<p>It's been ages since last time I came to CC. This is probably gonna b a long boring post, but please bear with me.
I am a middle class girl from the third world (not-so-rich in american standards)
I went to a public high school & am self-taught everything from english to programming.. I just graduated this year.
We had no counselor in my school & I got no assistance preparing/ applying to universities in the US, so u can guess, I made a number of stupid decisions...
Anywho, I ended up with two rejections from MIT & uPenn, and two acceptances from Drexel & st.John's. I wanna go into mechE, so I chose Drexel. The problem however, is that even after a pretty big scholarship from Drexel, I still can't make it.
& probably, I won't be going to Drexel this fall without a sort of divine intervention..
now, here's the thing: where I come from, I could go to college almost for free (got real good grades, strong ECs & such). But if I went to college here, that'd be it for my chances at a better education in the US. Why? For short: colleges here SUCK. They barely take any transfers from here..
So my other option, is taking a gap year, and applying again nxt fall. I am not really in favor of that option, you see, because in the third world, your resources 4 doing something useful outside school/college, is really really limited..And there's always the concern: what if, I got rejected again. I'd have wasted a year for no apparent reason.
It seems like I'm stuck between a rock & a hard place: taking the risk in a gap year & hoping for better luck when I re-apply, or just forgetting this altogether & moving on.
I'd really appreciate your opinion (if you're still reading)
& good luck to all of y'all ;)</p>
<p>I agree with you that starting at a university at home with the intent to transfer is not be a good option. There’s virtually no financial aid at all for international transfer students.</p>
<p>Taking a gap year is a risk, but it may be your best option if you are serious about going abroad for college. Do you mind answering a few questions?
- How much money can you actually contribute to your education?
- Would you be willing to study anything other than engineering?
- Would you consider countries other than the US? </p>
<p>It’s difficult to get funding for an engineering degree. There’s much more financial aid for international students going into liberal arts, such as computer science, economics or physics. Even business majors like accounting or marketing are easier to fund. Is that something you’d be willing to consider?</p>
<p>I was also wondering if you’d be interested in studying in first-world countries other than the US. Universities in Germany, for example, are free to attend but you’d have to be able to fund your own cost of living. They also have a shorter application process than US universities: you could apply in May to start in the fall. If that would be an option, you could spend your gap year learning another language to give yourself a back-up plan if your US plans don’t work out again.</p>
<p>How much am I willing 2 contribute? Around $25k…$10k short of what I have to pay to Drexel.
My whole point of studying abroad, tho, was to get a top-notch, super awesome education…&& the US has THE best higher education in the whole world. And it’s one of the countries that give most financial aid to international students.
I considered studying in Germany before, and in fact, there was this college that gave full rides to almost every accepted international student (ECLA). I got in but they did not have an engineering program.
So I really don’t know about going into the liberal arts…I don’t know if I’ll do good at it anyway: I’m more of a science-y/math-y person.
