<p>So I'm an American citizen and I currently live abroad. I want to study college in the U.S next year as an undergraduate (preferabbly in Texas). The PROBLEM is that the tuition for universities in America are crazy ! By crazy I mean extremely expensive comparing 20 - 25 years ago (when my dad was in college).
I'm not only talking about private universities but also public ones. What makes it even worse is that I wouldn't be a resident and apparently will not be a resident if my purpose in my stay in the state would be educational.
So the solution would be to get a scholarship + financial aid. Now I'm looking for scholarships but most scholarships are for Americans living in the states or for international students.
Where can I find scholarships for Americans living abroad?
Any extra help with FAFSA and how to get grants for example would be really great.
Thanks.</p>
<p>Yes…the cost of college has risen MUCH FASTER than inflation so your dad’s college costs were comparably much lower than they are today. :(</p>
<p>You’re right…you won’t be a state resident for any state.</p>
<p>however…</p>
<p>What are your stats? Include SAT breakdown. Will you be taking the ACT? Some do better on that.</p>
<p>How much will your parents contribute each year?</p>
<p>You probably will not get financial aid other than small loans. Most schools do not have much need-based aid to give and your family’s income/assets may be too high to get much from the schools that give need based aid.</p>
<p>However, if your stats are high enough, there are schools that will give generous merit scholarships since you are a citizen. :)</p>
<p>What is your likely major?</p>
<p>Give us more info and we can help.</p>
<p>As a US citizen, you can apply for federally determined financial aid using the FAFSA. Run the EFC calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board) using your family’s financial information converted into USD.</p>
<p>Since you are a US citizen, you also have the option of moving to the state where you would like to study, finding a job, and working there long enough to establish in-state residence before applying to college. You need to investigate the specific requirements for the state you are interested in, but in most cases you would need to live and work there for 12 months. One year can go by pretty fast, so this option might not be so bad.</p>
<p>You should read through everything at <a href=“http://www.educationusa.state.gov/[/url]”>http://www.educationusa.state.gov/</a> and then make an appointment with the counselors at the advising center closest to where you live. If you can’t visit in person, they may be able to help you by email or telephone. They are the experts at helping students from the country where you are living find good places to study in the US. If no one in that office has recent experience working with US citizens (usually someone has), they will be able to contact colleagues in another office who can advise you.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No…most scholarships that colleges give are for American citizens - I haven’t seen any that stipulate your home address must be in the states. Colleges often have a pool for instate and another for out of state students, which you would qualify for.</p>
<p>The are some public schools that do not charge more for OOS - Bemidji and SDSU come to mind. There are others, such as the SUNY’s, where OOS costs rival instate prices in other states. Then there are those that offer tuition waivers for OOS kids with good stats. If you don’t get stuck on one college, you may be surprised what you can find. Here’s a current thread that may give you some ideas:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/985001-public-colleges-waive-out-state-residency.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/985001-public-colleges-waive-out-state-residency.html</a></p>
<p>Are you trying to find **private **scholarships to pay a good part of college costs? If so, that is NOT a good idea.</p>
<p>private scholarships are often small, very competitive, and only for ONE year…so you’d be short for years 2, 3, and 4.</p>
<p>if you need a good amount of merit scholarships, then you need to apply to the schools that give them. Those are larger and for all 4 years.</p>
<p>What are your circumstances? Are you low income? </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year for college?</p>
<p>What are your stats? include SAT breakdown.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate it 
I actually took the SAT and scored a 1500. But I’m doing A-levels and I heard some universities might just give me some college credit for that.
“mom2collegekids” : You said I can get generous merit scholarships if my stats are high, how high exactly ? Do I have to get an unbelievable score in the SAT or do I have to get straight As in my A-levels (which is really a tough task to do) ?
And also no my dads income is considered high but unfortunatley there is no use of that looking at the amount of debts we’re in. I don’t know if universities consider that or not :/</p>
<p>Hi…</p>
<p>Is your SAT a 1500 out of 2400? or 1500 out of 1600? What is the breakdown of your SAT?</p>
<p>To get a big merit scholarship - such as full tuition - from the schools that give them (many schools don’t), you would probably need at least a 1400 Math + CR SAT.</p>
<p>Since your dad has a high income, you won’t likely qualify for any free “need -based aid” because that is determined by income/assets. Debt doesn’t count. </p>
<p>So, it looks like you’ll need merit scholarships to afford to go to school here.</p>
<p>How much will your dad pay for your schooling? If he won’t pay anything, that may be a problem since it’s hard to get all costs covered through a merit scholarship. </p>
<p>What is your likely major?</p>
<p>Three good threads to read for ideas on finding merit aid:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Lots of places will give you credit and/or placement for the A level exams, so do your best on them. This information should be posted right on their websites.</p>
<p>My likely major will be Engineering.
