordable for our family includes her doing two semesters of study abroad. Students at her college go on study abroad anywhere from second year through their final year. Clemson has a similar policy on tuition.
If you child is going abroad be sure to check whether their ATM card has the new “chip” technology. Before our daughter left, Wells Fargo told her she had to cancel her non-chipped debit card and replace it with a chip ATM. Well China doesn’t have the technology for chip debit cards so it would not work at any ATM machine when she got there. Many panicky phone calls later (she had only $50 in U.S. dollars), I got a new non-chipped debit card made for her and had to pay international fed ex for it to be sent to her (cost lots of $$$). Many students on the program had the same problem so she had to be the “bank” for many of them since they couldn’t get non-chipped ATM cards from their banks. Some U.S. banks have relationships with banks abroad so there is no reason to open a bank account abroad. Bank of American and Bank of China (I think that may be the bank) have some kind of joint relationship so students opened up B of A accounts in the U.S. and were able to use Bank of China for free.
We also used the app “We Chat” to text and do video calls for free.
If possible and affordable, I highly recommend study abroad programs. By going to China, my DD has been to six continents and her older brother did Germany and China on his own. I think it really helped to make them independent as well as love to travel.
Checking in after a long while…work has gotten way too crazy!
D14 is planning spring 2017 abroad. Her first choice is Nepal, but the program is currently on hold. I think she is delaying to spring in hopes that the program will open back up again. Further down on her list is a program in Geneva, which I would prefer since it’s a bit easier to visit!
After break, it looks like D14 won’t be home again until August, and then just for a couple of weeks. Current plans are an internship in Latin America in May, followed by a summer job on campus.
Just wanted to mention that my D2 (not 2014), was a civil and environmental engineering major and she did a semester at the U of Capetown which has a large and strong engineering school. She took several engineering classes that were accepted at her home university. One option worth exploring for engineers who would like to study abroad. She had an incredible experience and I got to visit! 
Does anyone have any experience with Center for Global Education and Experience through Augsburg College? My D is looking into their programs for spring of 2017. She also is not sure she can do a double major and get everything done in 4 years and still do a study abroad semester but we encouraged her to go for it. Her dad and I both took 5 years to get our degrees.
I got an early Christmas present last night when DS walked in the door 2 days early! Turns out one of his professors gave the option of taking the final on a reading day instead of the scheduled date (which was on the last day of finals). DH switched his flight and they decided to keep it a surprise. DH conveniently scheduled a work dinner for that evening to explain why he was getting home late and picked up DS from the airport afterwards.
Apparently I had quite the look on my face when he walked into my room!
@2014novamom - How great! What a wonderful surprise for you!!
2014novamom - that is so cool! We have two in the middle of their exams, but will be home this weekend.
Safe travels to all our 2014s!
very fun indeed @NoVAMom
Son '14 and his girlfriend arrived late Sunday night. They have been keeping busy. He returned to his high school to talk to four classes about college life and what to expect once they are there. He told one class of dual enrollment/AP U.S. History kids that their teacher would be the easiest professor they had for a college class, because she had multiple opportunities to raise their grade point averages … in many college classes, it can be a paper, a midterm and a final for one’s grades.
As for grades, he was so thrilled. He earned straight A’s for the semester. He also may have a chance to do a co-op in the spring, thanks to a fraternity brother who passed along his resume to his boss. If that does not work out, he still has a tutoring job on campus.
What a great semester for your son, @momreads! Heading out with DS for some shopping in a bit, both retail and grocery. He actually had a list of both homemade and restaurant meals to have while he is home with a suggested schedule, LOL. So now I must stock up on ingredients.
2014novamom: I have made three of my son’s favorite dinners the past three nights. He is taking his girlfriend to see the Caps play tonight, so I do get a break from cooking.