I really don’t know…</p>
<p>
You have plenty of options if you can pay $25,000/year. A few universities have a cost of attendance below $25K/year (e.g. Brigham Young University). Some universities have scholarships for international students that bring your cost down to that level (e.g. Tulane or Lamar).</p>
<p>The question is if you’d care about any of those “safer” options. Cheap universities tend to be cheap for a reason. (BYU, for example, is funded by the Mormon Church and the Mormon culture penetrates all aspects of campus life.) And in order to get a merit-based scholarship, you’d have to attend a university “below your league.” Would you be happy attending a university where you are the smartest kid in most of your classes? </p>
<p>My point is that you have very safe options in the US and taking a gap year would not be a risk at all if you’d be willing to consider them. However, if the only American universities you are interested in are Ivies/Stanford/MIT, the gap year would be a huge gamble. </p>
<p>
You could study math or science at a liberal arts college, just not engineering.</p>
<p>
ECLA is an American liberal arts college in Germany. I meant German (or Swiss or …) public universities. If you don’t want to consider European universities, that’s fine too. I just wanted to throw the option out there.</p>
<p>US has a great undergrad system, but to make a blanket statement of “greatest higer education system in the world” is taking a hyperbole to an unreal level. Studying engineering is not like studying Shakespeare. Its pretty much an exact science. Will ANY engineering college in the US be better than one in your country? What will getting a degree in the US do for you in your country once you graduate? If your end result opportunities are similar, than maybe its not worth it. Again, this is engineering not liberal arts. Along the lines of engineering - have you tried the New York Institute of Technology? It used to be only engineering but now has many different profiles, but its part of the SUNY system and is much less expensive.</p>
<p>B@r!um would definitely know better than me here but from what I gather, ~6000 euros/year would be enough for one to live in Germany, although probably not in places like Hamburg or Munich. Accommodation for uni students is subsidised if one chooses to stay in one of the residence halls. (StudentenNetwerk, I believe it’s called)</p>
<p>
Barely enough to get by if you are already settled in. If you had to buy furniture or airfare on that budget, you’d be screwed.</p>
<p>wow, thank u guys 4 taking the time 2 reply 
</p>
<p>Yes, actually, I would mind very much. I don’t wanna sound like an arrogant prick, but I switched high school three times in four years in search for the most rigorous school. I enrolled into one of the best public school here, and I graduated salutatorian…Being the big fish in the lake will never push you past your limits, I believe. This is actually the major reason I so badly wanna study in a top-notch university; I like being challenged.
& about BYU, I’m not Mormon, not even Christian. Do non-Christians ever fit in Christian schools??</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I was being very precise in that claim: [What</a> Country Has the Best Higher Education System? - Education - GOOD](<a href=“http://www.good.is/post/what-country-has-the-best-higher-education-system/]What”>What Country Has the Best Higher Education System? - Good)
& around 70% of all top universities are located in the US, with the remaining 30% scattered across Europe and far eastern Asia…I come from the “developing” North Africa. & it actually is very obvious to me: Drexel University (not even a top school) recorded more patents last year than my country did in ten years COMBINED. Again, this is not “hyperbole”; I’m talking about the exact statistics.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree that science is the same everywhere. But engineering is a very practical field, meaning: we need labs & equipment more than books & lectures. Some labs here have not been updated since the 1980s. U really wanna know why US tech schools are better than schools here? American/first-world universities create the material that we will study five years later. where does the entire third world stand from top research institutes/universities that have access to unlimited funds and the most outstandingly genius minds across the globe?
Did I stress it enough that I come from a poor corrupt country that spends next-to-nothing on research or developing higher education?
There sure are some American universities that are worse than the ones in my country: probably a no-name school in the middle of Wyoming
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I want to come back and do research at a university. There has been initiative here to develop a world renowned research facility, and as you’d guess: they are badly in need for high educated people (who probably studied in one of the best schools worldwide)
There is where I hope I could make a change
</p>
<p>
nope, will definitely look into that, tho ;)</p>
<p>thanks again for reading my lengthy posts :)</p>
<p>
It depends on the school. Some religiously-affiliated schools are only nominally affiliated with their religion but enroll a very diverse student body, while others are all about their religion.</p>
<p>BYU is more in the second camp. While they are happy to accept non-Mormon students, every student is expected to abide by Mormon standard. That means no coffee or alcohol, a dress code, and rules on how to interact with the opposite gender. </p>
<p>
That’s okay. I was asking because I suspected that you’d draw a line somewhere. Now: where exactly is your line? How big or selective does an engineering program have to be for you to attend there?</p>
<p>One more question: how did you select the universities that you applied to? Did you choose universities specifically because they had funding opportunities for international students, or did you blindly apply to a few schools that you wanted to attend?</p>
<p>I read in an old post of yours that you applied to Drexel as a political science major. Why? It appears from their website that they have more scholarships for prospective engineers.</p>