<p>Hi everyone!
I'm a student coming from Southeast Europe and I'll be finishing High School in about 2 years, I'm in second year now. I need your help because I've been dreaming of coming and studying in the US for so long now and recently my dream is about to come true.</p>
<p>I have a family member in Ohio who is willing to support me and cover my whole accommodation and food costs, so I will be living at her house and all I have to worry about is paying the tuition. I plan on going to a community college the first two years and then attending Ohio State University since that's where she lives.</p>
<p>My biggest concern is paying for the tuition, of course. The first two years of community college will cost me about $15K whereas the two other undergraduate years at OSU will cost $50k ($25,000 per year) and they don't offer scholarships/financial aids to international students, sadly.</p>
<p>So I had lost hope until I read about student loans that were available to international students as well. So I have my relative who would be the co-signer and I was hoping I could get a loan to pay these 4 years and provide me enough time to repay (20 years from what I read online in most places?). These are words that you have probably heard lots of times before but I really am a hard worker and I will do my best to stay in the US (although that doesn't depend totally on me) after graduation, I am aware that at the worst scenario I'll have to go back to my home country and pay the debt there but I will find a job and I'll work part time in the meantime because this is an opportunity, or better yet a dream that I have been hoping to live ever since I can remember. </p>
<p>I'm not going to any of the private schools that charge about $60k per year, so do you think this will work? She has been living in the US for more than a decade and makes a good amount of money and is able to show that she can support me without any problem at all. Are these kind of debts private always, I mean, that they're not given by the state?</p>
<p>Thank you very much, any advice would be highly appreciated.</p>
<p>Your potential co-signer needs to contact his or her own bank, and ask about private loans for students. As an international student, you aren’t eligible for the normal student loans, and it is unlikely that you would be allowed 20 years to repay.</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest, it is not smart to borrow the amount of money that you are considering (some $80,000) to pay for an undergraduate degree. To borrow that amount of money when you aren’t likely to be able to get a job here after graduation, makes your situation even worse. If you are unable to re-pay your loan, your relative will be stuck with it. Do not even think about doing this to someone you care about.</p>
<p>Whether the OP has a chance to get a job in the US after graduation is immaterial. This loan amount is nearly three times what would be considered manageable for someone to take on. This amount if money cannot be justified for an undergratuate degree. Period. There are some graduate or professional degrees that it would be OK to borrow this amount for. But no undergrad degree from anywhere on the planet is worth taking on $80,000 in debt. Not a single one.</p>
<p>I’m stuck in a dilemma of two fields of studying, whether Accounting/Finance or Animation/Digital Media Design (Movie and Game animation, film effects etc. etc. etc.) Since I’m really good at it, however, I can work it out and make the money needed for the two first years in the community college so that I would take only $50,000 for the two last years of undergraduate studies.</p>
<p>Really, I’m willing to work the heck out of what I can for as long as I’m there, she has already assured me a job in the company she works as a manager at, I guess it would be more affordable to pay in smaller rates but long term, rather than all at once, at least for someone like me. </p>
<p>I’ve studying for long hours for the TOEFL test and have already pictured my years of study there in my head, I don’t want to justify myself and again I know you’ve probably heard this plenty of times but I just feel like I want to do whatever it takes to make this come true, it’s very big to me.</p>
<p>How, exactly can this relative of yours promise you a job? Does she own the company? Has she hired enough people who required H1 visas so she is confident that she can hire you after you finish your education?That is what, six years from now? There is no telling what the labor laws will be like then! Is she telling you that you can work for her while you are still in college? If so, is she familiar with the regulations that govern where an international student can work, and the number of hours that they can work? It is not that easy.</p>
<p>If you were a US student asking about borrowing $50,000 over in the financial aid forum, the parents would be telling you that that is too much debt. You are an international student, so your chances of making money here are severely reduced. In your case, even $10,000 is probably too much debt.</p>