Economy Tough on International Students
Posted on May 27, 2010
Filed Under International Financial Aid News, Study in the USA | Leave a Comment
A recent article in The Daily 49er, the online newspaper for Cal State Long Beach, explores how the poor economy impacts international students, amid drastic cuts in California public education, a weak job market and rising tuition costs. Cal State Long Beach attracts students from around the world. Here is an excerpt from the article:
“The down economy, cuts to the university’s budget and fee increases have affected students on many levels. Job-seeking international students have not been immune.
Last summer, the state reduced the 2009-2010 California State University budget by $571 million. Cal State Long Beach’s share of the cut was $44 million. Faculty and staff
furloughs were implemented, about 1,000 classes were cancelled, and tuition jumped by 30 percent from the 2008-2009 price. Nonresident student fees also increased.
“When you have an economic situation where money is really tight, you’re going to see a reduction in opportunities for everyone,” Inemesit Williams, study abroad adviser for the
Center for International Education (CIE), said. “On top of that, when at the same time you have in increase in fees, students are going to scramble to find ways to cover these new
costs.”
Last fall, there were 1,236 international students on campus. That is about 3.5 percent of the nearly 35,000-student population. They come from more than 40 countries from Australia, to Brazil and Zambia, with more than half from East or Southeast Asia. International students have either an F-1 student visa or a J-1 Exchange Visitor visa. Under U.S. law, these visas allow them to work on campus, or off campus in a field related to their studies for a set time during school and after graduation.
Those who aspire to work for several years need a company to sponsor their application for an H-1B Temporary Worker visa. As the U.S. Department of Labor defines it: “The H-1B
program allows an employer to temporarily employ a foreign worker in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant basis in a specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability.”
The spike in unemployment over the past year and a half in Southern California has increased the stakes for international students who want to land a long-term job. The
seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Los Angeles County was 12.4 percent in March, up from 7.9 percent in August 2008.
The Career Development Center (CDC) on campus has hosted workshops targeting international students. These include seminars on finding an internship and writing an American-style résumé. CDC Counselor Wayne Tokunaga stressed the importance of doing all one can to be marketable.
“If your experience is the exact same as a U.S. citizen’s, they don’t have to sponsor a U.S. citizen for H1B,” Tokunaga said. “They’ll just go with a U.S. citizen because it’s
easier.”
To read the rest of the article, click here.
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International Student Loan Launches New Website
Posted on May 14, 2010
Filed Under International Financial Aid News, International Student Loans, Study Abroad Loans | Leave a Comment
International Student Loan has re-launched its website, with a new loan matching system, improved navigation and an updated design. International students will now be matched to an appropriate loan product much more quickly, simplifying product selection and application.
Instead of requiring a student to navigate through the site to the appropriate loan product, now students can use the simple form to quickly find out if they are eligible to apply for a loan, and if so, what loan is appropriate. The new system will also allow International Student Loan to work more easily with multiple lenders, making sure that they can keep up with the rapidly changing market and deliver the best loan products to students.
The new site also has a cool new look – wider, with more images and a more current look. The content has been updated and added to, so students can get the information they need quickly.
For international students studying in the USA, and for US students studying overseas, the financing options are more limited than for domestic study. Through International Student Loan, students can apply for up to the total cost of education, minus any other aid received. A US co-signer is required for all international students and most US students.
Check out the new site: http://www.InternationalStudentLoan.com
About InternationalStudentLoan.com: InternationalStudentLoan.com is owned and operated by Envisage International Corporation and headquartered in Neptune Beach, Florida. As a NAFSA Global Partner and with an A+ Reliability Rating from the Better Business Bureau, InternationalStudentLoan.com has been helping students from all over the world achieve their goals of international education since 1998, and has become the leading destination for international education financing.
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International Student Concierge Service
Posted on May 10, 2010
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InternationalStudent.com has launched a brand new service for students who are looking for, and are researching, schools in the USA. The Concierge service allow students from all around the world to submit their details and then have schools throughout the USA contact you with more information about their school and the programs they offer.
Unlike searching for yourself through Google and other search sites, the Concierge service is designed to help you – by providing your details to schools who are interested in and looking to build their international student numbers.
The service is totally free, and is a great way to find information about schools – so submit your details today!
http://www.internationalstudent.com/concierge/
Sharing the American Dream
Posted on April 27, 2010
Filed Under International Student Loans, Study in the USA | Leave a Comment
This story from the online Daily O’Collegian, the Oklahoma State University newspaper, does a nice job of touching on most funding options open to international students in the US, and some of the hurdles they face.
If $40,000 does not come into Khanh Lu’s bursar account soon to pay for her OSU tuition, her dream of becoming an aerospace engineer will soon end. Lu, like many of the 16,000 international students at OSU, came to the United States expecting the American dream that she had seen on television back home in Vietnam. But if her family does not have the money to show they can pay her next year at OSU when she needs to enroll, she may have to go home a little sooner than she expected.
