<p>I'm an International Student (residing in the US - No Green Card =/). I plan to major in Economics (maybe double in Political Science). I was wondering what "Matches" and "Safeties" were for me.</p>
<p>My GPA is a 3.34 (cumulative) - there were a few issues Sophomore and beginning of Junior Year, which I assume my counselor will write about. I got a 32 on the ACT (without studying, so I might take a few practice tests and retake it). I'm extremely active in the SGA (school wide, not the class one) and a Political Club (Founded it and Presiding over it). I go to an extremely competitive IB Magnet (My EE - Original Research Paper for getting the IB Diploma - is on the Politics). The only significant contest I've won is this one statewide thing for Economics (pretty prestigious). Oh and I'm Asian.</p>
<p>I know that I'll be at a disadvantage if I apply for Financial Aid, so what are some colleges I should look into with my stats? I'm looking for colleges where Professors teach rather than TAs and colleges with small classes - which is why I originally restricted my college search to LACs, but I'm open to universities like Vandy, Rice too :)</p>
<p>Posted it in the Parents Section, but thought I'd get more response here...</p>
<p>Okay… but if you need it then why wouldn’t you apply for it? It does reduce your chances considerably, you’re right. But it’s no good getting accepted to a college that’s going to cost you $150,000 if you have to reject the offer because you can’t afford to pay it.</p>
<p>Well it’s not like my parents won’t be afford a single penny, they’re talking about selling the ancestral property back home, so the gap might be something like $20,000 per year (Of course I plan to work during the year and the summer as well).</p>
<p>I’d rather not give up a chance to attend a college like Claremont McKenna because of debt (again, it’s not like I’d end up with $150,000 of debt :D)</p>
<p>Um, yes you CAN end up with 150k in debt if you find someone who will loan it to you. You do not want that kind of debt. Even if you were a domestic student with a job waiting for you after graduation you wouldn’t want it.</p>
<p>You need to:</p>
<p>1) Find out if you qualify for in-state tuition at the public colleges/universities/community colleges in the state where you are living.</p>
<p>2) Find out just exactly how much money your parents have available to pay for your education.</p>
<p>3) Find out whether you can study here on your current visa, or if you will need to convert to an F-1 visa to study.</p>
<p>4) Find out what work restrictions there are for you with your current visa, or if you will need to convert to an F-1 visa in order to be able to work.</p>
<p>5) Recalculate how much money will truly be available for your education assuming that your visa will permit you to work, and the number of hours and kind of work you will be able to come up with holding that visa.</p>
<p>6) Find a college, university, or community college that you can actually truly afford.</p>
<p>7) Take a long hard look at educational options in your home country. Are there any for you if you can’t afford an education here?</p>
<p>8) Consider universities in Canada and Australia. They generally are less expensive than in the US, and the work opportunities available on a student visa are generally more generous than in the US.</p>
<p>happymomof1, well ending up with $150k in debt would mean taking on almost ~37,000 per year. I just don’t see that happening :)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Unfortunately no The state I live in requires that one be a permanent resident (Green Card) to qualify for in-state tuition</p></li>
<li><p>They’re claiming they can provide up to ~25,000 without any major issues.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>3 and 4. I haven’t done major research on this but a cousin of mine studied in a US University (VTech) with an H-4 (he converted Junior year to work in a coop), so I guess I can too (I’m under H-4 too). But I don’t think those with an H-4 are allowed to work, so converting to a F-1 might be a better idea.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I think students under F1 can work upto 20 hours a week. Say I’m working 15 hours at minimum wage (~$7/hour), that’s ~$4000 (working a little more than 9 months). I don’t know what it’s called (either CPT or OPT) but F1 students can also work full time for 3 months, so that should be quite nice as well…</p></li>
<li><p>My counselor suggested New College of Florida, apparently someone with a similar record from the school got in. I was considering applying for aid at Allegheny and Lake Forest. Judging by their ACT score distribution, I think I look pretty good, but the GPA is a serious handicap.</p></li>
<li><p>There’s a strong stigma associated with a BA in my home country (stigma with anything not relating to the Sciences actually), so I’d rather not go back.</p></li>
<li><p>Well some of the better colleges in Canada seem huge, I’d rather go to a smaller colleges focused on undergrad. Well I’d like to work in America after College, so I’m not seriously considering going overseas.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Good, you’ve been thinking this through! A lot of kids don’t, sad to say. </p>
<p>The biggest problem for you is “I’d like to work in America after College”. How are you going to position yourself so you can do that? Have your parents applied for their green cards? If not, will they and how soon? Will you be included in that application, or will you have aged out of that possibility? </p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are a lot of kids in your situation, and I just don’t see US immigration doing anything smart about it in the near-enough future. You need to have a plan for what you can do after you graduate from college if you can’t work here.</p>
<p>Yep they’ve applied for GCs and I’m in the application too. I’m safe according to that cousin of mine as long as the I-140s are cleared before I’m 21 (that will take for maybe 1-2 years at max - we got our Labor Certification within 3 months, apparently this is the hardest aspect of the GC process). I’d have to check with our lawyer about this. The Visa Numbers (physically getting the GC despite an accepted application) are backed up until like 2002, so getting it take more time. Btw, I just realized, since I’m over the age of 16 and my parents have applied for a GC, I can apply for an EAD (Employment Authorization Document) which would permit me to work anywhere in America (without a H1B) as long as I get it renewed every year :D</p>