I got a 1500 in total (Math + Critical Reading + verbal) (550 Math, 490 critical reading and 460 verbal)
I didn’t really study for that test and I think I have to do better than that to be elegible for a lot of scholarships. </p>
<p>I did really good in my IGCSE : 4 A*'s, 2 A’s and 1 B.
In my AS level, not so good 
: 2 B’s and a C (the C I will be repeating)
So here I am, on the doors of my A2 level with full determination and I’ve already started with the hard work. </p>
<p>I’ve checked one of the links that you gave me “happymomof1” and its really beneificial, I don’t have much time on my hands so I’ll check all the other links later.</p>
<p>“mom2collegekids” yes that was what I was expecting 
No “need-based aid” It seems unfair to be honest but oh well.
My dad WILL pay for school but he probably won’t pay over 9100 dollars.</p>
<p>Your SATs are not high enough to get merit aid. As you suspected, you would need to score a lot higher for that and I’ve never seen anyone increase the score from 500 to 700 in each section in a year. So that idea is probably not going to work. </p>
<p>I don’t know of any college in the US where tuition+room+board is under $9100/year. However, if you take out loans and work, you would be able to pay instate tuition at some public colleges-- the trick is that you need to establish instate residency. </p>
<p>Happymom, you wrote, "Since you are a US citizen, you also have the option of moving to the state where you would like to study, finding a job, and working there long enough to establish in-state residence before applying to college. "</p>
<p>Would this student be able to establish instate residency if he/she is financially dependent on a parent who does not have instate residency? My understanding is that most public colleges go by the parents residency. </p>
<p>Your best bet might be to look at one of the few colleges that does not charge more for out-of-state students. Here are the estimated annual costs for one of those schools: </p>
<p><a href=“http://admissions.morris.umn.edu/costsaid/costs/[/url]”>http://admissions.morris.umn.edu/costsaid/costs/</a></p>
<p>*I got a 1500 in total (Math + Critical Reading + verbal) (550 Math, 490 critical reading and 460 verbal)
I didn’t really study for that test and I think I have to do better than that to be elegible for a lot of scholarships.</p>
<p>I did really good in my IGCSE : 4 A*'s, 2 A’s and 1 B.
In my AS level, not so good : 2 B’s and a C (the C I will be repeating)
So here I am, on the doors of my A2 level with full determination and I’ve already started with the hard work.</p>
<p>:/ No “need-based aid” It seems unfair to be honest but oh well.</p>
<p>My dad WILL pay for school but he probably won’t pay over 9100 dollars. *</p>
<p>Did your dad say $9100??? That seems like a very odd amount! Ask your dad if you’re not sure of how much you can expect from him.</p>
<p>Anyway…$9100 plus a $5500 student loan ($14,600 total) is going to severely limit your choices. </p>
<p>**For example…even looking at UMinn-Morris, which was mentioned above…
**
The 2010-2011 cost to attend the University of Minnesota, Morris:</p>
<pre><code>* Tuition$9,482
- Student Fees*$2,050
- Room**$3,290
- Board$3,760
- Total$18,582
</code></pre>
<p>Plus…$1000 for books
and at least $1000 for international travel</p>
<p>So, at a minimum…$20,582</p>
<p>Quickly get yourself some ACT and SAT practice books and start using them. Sign up for the October ACT and SAT exams. </p>
<p>You will need much higher scores to get merit scholarships.</p>
<p>An individual who is living independently certainly can establish residence! However, it is important that the person move to that state, get a job, pay taxes, register to vote, get a state driver license, etc. etc. BEFORE applying to college/university. In Maryland, three months of residence is required to qualify for in-state rates at the community colleges, and 12 months for the public universities. The financial aid system will not consider this individual to be independent until he/she meets at least one of the criteria set by FAFSA, so his/her parents will still need to provide information for the FAFSA. And, one presumes, if the college/university involved determines that the student is in that state only for his/her education, rather than being a taxpayer who just suddenly has realized that he/she needs an education in order to have a better job, it could be possible that the institution involved would require supporting evidence that the student is indeed a bona fide taxpayer.</p>
<p>It would be very hard for a young person who has been living abroad to move here, get a job/apartment, and completely support himself, without any family nearby.</p>
<p>As someone mentioned above there are schools that either do not charge extra for being out of state or have low out of state costs.</p>
<p>Below are some of the ones that I know of and their estimated cost of attendance for an OOS student:</p>
<p>South Dakota School of Mines $16,190.00
Univ of South Dakota $15,659.96
South Dakota State Univ $14,620.00
Bemidji State in Minnesota $14776.00
Minot State in North Dakota $11,000</p>
<p>Your travel costs would probably bump those amount up somewhat.</p>
<p>I am sure that there are other schools like those. If you want a more selective school you will probably have to concentrate on trying to find merit aid.</p>
<p>OP, Another idea might be to find out if an SAT-optional school is generous with merit. I don’t know of any and I do know that some use SATs for merit even if the school is SAT-optional but I wanted to throw out another option. Do an internet search for SAT-optional schools and look on their website or email them. Remember, for merit, you will want to be much stronger than their average student. </p>
