Dear Thuy,

On behalf of the MBA in Design Strategy faculty I am pleased to offer you admission to the California College of the Arts (CCA) for the term beginning this fall 2012. Your application to the graduate program was selected from a strong pool of applicants. We believe the world of business is changing and that you will add in significant creative and intellectual contribution to it … It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the CCA community. Congratulations!

This is the admission letter I recently received from the MBA program in Design Strategy at CCA. You might be wondering what happened to my current study at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) and why I decided to apply for a new school.

Actually, I was excited to start my master’s degree at CSUF at the beginning of this school year.

Pieces of my life at CSUF

The program is an accelerated 16 months MBA program, so you get your MBA degree earlier than other 2-year MBA programs.  I have learned a lot of really worthy things from it this year, such as how to improve my networking skills, and it gave me a great chance to explore South America on an international field trip.
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Being a student in the U.S. is different in a lot of ways than what I experienced back in Russia.  Classes are taught differently, schools are run differently, and grades are doled out differently – some for the good and some for the bad.  Here are the top 10 things I’ve had to adjust to as a student in America.  Would they be as different for you?

1. Your grades are private

Louis Shackleton bucks the trend and posts his first semester grades

While in the U.S. students’ grades are not revealed to the whole class, in Russia it is the opposite. It is common for a Russian professor to announce students’ grades publicly in the presence of the whole class. It is also common for Russian professors to put a list of students’ names and grades next to the names on their office door, so everyone at the university can see the students’ grades.

» Read more about why Americans don’t share their grades publicly

2. Your parents are not involved in your academics

Another policy in line with the previous point is the habit of colleges in Russia to call or write letters to students’ parents if students do not do well academically. This is what American students would probably take as a violation of their privacy.
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If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that each Friday we search the entire internet (from “a” right through “∞”) to find online events and webinars happening in the upcoming week that you might want to attend.

Well, we couldn’t find any for this week (and we even searched all the way through ∞+1), so we decided to hold our own.  All week we’ll be taking and answering your questions about studying in America (more details here).

So here we go with question #1…

How much does studying in America cost?

Feridun asked about the cost of studying in the U.S., and particularly of studying English.

I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but the answer is that there is no answer.  Or, more precisely, the cost varies VERY widely.

Take an undergraduate education.  The “sticker price” (cost of tuition + fees) can range from $59,170 (Sarah Lawrence College) down to $0 (Berea College).  According to the College Board, the average tuition is $20,770 for a public university and $28,500 for a private one.

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The New York Times’ “The Choice” blog has been holding a Q&A about financial aid, and we asked their financial aid expert (Mark Kantrowitz of finaid.org) whether he had any advice for international students. He gave a matter of fact (and not-so-rosy) picture of what foreign students can expect in terms of assistance:

Before a student can obtain an F-1, J-1 or M-1 visa, the student must demonstrate that he or she has sufficient resources to cover the cost of his or her education. An F-1 visa requires the student to demonstrate that he or she has enough money to pay for the first year of study, though some colleges will require students to demonstrate that they have enough money to cover the entire stay in the United States. Students entering on an M-1 or J-1 visa must demonstrate that they have enough money to cover the entire stay in the United States.

Don’t count on being able to earn the rest of the money after you arrive in the United States. International students and their spouses are not allowed to work while in the United States on a student visa except in very limited circumstances.

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All U.S. universities are now required to provide net cost calculators on their website, which estimate what a prospective student can expect to pay using estimates of total cost and potential financial aid. But, here’s your friendly reminder that (like the Department of Education’s net cost lists) this tool is not optimized for international students.

In a previous post we analyzed the differences between average net costs for domestic and international students, and came up with our own estimates of average net cost at various universities.  There are also other resources to find average net cost for international students, like the College Board International Student Handbook,  and there’s a good analysis of the most generous schools for international students at internationalcounselor.org.

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I had the great pleasure today to join VOA Learning English for a live video chat about studying in the U.S. A lot of you submitted questions in advance on Facebook, and we took some Skype calls during the chat as well.

It was a great time and we covered a lot of topics, including what it costs, how to get scholarships, what you have to do to get a visa, whether international students are allowed to work, and how to improve your English.

Watch it again here:

UPDATE: The video’s now annotated to help you find the important parts and skip over the rest. Put your cursor over the thin blue lines to see what questions we discussed and navigate directly to what you want to hear.

I had a total “brain fart” (memory loss) on the question of what’s considered a good TOEFL score. We actually discussed that in the blog post “What are Typical Application Deadlines and TOEFL Requirements?,” so go there for the answer.

Did we answer your questions?  What other questions do you have about studying in the U.S.?

In the summer of 2007 I, a high school graduate in Russia, spent hours on the Internet in search of a cheap summer school in the United States. I had been studying English for a couple of years, but I never had a chance to practice it with native speakers. Summer school seemed like a good opportunity, but the average cost was unimaginably high for my family.

I did not find a cheap summer school then, but I discovered something a hundred times more valuable. I learned about an exchange program called Global UGRAD, which offers students the chance to go to a university in the United States for one academic year, pursue an internship, and engage in community service – for free.

Preparing for Halloween at Southern Maine Community College

I applied in my first year of college, and after a few rounds of the competition, I was selected as one of the 20 finalists. I spent my year at Southern Maine Community College, located nicely on the beach.

The Global UGRAD Program also allows its applicants to choose any major, regardless of what they study at their home universities. I took advantage of this policy and picked something I was really passionate about but never had a chance to study – International Affairs.

