Study Abroad
Payment Procedures
Paying for the term abroad is usually
one of the first questions families consider. Trinity strives to make Study
Abroad an option for any student. How your payment is made and how applicable
financial aid will be processed is determined in part by where the student has
chosen to study abroad and influenced by the methods used to pay for college.
Affiliated and Non-Affiliated Study
Abroad Programs
The
student will usually be invoiced by the program for full tuition and fees due to the program.
(In some cases the payment schedule is posted on the program website along with
payment dates.)
Trinity
financial aid payments will not be reflected on this invoice. Payment should
be made directly to the program according to their payment schedule.
Please
note that one of the advantages of enrolling through an affiliated or
non-affiliated US program may be that payment is made in US currency (and this is thus not as affected by fluctuations in exchange rates); and the
programs are often willing to wait for the portion covered by applicable aid
rather than requiring full payment in advance.
Any applicable financial aid or
scholarship for students participating in Study Abroad Programs will be paid
directly to the program in most cases.
Such aid can only be released after the
start of the relevant Trinity term. For instance, payments for Fall will be
released at the end of September and for Spring aid will be released at the
beginning of February. You can contact the Financial Aid Office for details.
Programs will likely request payment
well before those dates. However, in most cases the programs are willing to
wait for Trinity to send the aid payments, and thus allow the student to pay
only remaining costs in advance.
Once a student is registered by the
Study Abroad Office for Study abroad, Trinity’s Financial Aid Office will
prepare and send a letter to the program indicating the amount of aid to be
released for the student and the exact date of release.
In order to confirm this process, follow
these steps upon receiving the invoice.
1. Contact your
Financial Aid Counselor
a. Confirm the
amount of applicable aid
b. Provide contact
information for program payments.
c. Be prepared to
provide a copy of the program invoice to the Counselor
2. Contact the
Program
a. Confirm the
total amount due and the date by which it must be received.
b. Confirm that the
aid letter from Trinity is being sent if it has not already been received.
c. Confirm that the
program is prepared (upon receipt of the letter) to wait for that portion of
the amount due and allow the student to pay only remaining costs (and confirm
that amount).
d. Ask if there are
any additional forms required by the program to complete this process. Send
any such forms to the Study Abroad Office for processing.
In all such cases it is particularly
important that all charges be cleared from the Trinity student account before
aid is released. Otherwise, Trinity will deduct outstanding charges due to
Trinity before forwarding payment to the program.
This can result in the student still
owing a small amount to the program of which they are not aware. Any such debt
will result in a delay in sending Trinity a transcript or grade report for the
work completed abroad and we cannot post credit without that.
Students are asked to check and clear
the Trinity account before leaving campus, but some charges may be posted later
(such as a book fine or parking ticket). The Study Abroad Advisor will also
send an additional reminder to check for such late postings just before aid is
released so that all such small debts can be cleared before aid is processed.
Go to https://payonline.trinity.edu/tsa/web/login.jsp for more
information concerning on-line payments.
Direct
Enrollment in a Foreign University or Institution
(without using
a US sponsoring program).
Payment
is usually made directly to the university or institution upon arrival. Students
may not be allowed to register abroad until full payment has been received,
even if the start date is before Trinity aid is available.
Trinity
aid payments cannot be sent to an institution abroad. However, a few foreign
institutions have a US account that can be used for such payments. If that is
the case, please contact the Trinity Financial Aid office.
Otherwise,
students are expected to pay the university or institute directly. Any
applicable financial aid from Trinity will be reimbursed to the student after
the campus date of release.
Study with Exchange Partners
Trinity has five formal
exchanges with international universities. <Link to Exchange page>
When
a student participates in an exchange, regular tuition is paid to Trinity and
all other fees (such as housing) are paid directly to the foreign university.
If
the student has applicable aid, that will be applied first to the tuition
payment with the remainder reimbursed to the student to assist with other
costs.
Study
in a Trinity Exchange is the only study abroad option to which tuition
remission or tuition exchange can be applied.
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