Studying in the USA

Here are the answers to your questions:

Would you recommend studying abroad in the USA?
It all depends if you want to study and a degree or not. I would say yes if you want to get a degree such as Bachelors, Masters or PhD. If you want to come to learn English or just do your high school here I would not recommend it. Depending on where you are living it might be cheaper to do in Europe.

Learning English here would be good but you would have to choose a city and a school where people speak only English to be able to learn. A lot of people go to Miami thinking that it Florida nice place to live. Yes it is a nice place to live but most of the people speak Spanish. Some think to think about.

Universities on the other hand are amazing but very expensive. Unless your family can afford or your government helps to pay it is next to impossible to get a scholarship unless to are in the top 5% of your class in High School.

Would you encourage them to come and study in the USA?
I would encourage people to study here as I did yes.

What are the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country/area?
Well all this can be found online thees is a list of the top 100 universities in the country.
For me as I live in Florida, it would depend on the Subject you are intending to study. I went to Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne Florida for Engineering. But UCF, Rollins College, etc... are great universities.

Are these free of charge?
None of the universities I know of are free. There are possibilities of work study but you will have to search and see with each university.

Are the tuition fees expensive?
Yes tuition is expensive at most universities colleges are cheaper but there is a higher rate for foreigners. Each University web site can give you this information. You have to watch also which city you go to like New York living is much more expensive then living in Florida.

Are there many foreign students enrolled in these schools/colleges/universities?
Yes lots of foreigners enroll in universities in the United States of America. The education and the extra curricular activities are essential for student to find what they want to work in after they graduate and this helps them choose if they want to specialize and go for a masters or a Phd. For me it was the best thing I ever did, is to study in the US.

What is the main language of instruction at the university?
Main language is English

Again this is my experience maybe others might think differently.

Politically Correct Answer is:   Yes and NO (It depends).

If for Masters or PhD, or heavy technical subjects:
answer is YES.
It is still worth it to study in USA.

If just Undergraduate, or you are just pursuing some
stupid or useless field-of-study:
answer is NO.
There is high probability whatever you can study
in USA can be studied at 1/10 the price in your
home country, anyway. So don't bother coming to USA.

USA charges more than US$10,000 for tuition alone.
If you add living expenses, then you can easily spend
almost US$20,000 per semester.
So make sure what you are studying in USA is worth
paying the money for -- otherwise, USA has become
a cesspool to go to school.  Don't waste your money in USA.

Go study in Slovenia, or in many Scandinavian countries
where tuition is free.  You will love it much better there.

Yes, I would recommend studding is the USA as an alternative to your national education system.
However, in some countries is probably cheaper and better to study compare to US. There are many factors, but the biggest one is money. If you have money, you can study at the best schools around the world not just in US. Ivy league schools are prestigious but expensive. Schools in Europe are not bad at all and in many cases much cheaper than US. Hope my answer helps you understand the pro's and con's.
Nikola

I would say Yes because US education increase your confidence, while most Asian or European education system don't. You will be more open and your perspective will be changed a lot. You will have more classroom engagements and opportunities to do lot of things. Good luck.

Hello everybody,

I hope this message finds you well.

Whether I would advise a student to go to US would merely depend on what the student plans to do, if a person plans to come to the USA to study with the purpose to acquire a professional experience before she comes back to her country, then I would highly advise her to go to another country other than US where there are far better opportunities for international students than USA offers.

In US you only are allowed to work 20 hours on campus but not outside. As many students apply for positions inside the campus, your chances are little to be hired.

As an international student, once you finish your studies and graduate, you are allowed to work for one year (it is called OPT) then come back to your country unless you are a STEM graduate student graduating in Computer Science for instance, which will give you 3 years to work instead of one.

However, based on my friends' experiences and mine, the ugly reality is that the American system laughs at and dupes international students and takes advantage of them, it absorbs their money then sends them back to their countries. As a graduate student with a double Associate Degree in Business Administration and in Economy + a double Bachelor Degree in Global Supply Chain management and in Business Administration, I consider I paid a huge amount of money that I could have used for things more important.

The trick is that from one end, the government grants you generally 1 year to work in your field of studies after you graduate, while on the other end, most companies are not interested in F-1 or OPT students who are ready to work for just a year, thus rejects them, which means you are in between and you may have no choice but leave sooner than a year as you are not allowed to stay over 90 days unemployed. Companies do not want to train people who are going to leave them after a short period of time, they need someone who will stick with them. Most of the times, you will not get a professional experience during this year, not due to lack of skills or experience, but because you are neither a Citizen nor a Green Card holder. To check whether my words are true, go to any website where companies hire, 95% of the time if not more, you'll find them displaying a note in their employment application, generally in the bottom, saying clearly that "IF YOU ARE NOT A CITIZEN OR A GREEN CARD HOLDER, DO NOT APPLY" or while you fill the application, you'll be asked whether you'll need "SPONSORSHIP" in the future. If you say YES, then you are OUT.

I have some friends of mine who have extensive professional experience in their field of studies like Finance, they received calls numerous times from companies interested in their profiles. When they got asked about their status, and they answer with "F-1 or OPT", the recruiters immediately apologize telling them that they do not accept international students or F-1 graduate students.