When I came back to my home university, I knew I wanted to change my major from Marketing to International Affairs. Because of institutional bureaucracy it turned out to be practically impossible. Moreover, this exchange experience made me very sensitive to the differences in Russian and American education systems. I began to notice disadvantages of education in Russia that I didn’t notice before.

So I started to think about continuing my studies in the U.S.  But despite my academic experiences there, I still had very little knowledge about applying to American universities. I did not even know at that point in time that transferring from a university in Russia to a university in the United States was possible. I started my research from literally nothing.

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Screenshot from the Department of Education's College Affordability and Transparency Center

The U.S. Department of Education recently launched a great new website, the College Affordability and Transparency Center, designed to help students get information about the cost of an undergraduate college education.

One of the neatest features is a little tool that lets you look at lists of institutions with the highest/lowest tuition and highest/lowest net prices. The net cost lists are particularly interesting – they take into account all the costs of attending university (tuition, fees, housing, books, etc.) and subtract the average amount of aid received in order to find out the true average cost for a student.

But international students beware. That list of net costs only applies to domestic students – and for public colleges, it only applies to in-state or in-district students. Some colleges DO offer a lot of aid to international students, and make an effort to keep the net cost low, but they may not be the same colleges that offer a low net cost to domestic students or state residents.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the top 10 highest and lowest net cost lists you’d get using the college cost tool, and the top 10 for international students, based on our calculations.  You can see right away that the results are quite different for international students.

1) Lowest Net Cost

4-year Private Non-Profit Institutions:

4-year Public Institutions:

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Acceptance letters (Creative commons photo by Flickr user Adrian Ho)

The final, and possibly most important, of our recaps looks back at the most informative posts we’ve done over the past year. If you’re just discovering this blog or just starting to think about studying in the U.S., these posts will be a good way to start.

Top 5 most informative posts:

#1) Applying to Schools

From deciding to study in America to waiting for the results of your application, this post walks through all the basic steps of applying, including stories from our bloggers about their experiences.

Also see:
First Steps: Deciding to Come to the US is the Easy Part

#2) Exploring Financial Aid and Funding Options

There are so many more sources of aid and scholarships than you may think.  This post helps you get started understanding your options, and shares the various routes pursued by our bloggers to afford their education.

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The New York Times has spent the past few months following the journeys of several high school seniors as they apply to college for a series called “The Choice.”  Somehow we missed this before, but one of those students is an international student from Mongolia!  In her series of blog posts, Uyanga Tamir has written about how her need for financial aid influenced her decision of where to apply:

Additionally, most colleges require international students to provide their own tuition. Only the top schools consider an international student’s application without looking at his or her financial circumstance.

This is why colleges like Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth are on my list; they are need-blind to international students and meet the fully demonstrated needs of every admitted student.

She also discussed the process of applying to schools outside the U.S., where tuition was lower and scholarships were more plentiful, and most recently wrote about her decision to matriculate at Princeton University (my alma mater!).

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College students and faculty protest at the State Capitol in Sacramento, California (Photo: REUTERS/Max Whittaker)

Before coming to the U.S., I had the myth in my mind that American students are all rich financially and can afford a college education very easily. Or if American students are unable to pay their fee then having an American nationality solves all their problems and government provides them free education. I also thought no one needs to protest in the States, as people get all the rights very easily and they need not to worry about anything.

Back in Pakistan once I read Franklin D. Roosevelt’s quote, “The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize,” and Mark Twain’s statement, “Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail.” I started believing ….. American youth are so lucky and blessed that their policy makers know the vision and importance of education. Unlike developing countries, America doesn’t need to compromise education budget over defense budget.

But while staying here I realized that reality is quite the contrary. Although a certain percentage of American college students do come from wealthy families and have large expendable incomes, most American college students come from moderate-income families. Most American students enter college knowing they must apply for loans, work part-time, and earn scholarships in order to meet their financial obligations.

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It’s not as scientific a measure as most viewed or most commented, but here my top 5 favorite posts our bloggers wrote in 2010.  Although, let’s be clear, all the bloggers are amazing, and picking out just 5 feels really unfair.  As a bonus, I’m also including my top 5 favorite “Question of the Week”-style posts.

My top 5 favorite blogger posts:

# 5) On Colours of American Armour, or Why I Refuse to AmericaniSe my Spelling, by Nareg

I shall definitely “graduate” in May, and not “pass out”, as I would have in India. Although, the exhausting way we work here at St. John’s College, it may end up being a little of both.

# 4) Rethinking Democracy, by Sebastian

But something I found interesting is the fact that voting day here in Kansas is just like any other week day, and if someone doesn’t vote, there is no penalty for that.

# 3) A Personal Take on “Americanization,” by Nick

On my plate was a sizable cheese burger, sitting on top of a bunch of curly fries, accompanied by plenty of ketchup and pickle slices to round up the over-packed plate.

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Starting at a community college and then transferring to a 4-year institution can help international students save money and ease into American-style education, according to EducationUSA advisor Lubna Anwar in an article for Pakistan’s Express Tribune.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/78277/community-colleges-an-affordable-springboard-to-educational-success/

How do you pay for your U.S. education?  Should you apply to a selective exchange or study abroad program?  Look for scholarships?  Take out loans?  Will you get your aid from the U.S. government, your school or a private company?

There are many options and many decisions, and this month our bloggers spent some time writing about how they did their research and figured out how to afford their U.S. studies.

Get Your Information Right

Rudro says he almost gave up his opportunity to study in the U.S. because he didn’t think he could afford it and didn’t know what his options were for finding funding. So let’s dispel some of the myths that colored Rudro’s decision-making.

[Read Rudro’s full post on what he wishes he'd known about financial aid]

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