<p>Hey there! I'm Zafeiris and i'm Greece.I'm 19 years old.Last year i finished highschool and i haven't really been doing anything since then.For the last few months i've been thinking about coming to America for college but whenever i attempt to get informed i end up getting confused because of so many factors,scholarships,visa',where to start..etc. etc. The reality is that i need a scholarship but just have no idea how to get started,do i sign up for the college i'm interested in and then look for a scholarship? I'm really confused..First of all,what is the first step i have to take? Should i contact first the college i'm interested in and then look for financial aid? What i want to do is to get a rough idea of all the costs if i have the chance to get a financial aid or something..Anyway,i would really appreciate the help! And if anyone is from Europe (or even better,Greece) and studies in America let me know your story</p>
<p>Some but not all American universities are willing to fund international students. Most financial aid is offered at the time of admission. That means that you should research the funding options at a university before you apply (you might need to submit extra forms with your application to be considered for funding!) and you’ll know whether-or-not you can afford to go before you have to decide whether to attend </p>
<p>Large scholarships in the US usually fall into one of the following 3 categories:
- need-based financial aid. given to the most “needy” students, amount depends on your family’s financial circumstances.
- academic scholarships. given to the students with the highest test scores and/or grades. might also take into account non-academic factors like extra-curricular engagement.
- athletic scholarships. used to recruit student-athletes to the university team. (this is a serious commitment. student-athletes are aspiring professional athletes and college sport events get televised nationally!) </p>
<p>There are different strategies for locating universities in each of those categories.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Athletic scholarships - google NCAA Div I. Universities in that league give out the most athletic scholarships. (Div I schools can give full scholarships to their student-athletes. Div II schools can only offered partial scholarships to a handful of student-athletes. Div III schools cannot offer any athletic scholarships at all.) In order to be considered for a scholarship, get in touch with the coach for your sport ASAP!!! Or, you could work with an agency that will fly you to the US and have you meet coaches there.</p></li>
<li><p>Need-based financial aid - mostly awarded by the top universities (Harvard, Stanford, MIT, etc) and liberal arts colleges. You can get a list of liberal arts colleges from the US News Ranking.</p></li>
<li><p>Academic scholarships. This one is tricky because there’s no good shortcut to locating universities with academic scholarships for international students, short of checking every university out there. You could start by checking the financial aid forum on College Confidential. They have whole threads dedicated to accumulating lists of universities with generous scholarship policies. These threads are written primary for American students, but many (alas, not all) universities with scholarships for American students will also offer scholarships for international students.</p></li>
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