<p>I'm finishing my second year at CCSF (City College of San Francisco) and I'm now overwhelmed by pondering the next step of my academic career.</p>
<p>I admit I really didn't have the time (and the application-fee money) to apply to tons of school when it was the right time to do it. So, here I am with the only two schools I applied to to choose from (I got into both).</p>
<p>One is Berkeley (no financial aid for international students whatsoever) and one is Clark University in Worcester, MA (that offered a $20,000 scholarship).</p>
<p>I haven't received my acceptance package from Clark, so I'm wondering 1) How many of my CCSF credits will they take 2) if that scholarship is renewable year after year and 3) if there's anything else regarding my financial aid package that they didn't mention in the very succinct e-mail they sent me, like loans or work study stuff.</p>
<p>I'm writing because I was wondering how other international students pay for their education in the US (when parents are not an option). I haven't looked into commercial loans yet... any suggestion? Even if I go to Clark, I'd have to find more than $10,000 a year to cover the rest of the tuition and my living expenses.</p>
<p>Getting into Berkeley was pretty awesome. I mean, I have yet to walk into the international students counseling office here at CCSF to mock them. I think they told me I had no chances something like... a hundred times.</p>
<p>Also, it'll be a pain to leave California, but I like to think that if I go to Clark, I'll have more chances to get involved into all those sorts of things that graduate school admittance people like to read about... film clubs, undergraduate research, etc... What do you think?</p>
<p>I took a couple of classes at Berkeley thanks to CCSF concurrent enrollment program and yes, it is really great. In my experience, in the East Asian studies department, professors took care of all lectures and were very friendly and available (I know it sounds silly, but they were often available for lunch and movie-watching). Yes, I'm sure it's different for impacted majors.</p>
<p>Anyway... what should I do? I know there were other schools with financial aid for int. students I could've got into (I especially like USC, Tufts and Penn), but as I said, at the time, with full time work and five classes going on, I couldn't spend nights filling applications.</p>
<p>Is there any international students loan site that isn't a scam?</p>