“It is difficult for me to concentrate on my studies sometimes because I worry about the financial burden I am putting on my family,” Lu, an aerospace engineering junior, said.
Click to read the rest of the story in the Daily O’Collegian.
US News and World Report Releases Annual Ranking of US Colleges and Universities
Posted on April 15, 2010
Filed Under International Financial Aid News, Study in the USA | Leave a Comment
Each year, US News and World Report ranks thousands of US colleges and universities based on a number of factors, school input and research. Although many critics continue to attack rankings in general and the US News approach in particular, there is no doubt that it is the most influential of all college rankings. (See our previous blog posts discussing problems with college rankings and an alternate approach to college ranking.)
Today, US News released their new rankings. Harvard and Stanford tied for number one overall among US business schools, while Thunderbird Global School of Management took top honors in the International speicalty among US business schools. MIT was tops for engineering graduate schools; Yale for law school; Harvard for medical school – research, and the University of Washington (Seattle) for medical school – primary care.
For national undergraduate university rankings, Harvard and Princeton tied for top honors.
Many of the top names will be familiar to international students; however, there are many other categories of rankings that showcase excellent schools that may not be so well known around the world. For instance, Bowdoin College and Pomona College are tied for 6th in the Liberal Arts category – excellent, well-respected schools in the US, but not as well known internationally; and St. Mary’s College of Maryland and New College of Florida are ranked 4th and 5th among public liberal arts schools.
To see all of the rankings and data, visit www.USNews.com/rankings.
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Sources of Funds for International Students in the US
Posted on March 5, 2010
Filed Under International Scholarships, International Student Loans, Study in the USA | Leave a Comment
Each year, the Institute of International Education publishes the Open Doors Report, packed full of information about international students in the US, US students abroad and trends in international education.
One of the tables I check out each year is the Primary Source of Funds table. This shows the primary source of education funding for international students in the US, and it really has not changed much over the past five years. The online table is great, and shows that most international students at US colleges and universities still must rely on their own funds to pay for their education — like family funds, loans and savings.
But the printed report is even better, as it breaks the data down by academic level. IIE just released the full printed 2009 Open Doors Report, and the data shows that the overwhelming majority (81.9%) of international undergraduates in the US are self-funded, while less than half (48.8%) of international graduate students cite personal and family funds as their primary source of funding.
The next set of numbers shows how those graduate students are funding their education – with help from their school. 43.3% of international graduates receive their primary funding from their US College or University, while the number is only 9.1% for undergraduates.
Here’s the full data table from the 2009 Open Doors Report showing the primary source of funds for international undergraduate and graduate students in the US:
| Primary Source of Funds | % undergraduate | % graduate |
| Personal & Family | 81.9 | 48.8 |
| U.S. College or University | 9.1 | 43.3 |
| Home Government/University | 3.9 | 3.1 |
| U.S. Government | 0.3 | 0.8 |
| U.S. Private Sponsor | 1.4 | 0.9 |
| Foreign Private Sponsor | 2.1 | 1 |
| International Organization | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Current Employment | 0.2 | 1 |
| Other Sources | 1 | 0.8 |
| Total | 100 | 100 |
Graduate students are much more likely to receive financial assistance from their school, often in the form of assistantships, research grants, etc., whereas very few undergraduates receive any form of aid from their school. This information is quite helpful as you set expectations about how to pay for an international education. There are scholarships for undergraduates, but far fewer than the financing opportunities available to graduate students.
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International Student Financing in 2010
Posted on January 5, 2010
Filed Under International Scholarships, International Student Loans | 1 Comment
As we did last year, we would like to provide a quick update as we start 2010 for international students looking to finance an education in the US. We begin 2010 in a much more settled position that we did 2009, with loans available, but still with constraints to education financing as a fallout from the worldwide economic turmoil over the past two years.
Although many lenders have gone out of business or canceled their international student loans, and private loans in general have been cut back dramatically, International Student Loan has loans available to international students in the US. These loan programs require a co-signer with excellent credit, and require “school certification.” Visit International Student Loan and click the Apply Now button to begin your online application.
There are no longer any direct-to-consumer, non-school certified private student loans available to anyone. These DTC loans – ones that did not need to be certified by your school, and therefore could process very quickly and let you borrow more than the total amount that your school permits – were very popular with international and US students. But because of perceived and actual abuse, DTC student loans are gone and may not come back any time soon.
For international students, the basics of sound education financing become even more important. Those basics haven’t changed:
1. Be very realistic about your budgeting and financial needs, and choosing a college that is within your budget. Visit these two posts to see more on being realistic about your choice of college and setting an accurate school budget.
2. Consider a community college for the first two years of your education. Visit this post to learn how international students save money at community colleges.
3. Get as much in scholarships as you can. Start with your school, your government, and look online on sites like International Education Financial Aid.
4. If you need loans, check with International Student Loan and your school about the availability of a loan program for you.
Best of luck as we begin 2010. From an international education financing perspective, things are much better than last year, but we still have a long way to go to make an international education affordable to anyone with the initiative to pursue one!
