<p>I'm from Uruguay, planning to study in the United States in fall 2012. I come from a middle-class family who has a budget of $60.000 per year, but my family wants to make an effort to send me to college in the U.S. Here in Uruguay, high grades are very hard to achieve. We use a scale from 1 to 12, being 1 the minimum and 12 the maximum (very very hard to achieve). I have a 8/12 high school average which is good, as the average is 6 and 7, and the ones who achieve a 10,11 or 12 average are GREAT students. Here in Uruguay we don't take into account the grades, but when I thought of studying in the U.S. I felt awful, as I don't know if an 8/12 translated to the GPA system is a good mark. This can bring me some head-aches.
Well, about money, my family would be able to pay up to $12000 per year (including housing, food, tuition, etc) or maybe $24000 in case of getting a 50% scholarship. As I'm studying Economics, so I would like to hear some information about colleges that includes the previous conditions and have good reputation.</p>
<p>To sum up, i'm looking for a college that:
- Costs up to $12000 p/year or $24000 in case of getting a scholarship
- That does not take into account GPA as something essential
- Good business school, well ranked nationally or regionally</p>
<p>In general, folks seem to want an SAT score if the GPA doesn’t translate well. It also seems there are only a few schools that offer aid to internationals. </p>
<p>I think you will need a toal of $55k for most schools private schools here. Publics cost less but aside from UNC, don’t usually offer a lot of aid to students from outside the state. </p>
<p>Maybe you could search “aid for internationals” and see what pops up.</p>
<p>There aren’t many schools that would be affordable, unless your SAT/ACT is high enough to get a good merit scholarship. Or, your stats are phenomenal and you’d get accepted to one of the few schools that give need-based aid to int’ls.</p>
<p>That said, it’s not likely that the schools that you’ve mostly heard about will give you a merit scholarship. You’d likely have to get a merit scholarship from a mid-tier or lower tier school.</p>
<p>$12k per year isn’t likely going to even pay for your tuition, much less the rest. You’d be considered an out of state student and be charged the highest rate at public univs…and private univs cost over $50k per year.</p>
<p>I have already finished high school. Now i’m studying at the “University of the Republic” (Montevideo, Uruguay), but I don’t mind going back to start all over in USA.
Yes, it’s rather complicated to find a good ranked university for $12K a year, but my ambition to become the best professional finds a mid-tier or lower tier school not enough!. I don’t want to finish working at a supermarket, I want to be a great Economist, I know I have the potential.</p>
<p>There is an affordable option that many international students I know took.</p>
<p>1) Go to the U.S and attend a community college. Get a part-time job and $12,000 + your wage will be sufficient for survival.
2) Grind through community college with 4.0 GPA. Join honors club such as Phi Theta Kappa, they have many transfer scholarships that int. students are eligible to compete.
3) Apply for transfer to top schools or generous public schools such as UNC.
4) You would want to start in TX since TX public universities will charge you instate tuition if you get a scholarship of more than $1,000 (which is very doable)</p>
<p>If your highschool GPA haunts you then the best (affordable) way is to go to community college and prove your ability.</p>
<p>but we know it’s not the same to say “i graduated from UCLA” than to say “i graduated from ball state university”, and also the professional preparation isn’t the same, obvioulsy</p>
<p>Southwest State University in Minnesota is about $7200 per year for tuition and $6600 per year for room and board (for a Minnesota student or an international student.
[SMSU</a> - Admission Undergraduate - International Admission Page](<a href=“404 Error {don't panic yet} | Southwest Minnesota State University”>404 Error {don't panic yet} | Southwest Minnesota State University)
Bemidji State University in Minnesota is about $6600 per year tuition and $6400 per year room and board (for a Minnesota student or an international student).</p>
<p>It would be hard to find a lower price than this.</p>
<p>Neither of these is particularly highly ranked, but I think you would be admitted to either one. If you went there and did well, and you wanted to be at a higher ranked school, you could transfer to the Carlson School of Management (the business school) at the University of Minnesota. Well ranked. More expensive, though.</p>
<p>I think at most large universities, economics is part of the college of liberal arts, not the business school.</p>
<p>Perhaps consider coming to U.S. for grad school instead? I know many international students taking that route, and they usually are able to receive stipends to cover the cost of their education.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids is right. That step 3 I listed above is pretty useless for int’l student. Sometimes I just messed up with local resident students. But hey, you can still try to come to Texas. I know quite a few int’l students get instate tuition here (not to top schools, though) Frankly you can’t get the best with $12,000/yr. :(</p>
<p>The OP said s/he is willing to apply as a freshman, which means that s/he will not be considered a transfer student.</p>
<p>Universities with good business schools either don’t give much aid to internationals or are very hard to get into. Would you maybe consider studying economics at a liberal arts college and getting a postgraduate degree in business?</p>
<p>*The OP said s/he is willing to apply as a freshman, which means that s/he will not be considered a transfer student.
*</p>
<p>Ha ha…sorry, but it doesn’t work like that. The FACT that he’s already been in college will always count. </p>
<p>Otherwise…many, many students would just “start over” after a semester or two and call themselves “freshmen.”</p>
<p>this student needs to finish his BS in his own country, have his parents set aside “his school money” each year. Then when he graduates, he can apply to grad school here.</p>
<p>As an aside…I have just spent nearly a week on Bama’s campus after The Tornadoes. Many of the students have gone home since the school ended the semester the day of the storms. However, the int’l students and other OOS students are on campus until Saturday (when their original flights were scheduled). I had no idea that there were so many Asian and South American grad students (many in the MBA program) on Bama’s campus. They’re at Bama because the B-school is good and very reasonably priced.</p>
<p>It does work exactly like that actually, for the people at my international school who decide to take a gap year after high school, attend a local university for a year, and reapply to schools in the US as freshmen.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, people do just that. What’s more, they don’t lie about it on their applications.</p>
<p>Then they’ve lied on their apps. The apps ask if you’ve matriculated at any colleges. If these people have simply committed fraud, then that’s another story.</p>
<p>That said, it’s really unlikely that this student (even if he’d never been to college) will get accepted to the few schools that give big FA to int’l students.</p>
<p>He’d be better off finishing his degree in his country and then come to the US for grad school.</p>
<p>As I said, this is not the case. As US schools almost universally refuse to accept credits from foreign institutions, internationals who have spent a year at another university can apply as freshmen, much like some domestic applicants apply after a PG year at another high school. The protocol is a little unclear to me, but I could ask my counselor for an explanation if it really matters that much to you.</p>
<p>Please do get the details for us about that.</p>
<p>It is entirely possible that these students are applying as transfer students because they already have begun post-secondary studies, BUT that none of the credits actually do transfer, so that they enroll in freshman status. That is something that can happen even to US students transferring from one institution here to another one here.</p>