Study Away
Oberlin College charges students studying off campus Oberlin's own tuition rate for any approved academic leave of absence (ALOA) semester whether on an Oberlin Affiliated Program or a non-affiliated program. If the program tuition is higher than Oberlin's tuition, the higher tuition will be charged. Room and board costs for the semester are those charged by the program. There will be no additional study away fee charged by Oberlin College. Oberlin merit and need-based aid will be applied to the tuition for the semester away if the student participates in an Oberlin Affiliated program or GLCA recognized program.
Study-away programs are divided into three categories:
- Oberlin Enrolled Not-in-Residence (ENR) Programs,
- Oberlin Affiliated Programs including Consortial Programs of the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA),
- Non-affiliated Programs. Regardless of your major, you may attend a program or institution from any of these options if you qualify and are approved
Policies for each category are described below. If you are not sure which category your program falls into, look it up in the Choosing a Program section of the Office of Study Away web site.
Students participating in ENR programs (except Oberlin's summer programs) can expect to receive the same financial aid for their ENR semester(s) as they would receive if enrolled in Oberlin. No special financial aid paperwork is required.
Federal work-study awards will be replaced with student loan funds, if a student is eligible.
No financial aid is available for Oberlin's summer programs. Students may inquire about the possibility of increasing student loans for the academic year preceding their participation in the Oberlin summer programs. Under certain circumstances, these loan funds can be used for the programs.
Students participating in GLCA-recognized and Oberlin-affiliated programs are eligible to apply for Oberlin-funded financial aid as well as federal and state financial aid. Eligibility for financial aid will be based on the cost of the program.
In general, financial aid recipients can expect that the amount they pay for a semester on a GLCA-recognized or Oberlin-affiliated program will be approximately equal to their cost for a semester of attendance in Oberlin. If the program costs more than the cost of Oberlin, your grant will not be increased. However, you may be eligible for additional loan funds.
To be considered for financial aid, students participating in GLCA-recognized and Oberlin-affiliated programs must apply for financial aid following the standard procedures. They must also complete a consortium agreement (see below), and secure a signature from the Office of Financial Aid on the academic leave application.
Students participating in non-affiliated programs are not eligible to receive Oberlin-funded financial aid. They may apply for federal and state aid (including Federal Pell Grants, Federal Stafford Loans, and Federal PLUS Loans) by completing the standard financial aid application procedures and a consortium agreement (see below). Occasionally a student may wish to request that institutional aid be applied to a non-affiliated program. This request is made to the Off Campus Study Committee through a rigorous petition process.
A consortium agreement is a three-way agreement between the student, the host institution, and Oberlin College. This agreement allows Oberlin to process federal student aid for a student who is enrolled at another college while on a leave of absence from Oberlin.
The student should complete the student section of the consortium agreement and forward it to his or her host school. The host institution will complete the host section and return the consortium agreement to Oberlin. Among other things, the consortium agreement establishes the costs that may be considered when Oberlin determines the amount of financial aid available to the student during leave of absence.