IMD Business School Switzerland Offers Scholarships for Chinese Students

IMD is one of the world’s top-ranked business schools, located on the shores of Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Truly global in scope, IMD has students from 98 different nationalities.  The application deadline for the two scholarships offered to students from China/Hong Kong is September 30.

Click the link below to learn more about the scholarship and how to apply:

http://www.internationalscholarships.com/IMD

IMD also offers scholarships to students from many other parts of the world, including developing countries.  Click the link above for more information.

Sources of Funds for International Students in the US

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

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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