<p>I wouldn’t mind working in like Mumbai or someplace but I think I’d be better positioned for a job with a Degree in Econ from an American College rather than one from elsewhere. My dad and I were talking about this, and he thinks I could probably get a job from a blue-chip company back in my native country - then again it could just be him being encouraging. I’ve been living in America for a little over 5 years now and I consider it “home”, so I’d like to stay here permanently.</p>
<p>A couple of questions… I thought that F1 visa holders could only work 20 hours a week even during the hols… Can you tell me where you got the info that we can work full time in the holidays? Also, do F1 visa holders have to pay taxes?</p>
<p>There’s something called either CPT or OPT which allows for work up to 90 days without restrictions (I think). I don’t think F1 Visa Holders pay any taxes though.</p>
<p>PoliticsFreak, you mentioned the stigma for BA in India. There are some prestigious schools in India that offer BA is social sciences. One that comes to mind is Delhi School of Economics. I don’t know what the admission requirements there are, but this school has alumni like Amartya Sen (Nobel laureate in Economics) and the current Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. I personally know couple people who went to this school or Shriram College of Commerce in Delhi that later became IAS officers (the most prestigious Civil Services job in India).</p>
<p>You may want to consider these schools for undergrad and then return to USA for graduate studies. By then your GC might be approved too.</p>
<p>karkri, Thanks…I’ve Googled around and the only colleges I came up with were Presidency (Kolkatta), St. Xaviers and St. Stephens (courtesy of an India Today article). Didn’t Manmohan go to Punjab U? And I recall reading Amartya Sen went to Presidency for a brief while on the Presidency website…</p>
<p>Anyway, my dad thinks the only thing the BA in Econ will get me is a “govt. job” in India (IAS used to be my dream when I was a kid, but I couldn’t care less now). I couldn’t find any placement info from the above mentioned schools (most of them are dead links). What kind of jobs do Econ grads get in India?</p>
<p>Well, it might be hard to land a decent job with just a bachelors in Econ either in India or USA. Anyway I wasn’t suggesting you look for a job in India once you finish bachelors in Econ. I was saying that since you are an international and interested in Econ, studying in India might be cheaper for undergrad and by that time your GC situation would be resolved and you’d return to US for graduate studies and then a job.</p>
<p>Heh…it seems like many of the colleges I’m looking at have decent placement for Econ majors (though by no means impressive). Now I can’t find any info on what kind of jobs Econ majors get besides the anecdote from the dad that I’ll end up with a government job. I don’t have any plans to go to Grad School in Econ…maybe Business School somewhere down the line…and I was under the impression, I’m better placed to land a job in the US with a degree from a US institution.</p>
<p>I know that the perception in India is that the “smart kids” go to Med School or into Engineering (I don’t think that has changed in the past 5 years), and what’s to say the American company won’t use a similar rationale and question one’s intellect.</p>
<p>In the US, lots of really smart kids don’t go to four year colleges. They get jobs, study at the cheap local community college, and work their way through. By the time they finish their A.A., they are managing the place they’ve been working at since they turned 16. By the time they finish a B.A. (studying part-time in the evening and weekend), they are managing a bigger place.</p>
<p>You can get into a decent MBA program with a degree in any subject and 2 to 5 years of increasingly responsible work experience. The critical thing is the work experience.</p>
<p>The rules are different here. If you expect to stay here, get some advice from people who are third or fourth generation in the US. Their perspective is completely different from that of recent immigrants. You are correct that it is easier to get a job here if you have a US degree.</p>
<p>Since your parents are able to cover $25,000 per year, the public liberal arts college University of Minnesota Morris would be affordable to you without financial aid. This could be a good safety school for you.
[UMM</a> | International | Frequently Asked Questions (Tuition, fees, room and board for international students is the same as for a U.S. student.)](<a href=“http://www.morris.umn.edu/prospective/international/faq.html]UMM”>http://www.morris.umn.edu/prospective/international/faq.html)</p>
<p>Well my GPA isn’t really that high (3.3 UW), and people are telling me the college admissions officers might just think I’m lazy because of the relatively high ACT score and the pretty low GPA. Actually I was dealing with some issues that my counselor is aware of and she might include it in the recommendation, but then again it was partly my fault too.</p>
<p>One more thing, State U costs about the same as U Minn - Morris and State U has decent job placement…maybe going to the local Community College and for a couple of years and transferring out isn’t a bad idea either.</p>
<p>One more thing that’s concerning me is how almost every single employer at not very prestigious places like Allegheny and Lake Forest are in the Public Sector (neither do I qualify for those nor am I interested in them).</p>
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<p>Right but don’t the major and college affect what sorts of jobs I can get. I’m probably a little ahead of myself but I’ve been doing some reading and apparently having a “prestigious” positions one better for an MBA. I’m actually from MD too and it seems the Smith School of Business at UMCP has really good job placement, now I dunno how the Econ dept does. And even with the good job placement, upperclassmen at College Park tell me that they are recruited for “back office operations” rather the “prestigious” front office ones.</p>
<p>I dunno, frankly I don’t feel like dealing with the college search process right now, I’m having a hard time with IB as it is. And I’m sure I’ll be spending all summer working on that dreaded EE and getting my CAS in order. Going to MC maybe isn’t a bad option (but I don’t think they have an Econ major, only Business I think)</p>
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<p>Ya I’m familiar with the rules, my parents have actually applied for a Green Card. I don’t understand, what about the perspectives? I’m actually pretty well assimilated :)</p>
<p>With my stats, should I apply to any need aware colleges? Or are there any places where I could get a scholarship perhaps? (Not a full ride or anything, but something in the tune of 5,000-10,000)</p>
The state I live in requires that one be a permanent resident (Green Card) to qualify for in-state tuition</p></li>