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International Students in USA, US Students Abroad, both at all-time high
Posted on November 30, 2009
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
International Students in the USA
The number of international students studying at colleges and universities in the USA (2008/2009 schoolyear) increased by 8% to 671,616, and the number of US students abroad (2007/2008 school year) increased by 8.5% to 262,416. Both the inbound and outbound totals, released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in its annual Open Doors Report on November 16, 2009, are all-time highs. The report stresses that any impact from the global economic downturn may not be reflected in these numbers, as the commitment to study overseas was made prior to last fall for most of these students.
For international students in the USA, Canada overtook Japan for fourth place but otherwise the top five sending countries remain the same:
India 103,260 +9.2%
China 98,235 +21.1%
South Korea 75,065 +8.6%
Canada 29,697 +2.2%
Japan 29,264 -13.9%
India and China continue their dramatic growth, as enrollment by Chinese students in the US increased 21.1%, while Indian student enrollment grew by 9.2%.
The University of Southern California remained the top single destination for international students, with 7,482 international students.
For more information and data regarding international student enrollment in the USA, see the Open Doors press release and the international student data tables.
US Students Abroad
Although Western European destinations continue to be most popular for US students abroad, with England, Italy, Spain and France taking the top four spots, China, India and several other countries continue to grow in popularity. Shorter-term programs are very popular, and there are 23 US colleges that send 80% or more of their students abroad. IIE releases tons of information and statistics, so feel free to follow the links below to learn all you want about the enrollment of US students abroad.
For more information and data regarding US students abroad, see the Open Doors Press Release and the study abroad data tables.
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4th Annual InternationalStudent.com Travel Video Contest – $3500 Grand Prize!
Posted on September 18, 2009
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InternationalStudent.com is excited to announce the launch of the fourth annual InternationalStudent.com Travel Video Contest! Prizes are bigger than ever – the Grand Prize is $3,500 and there will be other great prizes, like an iPod Touch and a video camera. Not to mention worldwide fame and fortune in the international education community with your very own blog on InternationalStudent.com.
The contest is pretty simple. Simply make a video and submit it. Your video can be no longer than 5 minutes long; there is no minimum length. For those already studying outside of their home country, the video can describe any trip you’d like to take. For those who are not currently studying abroad, but who would like to, your video must describe your proposed study abroad. Click here for more information on how to enter.
Entries will be judged by the judges panel on creativity, video production and editing quality, originality and interest level in the proposed trip or study abroad, and pure subjectivity. on our part.
For more information and to enter, go to:
http://www.InternationalStudent.com/contest/
International Student Loans Now All School Certified
Posted on August 11, 2009
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Over the past few years, there have been two main types of private loans, including those private loans available to international students. The first are called “school certified” (or school channel, in lender terms) and the second are called “direct to consumer” loans (DTC in lender terms).
Direct to Consumer Loans
With direct to consumer international student loans, the school is not really involved in the loan process at all. The student has to prove that he or she is enrolled in a school approved by the lender, typically by submitting a class schedule or letter of acceptance; however, the school itself does not need to do anything. The student can borrow the amount that the student decides is needed, up to a maximum set for that school by the lender, and the lender doesn’t care or know what other funds the student may have available. The upside is that these loans are very flexible, very fast in processing, and typically paid directly to the student. The downside is that they are easier to abuse and get in trouble by borrowing too much, as there is no school involved in determining exactly how much the student needs to borrow to afford his or her education. Often direct to consumer loans have higher interest rates and fees than school channel loans as well – the difference can be minor or major.
School Certified Loans
In school certified or school channel loans, the financial aid office is involved in determining exactly how much a student can borrow. The school looks at all of the student’s available funds, scholarships, other aid or loans, etc., and sets a maximum borrowing amount that could be far lower than the maximum total permitted for a school. For instance, as a very rough example, if a school had a total maximum annual cost of attendance of $30,000, then a student with no personal or family funds available and no other aid could borrow up to $30,000. However, if the school determined that the family should pay $5,000 per year and the student received a scholarship for $10,000 per year, then the student would only be approved to borrow $15,000 per year. For this reason, school channel loans are harder to abuse by borrowing too much, usually offer lower interest rates than DTC loans, but are less flexible and take longer. Funds are disbursed to the school, not the student.
DTC Loans No Longer Available
Over the past 18 months, as a result of the credit crunch and student loan legislation, most (if not all) direct to consumer private student loans have disappeared, and all direct to consumer international student loans have certainly disappeared. Only school channel international student loans are left, including on InternationalStudentLoan.com.
This means that it is even more important to work through your school, plan carefully, and only budget to borrow the smallest possible amount you need – as that is all the school will certify you for anyway. ANd start your process earlier, as it takes time to process a school channel loan. The lender and school each have to do their part in evaluating your eligibility for a loan and the amount you can take, and this extends the process.
Click here to learn about the international student loans available through InternationalStudentLoan.com.
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