<p>You could also try to take the ACT because you may score substantially better on that.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Happymom…this is not true in all states. Some states have somewhat liberal policies for students to become independent for tuition purposes but most do not. In most cases, the residency of the undergrad student is the place where his PARENTS reside…and that is true for students whose families live abroad too. These kids have no easier time establishing instate residency than anyone else “moving” to a new state.</p>
<p>The other hitch is that even IN states where the student could establish independence and residency…the STUDENT would have to be very self supporting for that year of time. In other words, they would need to have sufficient income to support all of their living expenses.</p>
<p>It’s not easy to gain instate residency when your family lives elsewhere (we have expats in the family who experienced this and looked into options…oh and they actually own property in Maryland and their kids did NOT qualify for instate tuition there).</p>
<p>Thumper1,</p>
<p>The point that I want to make is that yes, you can establish residence. I never intended to imply that it is easy. Certainly each state places the barriers it sees fit in order to prevent people from claiming residence who really aren’t resident. This is what I’ve been able to find about the policy at our local community college. I can’t paste in the full text of the Montgomery College, Maryland residence policy because my computer won’t open that version of Word. Here is the link: [Montgomery</a> College Catalog](<a href=“http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/EDU/Plain.aspx?id=2070]Montgomery”>http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/EDU/Plain.aspx?id=2070)</p>
<p>From the paper edition of the 2009-2010 Montgomery College Catalog, p. 418:</p>
<p>"Appendix A Determination of Residence for Tuition Purposes</p>
<p>To qualify for tuition purposes as a resident of Montgomery County or the state of Maryland, legal domicile must have been maintained for a period not less than three months prior to the first regularly scheduled class for the semester. Furthermore, the student must possess the legal capacity under state and federal law to establish Maryland domicile. In establishing the domicile of a person enrolling in a credit course at Montgomery College, the following procedures shall prevail:</p>
<p>Domicile shall be considered as a person’s permanent place of abode, where physical presence and possessions are maintained and where he or she intends to remain indefinitely. The domicile of a person who received more than one-half of his or her financial support from others in the most recently completed year is the domicile of the person contributing the greatest proportion of support, without regard to whether the parties are related by blood or marriage."</p>
<p>Details follow about verifying residence each term, verifying in-county residence for the in-county tuition rate, requesting changes in residence, etc. There also is a list of specific evidence that the college will consider if there is a need to substantiate the student’s residence including: residential ownership or rental documents; evidence of physical presence in the months the student is not attending classes; evidence that all (or most of) the student’s possessions are in Maryland/Montgomery County; payment of Maryland state and local income taxes on all taxable earned income; voter registration; motor vehicle registration; valid Maryland driver’s license.</p>
<p>Granted, not every recent high school graduate can be entirely self-supporting, but some can. However for residence purposes, Maryland (at least at the community college level) is only requiring that the person provide more than one-half of his/her support in order to establish “permanent abode”. The OP needs to decide what he/she is willing to do in order to have a US education. Perhaps he/she is willing to move here, get a job, work for the time a specific state requires, support him/herself as fully as that state requires, pay the taxes, follow all the steps to become a full-fledged Iowan/Texan/Californian/fill-in-state-name-here-ian as possible (in other words to establish him/herself “permanently”) and THEN apply to college in that state. Perhaps he/she isn’t willing to do that. That’s OK too.</p>
<p>Only sheer dumb luck turned us into Maryland residents. I was supposed to be a permanent ex-pat, living in another country with my citizen-there husband and our bi-national child. I certainly feel the pain of thumper1’s expat relatives, and the concerns of the writer who began this thread. I was almost those relatives, and Happykid was almost in the same situation as the OP. Unlike the OP, I have scads of family and friends who could have given Happykid a roof over her head if she were in the position of needing to find a job and establish an independent life here in order to qualify for in-state tuition. I can’t imagine how difficult the decision would be to send or not send a 17or 18 year old to a distant place where he/she would have to do all of that alone.</p>
<p>^ Perhaps what you should have said was: An individual who is living independently certainly can establish residence in some states! </p>
<p>And believe me I make some mistakes not being clear in my posts as well. Ask Vossron who reminds me backchannel of my errors. :)</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad,</p>
<p>You gave me a good laugh! </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
I have the same problem as MQ1993. Nevertheless, the worst part of all that is that I have a dual citizenship and still not resided in the States!
Does that allow me to apply as an international student for a Masters degree?
In my case, costs are way too much high. I don’t think I will be able to pay even 400$ per month just for the living.
Please help! What do you suggest? The first question is how to apply, the second is how to get the money.
Since I have never lived in the States, I don’t even know what I should do first when I come regarding paying taxes, getting an ID, etc.
Is there an option to study AND work on a project at the same college as a technician? By the way, I’m studying biology.