Foreign Student Series: Paying for School in the US

Posted by thanhlt

February 8, 2010

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Governments are not the only ones having
to re-examine their budgets. The financial crisis has many families concerned
about how they will pay for college. This week in our Foreign Student Series,
we discuss costs for higher education for international students in the United
States.

Prices differ from school to school, but public
colleges and universities usually cost less than private ones.

Norlin Library at the University of Colorado at Boulder

A big state university in
the western United States will serve as our example. The University
of Colorado at Boulder has one thousand
two hundred international students from more than eighty countries.

Tina Tan is the director
of international student and scholar services. She says international students
are paying a total of forty thousand two hundred dollars for this academic
year. The university estimates that the cost for next year will increase by
four hundred dollars.

The university does
not offer financial aid to international students. This is generally true of
American schools, especially at the undergraduate level. Federal and state
financial aid can only go to American citizens.

The University of Colorado
does, however, offer some help for international students. For example, it
guarantees them the same tuition rate for all four years of undergraduate
study. And it offers four scholarships for international students with special
skills or talents.

Tina Tan says the federal
government requires international students to show on their applications how
they will pay for their first year of school. This evidence is a signed
statement from whoever is paying for it, and confirmation from a bank or
lawyer.

Some colleges might
require international students to show that they can pay for all four years.
But the University of Colorado
requires only evidence of financial support for the first year.

Educational advisers say foreign
students should keep enough money in a local bank to pay for at least two
months of spending. Students have to consider not just tuition but also
housing, meals, books and other costs including social activities.

Immigration rules restrict employment for international
students in the United States. So what kinds of jobs are they permitted to
have? That will be our subject next week.

And
that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts
and MP3s of the earlier reports in our Foreign Students Series are at
voaspecialenglish.com.