<p>I think some international students are guilty of overstating their family financial resources. Some of them were able to pay for their tuition initially the first year only to find out they don't have the money to pay for the rest of the academic year. Is it borderline irresponsible? i dont know. A lot of us here are quick to respond to initial offers from schools without thinking of our part of the bargain. Remember not all get in on merit. Majority pay full tuition. Many of us here on CC gets overly excited and anxious to the point of paranoia. The prospect of getting the education in America blurs our judgement especially financial. I think some of us needs a little dose of reality. To dream is ok but to obssess and fail is absurd. If you have the money, by all means do it. If your family is broke, be responsible.</p>
<p>Remember folks, there's not a lot of wiggle room to operate when you are an international student. It's easy to violate your F1 visa and you don't even know it. After 9/11, they scrutinize every inch of your stay in America and you dont want them looking for you after your school reports you to Immigration(SEVIS) simply because you cant enroll fulltime. The lesson here folks is be responsible by looking at your financial situation. Don't violate your F1 visa terms and study the consequences. It's all about the dough. If you have it, flaunt it.</p>
<p>Yes, paying for school is a huge issue for international students. With most schools costing over 40K a year, you need over 160K to ensure that your tuition and cost of living are covered. I knew that I couldn't afford it, so I asked for financial aid, and got turned down from pretty much everywhere...They did send me letters warning me that if I asked for aid, my chances were minimal.</p>
<p>The schools should stop making it so hard for international students to comply with rules and regulations in the first place. Many international students come from low-income family (I am from an EXTREMELY low income one). Although I have yet to start college, it's just unfair that despite the fact that many colleges gains some really great students from the international pools (Asians ftw!), funds of the college are mostly retained for domestic students whereas they know international students will have to pay more, can't even work cause of the F-1 issue, yet they get less aid. Well, yeah fine that's how public schools work and some people still do prefer applying to them... I mean there's a huge costing difference. However, I believe international and domestic should be treated equally. These schools clearly hate diversity if they're making things harder and harder to cope with by the day. It also sounds like they expect to gain most of their income off students from the international kids. I can understand the feelings of students who'd do anything to earn the money for school (I personally won't have the courage or willingness to perhaps, plus never broken rules and never intend to either) although I do say there's no point if you're going to miss all your classes. It's just unfair.</p>
<p>The issue is not quite that easy. For a college it's much more expensive to sponsor an international student than a domestic one.</p>
<p>Domestic students are eligible for federal loans, low income students also receive federal and state grants and students typically apply for and win some private scholarships as well whereas international students usually have to be sponsored 100% by the their college. And due to the currency exchange rates you might be quite wealthy in your home country but your money might be almost worthless in the US.</p>
<p>International students also have higher expenses than domestic students: medical insurance, higher summer expenses (either the airfare for returning home or housing when staying in the States), and a lot of one-time expenses (visa fees, initial airfare, buying all the stuff you cannot bring with you on the airplane).</p>
<p>And don't assume that Americans receive better need-based fin aid than internationals. Americans start saving for college years before their kids enroll, and it is not uncommon that parents have to take out loans or mortgages to meet their family contribution in addition to the student loans in the fin aid packages.</p>
<p>After all, colleges are businesses that need to operate cost-effectively and as no college wants to have 30% internationals, they won't start treating internationals the same as domestic applicants.</p>
<p>Well... what I am saying is see the state schools... like U of Cal... local ones tution less than 10k per year whereas the same thing costs internationals 30k. Yes well, this is also what I am saying, American kids can get more external aids. Whereas still some colleges are willing to provide a decent funding to only the domestic ones and say for example U of Wisc Madison --- no need-based financial aid for internationals. Internationals definitely incur at least $4000 per year more than the average domestic kid.</p>
<p>I didn't know that international students were also at a disadvantage when competing for university-funded aid...Although it is perfectly logical for the US to exclude international students from taxpayer-financed financial aid, as our parents are not contributors.</p>
<p>As far as I know, state schools have two rates: in-state and out-of-state. There really aren't discriminating you for being international. You're just out-of-state.</p>
<p>yeah that's what I meant by 'local' --- in-state (didn't use 'domestic') and most international kids would be out-of-staters unless they belong to the state.</p>
<p>Tuition at public universities are subsidised by the state government. Its purpose is to provide quality education at a low price for their people. As international students, we are obviously not their people and hence the astronomical price.</p>
<p>Also, its naive to think that schools would admit and allocate a large amount of money for internationals. Just think of the furor with outsourcing and immigrants. Also most schools don't make a profit from international students! The 40k in expenses isn't even sufficient for a professor's salary.</p>