<p>I'm an international student studying at UMICH. I have already completed 1 year (-50,000) of college, and was wondering whether or not I should switch to Wayne State ( 25,000). I would be saving around 75,000 over three years, and since I HAVE to do grad here, I will be set back another 100,000. My parents are paying for college, but when I graduate and have a job, I'm going to have to pay them back. I will be studying computer science (75,000 starting salary at UMICH). Is it worth it, or should I switch out? How fast do you think I could pay it back if I lived very modestly? Also, my salary is bound to increase over the years, probably up to 100,000 - 105,000.</p>
<p>Are you going to be able to work here as an int’l?</p>
<p>Why do you believe that you must attend grad school?</p>
<p>Why do you believe that you must attend it here?</p>
<p>Why do you believe that you will be paying for grad school? </p>
<p>Where do you hope to find a job after you graduate, and what kind of salary is it likely that you can earn?</p>
<p>yes, i will be able to work. computer science majors are in high demand.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I realize that, but often citizenship or green card status is required. Many high tech companies will not hire int’ls.</p>
<p>It is likely the pain of years of experience, but assuming that you will earn $75,000 in three years can be fraught with peril. I realize that current data support that assertion, but there are many assumptions behind it, including many that are beyond your control. What happens if:</p>
<p>-you decide to change your major
-you cannot finish your degree (health problem, money issues, family situation, etc.)
-the economy goes into recession
-the CS field changes drastically
-many more possibilities</p>
<p>If you will complete grad school, where you attended for UG is far less important.</p>
<p>hersheybar11 -</p>
<p>You are absolutely not guaranteed a permanent job in the US. There is a whole lot of fighting going on right now in the US Congress on this very issue. Maybe work visas will be easier to come by when you graduate, but you need to make your plans now assuming that Congress won’t sort things out in time for you. Be sure that your studies here will get you a job in your own country or another country after graduation.</p>
<p>You are not guaranteed anything. My son went to a top 25 school with arguably the best programs in engineering and CS, certainly right up there. Now ten years out, his peers in those fields are doing well, but it was not the immediate, steady gravy train for all of them, that they had so expected. A lot of rude awakenings. There is no certainty in these things. Why do you HAVE to do grad work here? </p>
<p>I don’t know the particulars of your situation, so I 'm not going to say what you should do, but I can tell you that I know a lot of parents, international ones, it seems, whether in or out of this country, with or without green cards, citizenships, that looked at expensive college tuition for their kids as a monetary investment, and almost all of them have lost out. Getting your money back for that and then some is not gonna happen on a tight schedule. The government is giving loan paybacks a 25 year time period for good reason. A lot of kids with a lot of emotional luggage as they well know, since a lot of these parents constantly remind them, that the money is an investment in them and that the whole family’s future lies on them. Not a good living situation at all. I’ve known kids with the most lucrative types of degrees not able to get them to pay out fast enough to make the parents happy, which means misery all around. </p>
<p>You have to assess your personal situation yourself. If your parents are depriving themselves or are endangering their retirements and their financial situation betting on your success, that is really not a smart thing to do. IT can result in bad family feelings and disaster. If your parents can well afford it, and are just hoping for all of these things, that’s a whole other story.</p>
<p>My son’s good friend just had to go back to his country. Couldn’t get a company to get a green card for him, and even with a good computer science degree, the numbers were not working out for him. Believe me, it’s not all that easy.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how it all works now, but years ago, if you weren’t a citizen, it was hard to get a techie job here in the US. Those w/o citizenship often had to accept lower paying jobs at companies that didn’t have that req’t. </p>
<p>Obviously, companies that deal with federal contracts like defense, only hire citizens, but I can imagine that companies that have proprietary concerns also do not want to risk hiring int’ls who may take company secrets abroad and the company will have little/no recourse. Just guessing.</p>
<p>Hey man, I think you might want to check out the calculator/report generator on this site: [The</a> College Risk Report | Financial Risk Analysis of College and Career Path](<a href=“http://www.collegeriskreport.com%5DThe”>http://www.collegeriskreport.com)</p>