<p>Hi Guys! So I am an International Student from India currently in my Senior Year and would be applying to a few Public Universities. However, I am not financially comfortable and would have to take a loan of $60,000 over 4 years. So my question was if I should take this choice or should go to a community college for 2 years and then transfer to a better university with financial aid (hopefully). My current SAT score is 1650 which I will be trying to pull up. I have not done well in my Junior and Senior years in High School as many personal and family problems held me back and am very confident of doing way better if given another chance. Looking forward to everyone's opinion! Thanks guys.</p>
<p>There are relatively few colleges that give generous FA to Intl. students, and even fewer to Intl. transfers. In addition, these schools are the most selective and have even lower acceptance rates for transfer than for fr applicants.</p>
<p>Community college + university does not work for internationals since there’s virtually no financial aid for international transfers.
Your solution is to get into the best school you can as a freshman (mix private and public schools - publics typically only have merit money and your stats don’t make it likely that you’ll have a merit scholarship). That means practicing a lot to raise your SAT score and look for a less selective school where you can get merit money.
Focus on schools ranked 100 to 150 in national rankings, and especially on regional colleges (rank 1-30?) where you may get money, especially if you qualify for the Honors Program.
Of course apply to schools in your Province in order to see whether your local school is better than the US schools you’d get into.</p>
<p>Is your estimate of $60,000 the total in loan you would require to cover the difference between what your family can afford and the estimated Cost of Attendance for an international student at the universities that you would like to attend?</p>
<p>If so, which universities are on your list? The Cost of Attendance varies greatly from one university to another. If you are willing to change your list, you may be able to find less expensive universities to include.</p>
<p>Most community colleges have guaranteed transfer agreements with at least one of the public universities in the same state. So yes, this can be a good plan, even for an international student. However, you need to find out what the COA for international students is at the community colleges you are considering. If you cannot cover the full COA, you won’t get your student visa. Most CCs have COAs greater than $20,000 each year for international students. Can your family cover that easily? Some CCs do have residence halls and meal plans, but in most cases you would need to live off campus.</p>
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<p>Actually, for internationals with no financial aid or scholarships but wanting to study in the US, starting at a community college may substantially reduce costs, in that two years of community college at out-of-state tuition plus two years of state university at out-of-state tuition (or private university) can be substantially less expensive than four years of university in the US.</p>
<p>It can still be a lot of money, though.</p>
<p>IndianGuy3, how much can you afford? (Don"t count on that loan)</p>
<p>It all depends on how much financial aid OP would need. If the OP has enough money and is not applying for financial aid, it can be a good deal but overall need-based scholarships or merit-based scholarships should be cheaper than the CC+ State U w/o aid route.
CC+ State U = $12,000 X2 + $35,000 X2 at a minimum; in California the typical cost for CC is 20-22,000 and the UCs require about $58,000 or the CSUs $35,000. That’s roughly $100,000 over 4 years at a minimum, when some 4-year colleges have scholarships that would keep expenses to that much or less depending on need (Knox, Mount Holyoke, Truman State…) with a potentially better experience - smaller classes, less red tape, etc.
However, that clearly beats the $45,000/year X4 that would be incurred at a private college without scholarship.</p>
<p>The problem is, international students find need-based financial aid and merit scholarships at US universities to be very limited compared to what US domestic students find.</p>