The US University system

[Abu]

'course it will. As an EU citizen it isn't hard at all.

No it won't. Being EU is good sure, but the US doesn't care. The immigration and DHS department have 3 aims: To torture everybody, refuse visas for no reason and to take extra unneeded unjustified time to process applications.

Get out of your EU dream world.

[heronumbazero]

getting a visa to the USA is so hard. getting citizenship is even harder.

I heard you can not apply for financial aid unless you have a visa there? is that true? but what if you apply and then get your visa? (for financial aid)?

[IBStuck]

To clarify: If you are not a US citizen, permanent resident or non-alien citizen (is that the correct phrase? it was definitely something weird with ''alien'' in it) or refugee, then you will never get need-based aid (financial aid from the US government). If you are international (international = foreigner), then the only types of aid you can get from an american university are merit-based awards etc. so your achievements matter most. You can't even take out a loan in the US if you're on a student visa, another american citizen must verify (thus sign) that you will pay the loan back in order to get a loan.

It really does suck, but on top of that, you need to show your financial documents to prove to the university that you can afford at least your first year in the US university (that includes the aid the university MAY give you) in order to get a visa from the uni.

That's why many foreigners who want to study in the US avoid public schools (although they are cheaper, there is no way to get financial aid out of them) and attempt to get into the private (more expensive) schools since these provide financial aid. If you can ever get in an Ivy League (any Ivy League? Please someone clarify) school, then you don't have to worry about finances. But getting in is another problem.

your terminolgy is all right. (yes we call you aliens, but we don't me your are from space ), but i think it is non-alien resident, or that might be something different all together. there are too many different terms

Sclolrships that you would qualify for would be merti-based. you wouln't qualify for government scholoships.

if you are not a US citizen you cannot get a loan here unless you have a cosigerner (a US citizen has to sign it with you saying that you will pay it back and if you don' thn that cosigner will pay it back- which is why it would be hard to find someone to sign it with you).

you cannot qualify for "need-based" scholarships unless you are a US citizen because those are decided off of FAFSA (Free Application for Student Federal Aid or something like that), and i believe you need a social security number(SSN) to fill them out, and if you are not a US citizen you will not have a SSN, and is it from the federal goiverment so i beleieve that you have to be a US citezen anyway.

Public schools do offer some scholarships for international students, but you would have to check eachs schools website. all US school like to say we have this many student for such and such a country (every school that i looked at said this to me). i don't know too much about Ivey League school, but i am sure thtye would have scholorships too, but you would, again, have to check the website. you can also call the schools and ask to talk to the finacla aid office about scholorships that they have availiabe for prospective internatinal freshmen. but IVey or Private will be much more expensive than a public school, so you would have to w\eigh you oprtions.i think in any situation you would have to worry about finances.