Foreign Finances

Financial aid is available to students at the University of Oklahoma who are looking to study abroad.

“Students can be awarded a variety of scholarships or use federal financial aid,” said Brooke Hammer, an Education Abroad advisor at OU. “If they use federal aid, they just have to be approved through our office.”

Hammer said there is a list of all the available scholarships online.

“We have different scholarships dedicated to all different kinds of programs,” Hammer said. “For example, there is the Gilman Scholarship that is available to those who are Pell grant eligible.”

Hammer said there are also scholarships that focus on non-traditional locations/areas of study, and underrepresented students. However, most students apply for the PITF scholarship: the Presidential International Travel Fellowship.

“It is a need-based fellowship,” Hammer said. “It typically covers us to 75% of your airfare if you’re awarded this scholarship.”

Private scholarships from third party providers are also available, but are harder to obtain, Hammer said.

“We encourage students to apply for in-house scholarships like the PITF,” Hammer said.

Stephanie Collier is a junior at OU majoring in International and Security Studies with a minor in Spanish. She is going to Argentina in the fall of 2013 and hopes to receive a scholarship to help out with her expenses.

“I’m waiting for the application process to open up,” Collier said. “As soon as that happens, I’m applying for every scholarship that I can.”

Collier said she doesn’t want to let money get in the way of her studying abroad experience.

“I’m so glad that OU has financial aid options for studying abroad,” Collier said. “It makes things like this easier for everyone to experience.”

Students interested in applying for financial aid must start the application process at least one semester in advance. The list of scholarships is available at http://www.ou.edu/content/cis/education_abroad/funding_study_abroad/scholarships.html.