Bob

Yeah, that's fair enough, but if you want to go to a decent school, somewhere out of state, it'll be a lot more....the missus, tuition alone cost $40K a year, but that included accomodation and breakfast....
And my old place, if you didn't get the LEA, would cost £16K a year on tuition, plus accomodation and food etc...so it is easy getting into debt and not living it up...

fatbrit

Think you're giving up without looking for alternatives! My wife is just completing her Master's and her work footed virtually the whole bill. One of the criteria when she chose who to work for was their tuition reimbursement policy as she knew she wanted to carry on studying. There are also plenty of scholarships going about...

IMHO it really isn't necessary to get so far into debt with your education; rather it is a choice.

jjmb

Yes I am sure that most american students with parental help, scholarships and jobs can manage to keep their debts to a reasonable level whilst they are at undergraduate level. However, increasingly, jobs are requiring people to have studied to masters level, so that is when the debt becomes more of a troublesome concern.

Unfortunately, my daughter being on an L2 visa isn't able to work yet but once the GC come through she is more than willing to work as well as study. She has done her homework and although she is still in her 2nd yr, she knows what to expect and fortunately, as she is going into the medical arena, she know that she will be able to pay back those debts. I don't think I was as sensible and realistic as she is at 19. She even managed to get as many dual credits as possible to reduce the cost and time she was in undergraduate school. Jeez I still did't know what I wanted to do by that age or even now, for that matter

My daughter's boyfriend nearing the end of his degree is beginning to look into his job prospects (I know he is a bit slow of the mark!) and to be honest, his best bet is to intern for free for at least year. Then he might stand a chance of being considered for the next lowest position. When he told me that is what he had been told, I was quite frankly disbelieving. Then I met a friend's sister who is the managing director of an graphic design company and she confirmed that was indeed true. She said she would never even consider employing a graduate straight from university as for at least the first year they have to retrain them.

As for the original post about American teenagers being a needy group, I don't think it is just American teenagers, it just the same in the UK. As the saying goes "you reap what you sow", so we shouldn't be blaming the kids so much as the parents (and I include myself in this) who have indulge this generation.

dunroving

I'm not sure whether you are saying your daughter is already a master's student, but anyway, you don't have to be a USC or have a GC to work while studying in the US. I believe international students can work on-campus - and at the graduate level, assistantships are available that, at some schools, cut costs considerably. For example, University of Georgia (state school, and a very good one, too) pays all tuition (even out-of-state) and around 10,000 p.a. wages for working 13 hrs per week (I'm talking a graduate assistantship).

So, salary plus free out-of-state and in-state tuition comes to almost 20,000 p.a., for 13 hrs work per week. Can't sneeze at that. That works out at about $40 an hour! I'd say that given these kinds of opportunities, graduate education can be less of a concern finance-wise than undergraduate.

Admittedly, some people have a more difficult situation (if you're married, for example, and can't move because of your spouse's job). But I think too many people are too picky about what school they go to - and there's a real snobbishness about state schools. In some states (NC being one of them) you can get an excellent education at state schools, relatively inexpensively.

Bob

oh yeah, it's a choice...she just went to a really poncy uni *lol*

As for me, LEA paid up the lot, I didn't have to even stump the £1K...but living costs were still stupid high, especially cost of materials for uni, but i got lucky and got the london grant/student loans...does mean i'm a bit in the red for a few years though...but i think it's worth it, good uni and all that, shame nae kudos over here though *lol*

As for work....where the missus works now, they offer that, looks great on paper, but in reality, it's crap, either you study where they want you to, which is shite local college, or you don't get hardly any money, and what you get depends on where you live etc, so that was a waste of time.

Bob

F- student visa's can work a max of 20 hours on campus...

jjmb

No, she is 19 and on an L2 visa so she is unable to work full stop. She is certainly looking into scholarships and internships for her post grad studies (as well as her current studies) unfortuanately for most she is ineligible because of her visa status. She is a very determine young lady and like you, she will be finding ways of reducing her costs as much as possible.

dunroving

I wouldn't recommend any student should work more than 20 hrs a week anyway - not if they want to do well in school.

During summers I believe they can work more hours ... I worked way over 40 hrs a week during the summer, plus it was off-campus (via some special program for F visas students who were especially hard-up).

dunroving

Sorry, showing my ignorance - is an L2 a student visa? Or some kind of family visa?

jjmb

An L2 is the companion to L1a/b visa which is intercompany transfers for American based companies. My husband transferred (suppose to be temporary for 14 months) in 2000 from Scotland. When we first arrived he was the only one allowed to work but that changed in 2001,so I could work but not the children.

dunroving

Is it possible that your daughter could apply for a change of status to a student visa? I'm thinking if she did want to work while she was a student that might be a way (it may be neither you nor she particularly want or need this - I'm just responding to your earlier comment that she can't work)?

Bob

Didn't realise they could do that, thought they had to show they had funds for entire time of study or they wouldn't get the visa...

dunroving

Well, I think strictly speaking that's true (though an assistantship can count towards the situation, i.e., you don't literally have to have 4 years of expenses - a letter from the university saying you are guaranteed an assistantship, scholarship, etc., can count).

I think once you get in, there's greater flexibility - they'd rather help you get through school than deport you (there's a certain amount of pressure on schools to graduate students), so campus International Offices have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Bob

That's cool...i don't know to much about F visa's, but quite a few of my mates did exchanges with san fran for a laugh...but a couple years ago there was a class that got cut, it was a required class for somin', anyway, had about 30 international students, and the students all recieved a letter from the then INS saying that they all had 48 hours to leave the country because they did not meet the credit hours that fulfilled the student visa, which they got a day before the university sent them there letters saying that the class had been ditched, so they didn't even have a chance to take another class, basically, they all got booted...very weird that...

Yosser

How bloody charming that is....

I was only pointing out that the conversation you had going was about exciting as watching paint dry thats all!

Also you can PM people if you want, that way we don't have to read all your drivel.