The best scenario ever that can happen to you is to get a company that is willing to sponsor you, which is rare in US, if you get to compare it with the majority of countries in Europe for example where sponsorship is a common practice. This scenario happened to me, I had a company that was willing to help me stay in US and work for them by sponsoring me. What happens when a company wants to sponsor you, they apply for you for a visa called H1B every first week of April once a year, at that moment you work (if your OPT is still valid) and you wait for the results where 65,000 H1b applicants are chosen. If you are among the ones who got picked up, CONGRATULATIONS! you are on an H1B VISA and you can focus solely on your job. Nonetheless, if you don't get chosen in the H1B lottery that year, you have to keep on studying full-time along with your full-time job to stay legal after your OPT expires until you get picked up in the lottery (It may take 1 year as it may take several years, or perhaps never). In other words, you are welcome to work as long as you keep on spending your money bombarding yourself with useless theory.

In my case, the disadvantage I had is that my OPT (1 year) was about to expire in approximately 3 months, so for you as an international student to keep on working legally after this 1 year period (only if the company is willing to sponsor you, thus apply for you for the H1B visa) is to apply for a university and keep on studying things you may wish or not wish to study, because you have no choice. After thinking deeply, I found out it is like pouring water over the sand as I was going to earn some money from one side and spend it on "education" just to stay legal. That's what I would call pure SLAVERY.

If a person would like to go to US to learn English, I would highly encourage you to do so. However, you must be careful on which institutions you are planning to attend, for many friends of mine have attended schools like EF School, and they have told me that practically they do not learn anything substantial. At the end of the program, they provide certificates to people certifying they have mastered the English language, while I remember a friend of mine (a Swiss guy) I used to know could not even formulate one sentence correctly after 7 months studying there. This kind of schools do not care much about what you learn, it's all about business, as long as you pay the money, they'll give you a certificate to please you and delude you into thinking you learned something. As a result, If you are serious about learning English, then I would strongly advise you to go for a semester in a community college or in a university, it is more loaded and more strict. In my humble opinion, that is where you are going to learn English for real.

The only case I would advise someone to come and study at a university would be if you want to live in US and found your family there by getting married before you finish your degree so that you can be able to take advantage of the opportunities out there, such as paying far less than what international students pay, get financial aid, be able to work outside the campus while studying etc...

To close this long subject, I don't think at all that the American education is any different than many other countries' educational systems, except that it may be easier from the standpoint where you do not have to learn everything by heart to go to the exams. It's all about essays and quizzes. But believe me, in the majority of majors, once you get out, you will probably retain nothing in your brain. I believe that education in America has been overpraised and is quite expensive than deserved while I can guarantee you that the BEST SCHOOL or UNIVERSITY is what You learn by YOURSELF.

If you want to spend money on education, go to Australia, New Zealand, Canada or many other countries in Europe that offer great opportunities for international students while they are studying as well as after they graduate, they may even help you become a citizen to fully enjoy the benefits one of these countries offer to their citizens, not just like in US (USE YOU and THROW YOU AWAY).

I am not discouraging you to not go to United States, it is a great country to visit and experience, but NOW you KNOW what many people would never tell you, that is the bitter truth. After all, It's up to you to make your decision. It is out of love that I am writing all of this, for I wish I knew this before I came to US. However, I do not regret the fact I went there, for it was a great experience. I hope this helps.

Thank you!

Studying in the USA, definitely a big  Y E S.
1. If you have the necessary grades  a n d  your parents can effort to pay for the expensive tuition fees and living costs, chose  o n l y  prestigious Colleges in the U.S. and  n o t only  State or Community Colleges.
2. For our 2 daughters who studied 4 years at WELLESLEY COLLEGE at WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSSETTS we spent +/- US$ 160,000.-- for each.
3. In the 1980/90s with US$ 160,000.-- you can buy a Brand New 3 BR, 2 Bath House with 2 car Garage
in Orlando, Florida, just to open your eyes what spending US$ 160,000.-- in 4 years meant.
4. It is however definitely worth the money spent !
5. Reason ?: Our 2 daughters became sophisticated, independent Ladies in life, who have the respect of their husbands, in-laws -highly important in life- and in the U.S. society where they live, of which we parents can be very proud of.  On top of all, immediate after graduating, got highly paid jobs at prestigious U.S. Corporations  a n d  earning more than their husbands -also a highly important factor in the U.S. to get respect-, until today.
6. I f  your kids have brain but parents cannot afford to pay for the expensive U.S. College tuition fees and living costs - do not worry at all !!!- send kids to study in prestigious Universities in GERMANY.
It is  f r e e to study at prestigious Universities in Germany. Yes you read it right: ITS FREE TO STUDY
AT PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITIES IN GERMANY. Like myself in 1969  a n d  the beauty ?:
You can also easily get employment in Germany nowadays, while German Government will now
-which was  n o t  in the 1970s,80s and 90s- grant foreigners with German Universities Diplomas Permanent and Working Residentships.
Another great fact: International operating German Companies in China, Indonesia, U.S.A., Australia
etc. much more prefer to employ German University graduates, than local graduates.
7. Last but not least suggestion: LET YOUR KIDS TAKE I.T. , as it is in high demand all over the
world nowadays.

Hello
First of all I'm from Kosovo,from a country that the conditions aren't good for people who want to arrive something for their future.I'm 16 years old,in high school learning for economy.Till now I made everything myself.I worked everything even why I was little to work, just to go to school.Now I stopped working.Seeing the situation in Kosovo,hopes for a good future are dying every day and more.I want with all my heart to study somewhere else out of my country,specially in USA that's why I learned already the English language.But well the conditions made my dream not reality.For the end,I want to give a message for all the students that have conditions to work and to study for the future,come on work because somebody wants to be in your place.

Yes would like to know more about education for foreigners in Japan.