<p>I am from South Korea who went to high school and college in the States.
I went to a private college in the States for a year and joined the Korean army to finish my military duty. My duty has just ended and I was planning to go back to college in this fall. However, my family's current economic issues, I could not make it this year. So I am taking another year off and teaching English in Korea. I searched for getting some financial support from my college, but my counselor said an international student is not allowed to get any of financial support...at all. So I asked her to take some credits at CC or another college cheaper than mine. But she said that would be unlikely as well. How am I going to deal with this current situation? The tuition is over 50 grands per a yr... and I don't want my dad to take all this burden anymore. Is there any way to get some help?
I am going back to my college next year fall.
Thanks a lot for reading this and please share your knowledge if you have any.
Have a great day.</p>
<pre><code>I am from South Korea, but attended high school in CA. I started my B.A. at a private college in the States and attended for a year, but took 2 years off to join the Korean army to finish my required military duty. My duty has just ended and I was planning to go back to college this fall. However, with my family’s current economic issues, I could not make it this year. So I am taking another year off and teaching English in Korea to save up.
I searched to get some financial support from my college, but my counselor said an international student is not allowed to get any financial support…at all. So I asked her if I could take some credits at a CC (community college) or another cheaper college, but she said that would be unlikely as well.
How can I deal with this current situation? The tuition is over 50 grand per year… and I don’t want my dad to take all this burden anymore. Is there any way to get some help?
</code></pre>
<p>I plan on going back to my college fall next year (2013).</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for reading this and please share your knowledge if you have any.
Have a great day.</p>
<ol>
<li>Transfer out to school that gives aid. But this is a hard path since schools with international TRANSFER aid are very few and very, very selective.</li>
<li>Simply transfer to a cheaper school. (Minnesota or Binghamton, for example) Or transfer to a CC if you intend to climb the ladder.</li>
</ol>
<p>Your freshman grades will be a deciding factor here. Did you have a 3.5 at least? Then you can shoot for pretty good schools to transfer. If you had good HS grades and/or test scores those are plus too. (But probably much less than college grades since you’ve been out of HS for 3 years already)</p>
<p>If your school says there’s no aid for intl, then there’s none. Don’t count too much on their generosity. And honestly, scholarship offers are out of your options since they mostly target freshmen and exceptionally stellar students.</p>
<p>Tell your counselor about your situation and ask for transfer options given your grades. That would be the first step.</p>
<p>Few schools give much aid to int’ls students who are incoming freshmen. Even fewer give aid to transfer students.</p>
<p>You’re going to have to transfer to a school that costs LESS than the one that you’re currently attending. If your former school costs $50k, then find one that costs around $30, that would be like getting a $20k per year scholarship. Keep in mind that even if there were a school that gave int’l transfer students aid, your family would likely still have a substantial contribution so going somewhere cheaper accomplishes the same thing.</p>