<p>I'm an international student and I've been accepted into UNH with $31,000 a year in scholarship money. UNH costs $38,000 to attend each year.. I assume employment and funding from home will cover the difference but I'm worried about inflation in future years driving costs up while my scholarship money and funding from home will remain constant.. Are there any organisations apart from the university that can help me and fund those final few thousand dollars? I really want to go and its so annoying to be this close and unable to go :(</p>
<p>Maybe some agency in your home country??</p>
<p>Nope… tried that and it didn’t work</p>
<p>phyz, if you don’t mind, could you PM me your stats (just your GPA and ACT/SAT scores will do). I’m an international too and my Counselor recommend U of New Hampshire (I’ll be applying next year).</p>
<p>About your dilemma, well I wouldn’t worry about inflation at least for another year or so. Even after that, I doubt we’ll have double digit inflation…and if we did, it’s my understanding that college expenses (maybe books?) doesn’t correspond directly to inflation. I’d be more worried about the yearly tuition increases.</p>
<p>Loans don’t seem like a bad idea either, especially if it’s only a few thousand dollars (which it likely will be)</p>
<p>schools usually expect you to contribute the same amount of money for all four years. if there are some particular concerns e.g a high probability that the exchange rate of your country’s curreny compared to the us dollar will fall, it would be best to intimate the fin aid office at this point. perhaps they will allow you to pledge a fixed amount of money in your country’s currency.
of course there are student loans available and once you are there i dont thnk it’d be too hard to find a cosigner.</p>
<p>My stats are decent… I don’t know how to calculate GPA but straight As in my GCE A levels and one Merit for my H3 (H3 is a university course where you study a couple of university modules) SAT 1 - 760 CR 700 M and 720 W…SAT 2 800 physics 800 chem and 800 math 2… </p>
<p>Karpov, UNH officers told me that inflation was something I should take into account. They claim that average costs increase by $2000 each year… That’s a bit high. Loans are the last resort which I don’t want but I’ll do it if I have no other go.</p>
<p>o i am sorry i thought that we were talking about financial aid. with scholarships the sum is fixed and yeah the cost will increase
have you considered other expenses such as travel, books, miscellaneous, etc cause they can cost you anywhere from 2500 to 4500 $ depending on the needs</p>
<p>of course you could work in summers …that could alleviate the situation considerably</p>
<p>Thanks phyz…haha I have no shot for any scholarship money then. And ya, the $2000 a year increase is fairly common (unfortunately). Still, I’m surprised they mentioned inflation =/ Then again it’s New Hampshire (fiscally conservative :D)</p>
<p>Karpov, generally the colleges factor in the student’s summer earnings into their calculation (It’s usually something like $2000) but UNH might have been generous in that regard</p>
<p>Yes I’ve factored in books and misc expenses… UNH’s website says these account for about $4000 per year… Actual room and board coupled with fees come to $34000. Two questions
- Do you have to buy new books each year or is it a one time expense?<br>
- How much can I realistically expect to earn over a year working around ten hours per week and all the holidays except a couple of weeks to go home?</p>
<ol>
<li>You’d probably buy new books for every course, so it’s an annual expense. Try half.com or ebay!</li>
<li>That’s 520 hours x $7.25 (Minimum Wage) = $3770 (at the very minimum)</li>
</ol>
<p>Good Luck :)</p>
<p>I reckon ebay should be really useful for this. Maybe graduating students would also be willing to sell their stuff since nobody wants to lug along heavy books when they can get the same stuff off the internet…But yeah, it looks a lot more hopeful now.</p>
<p>I usually find the cheapest textbooks on Amazon Marketplace. </p>
<p>In recent years, tuition, room and board have increased by about 7% a year (national average). If UNH costs $38,000 to attend in your first year, it might be $46,000 in your senior year. This sounds like a huge increase in cost but it’s not all that unlikely. My college charged $42,000 for tuition, room and board in my freshman year and $49,000 in my junior year. (And I expect another significant tuition hike senior year.) </p>
<p>One semester has about 15 weeks, so you can expect to earn about 300*$8=$2,400 during the school year IF you get to work 10 hours a week. But on-campus jobs are limited and many employers will give preference to work-study students (since the government pays half of their wages). When you think about summer income, don’t forget to take into account that you will have to pay for food and housing separately during the summer and possibly the winter as well. This will eat a big chunk of your income. Just to give you a ballpark figure: My freshman year I stayed on campus and had a “research” position that payed $3,200 for 10 weeks of work. I paid $1,200 for 12 weeks of housing and I had to buy my own food, which was probably another $1200. After other personal expenses, I had less than $500 left over. I could have made $4,500 instead of $3,200 frying burgers and doing dishes in the dining hall, but that’s not exactly how I pictured my summer.</p>
<p>Aside from all the cost cutting methods, are there any US based organisations that would give me some kind of scholarship? Perhaps, companies that will expect me to work for them after I graduate and so on? I’m thinking approximately $10,000 a year based on what b@r!um said</p>
<p>It’s almost impossible for internationals to get American based scholarships, especially in thre current economic environment.</p>
<p>Your concern is a valid one. College cost increases have outpaced inflation by a lot in the last 2 decades. State colleges like UNH are especially hiking costs every year as tax revenues fall in the current recession. </p>
<p>If UNH is not going to raise your aid every year, you can expect to be paying 20% more by the last year minimum IMO, so think this through.</p>
<p>I can hardly believe it… The 2008-09 cost of attending UNH was $38,000 according to their website. The 09-10 estimate, according to a UNH international student advisor is $45,000. That’s around 17% higher! Surely, something’s not right. Either way, looks like there’s almost no chance that I can afford it now. (I should probably change the title of this thread :))</p>