US College System
 

We just moved to California in August 2008 with our 16 year old daughter who is now in 11th Grade (Junior Year). Later on this year, she will be applying for a place in the University of California system which is complicated by the fact that she spent 9th and 10th grade at a UK high school where she left with 11 good grade GCSEs. Is there anyone out there who was in a similar position? (we trust the UC university will recognise the value of her GCSEs) How did you find the process? Were you able to access any grants or loans? (These seem only to be available to US citizens)

Re: US College System
 

I would suggest talking to someone in admissions / recruiting at the UC school of choice ASAP to get correct information.

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Being in California, she could save a ton of money by doing 2 years at a community college doing the general education then transfer to the UC or state system for the remainder to get the final degree.

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You don't say what type of visa you have, but the vast majority of loans are for USC *and* PR's. If I were you, I wouldn't "trust" that the uni stuff will get worked out - didn't you find this out before coming?

Re: US College System
 

Federal Loans and grants and the majority of all scholarships are typically only available to USC and Perm. Residents, not visa holders. You'll find it pretty difficult, if not impossible, for your daughter to get into uni without a high school diploma or the equivalent GED (general education diploma) and she more than likely will need to take achievement/placement exams to guarentee her admission (i.e. SAT or ACT). Don't count on GCSE's being recognized, but you need to verify this.

Personally I don't understand why you are so fast to throw your daughter into college life, after only being in a high school for a year, but it's your choice.

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Most colleges are mainly interested in the SAT results which are normally taken in the Senior year and the GPA. If she does well with the SATs she should be OK.

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It's been a while, but I just went ahead and got a GED(used a study book) to get into college, even though I had already had 10 O levels and 4 A-levels. I think I only got PELL loans with just being a perm resident (green card).

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Hi we have just gone through all this with our 20yr old (who took a 2 year gap year !) I think each state may have its own rules but we have worked our way round the Florida ones ...just. The main thing you must have is a SAT score, without this your going no-where. My DD said this was very easy and did not take any classes to help her, just bought a book and looked through it, passed with flying colours (gets her brain form her dad) Her GCSe's were taken into account along with her AS levels and A level to give a her a huge head start in her credits. She started with 24 credits and so after her 1st semester has moved onto being a 2nd year student (sophmore I beleive) which will in the end save her time and us money. We were able by more luck than anything else to get her insate fees which saved us $14.000 dollars this year so make sure you look into that and keep going at it untill they cave ! With regards to Loans and Grants that is another minefield we are still trying to sort. There was no grant available for this year due to DH earning in the UK last year. But I was assured that as long as we are a Florida residents for the next giant form filling session we could apply for grants and seeing as we now both work for pittance we should get some. DD was just offered a financial loan but it was a non subsidized one so need to look into that. Some of this may be different depending on your status here. I am a USC but had never lived here till this year and DH is a PR.

As a side I have tried to apply to go to ' evening school' as such and untill I have lived here a year and become a resident the fees are way to high

Feel free to PM me if I can help any further

Re: US College System
 

Each state is different, so your high school's guidance counselor should be your first stop but don't depend on them to do all the work. They have way too many students to deal with. You can sign up online to take the SAT/ACT (depending on what your prospective uni requires). Most kids take them both where I am from....and sometimes more than once to improve their scores. Then you can start getting info. from the unis you want to attend.

You do not pass or fail an SAT or ACT. . . you get a score that ranks you amongst other students that took the same test at the same time. Each school has different admissions requirements based on these scores GPA from HS, extracurricular, etc., etc. Community college usually requires only a checkbook/credit card and a GED or HS diploma and a pulse (some may require SAT/ACT scores).

I've got one kid at OSU, one at community college, and a stepson moving over in the summer to start at a small university. All three are paying differently.... scholarship, daddy, loans, own money. It is a huge expense so starting out at the local branch of a big uni saves as does doing your first year at community....make sure you take classes that will transfer (many of the community college courses will not transfer to a university).

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We are on an L1 visa. I have been told that her UK qualifications will be referred to the international admissions officer to be translated into US grades so I guess it depends on how much experience of this the college has. We did try and check the situation out before coming over - our main concern was to ensure that after 12 months here, we would qualify for instate fees which seems to be the case. Out of state fees would have been out of our reach.

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There are also California state grants and, I think, subsidized loans. For these you must be defined as a California resident for tuition purposes, something you should make very sure your daughter is classed as from the get go. Check out the UC admissions and Cal Grant websites - pretty sure all the info is there if you dig deep enough.

Edit: looks like you've done the leg work for in-state tuition...

Edit: Be aware that the financial outlook for California tertiary education is becoming extremely dire due to the budget crisis. Fees have skyrocketed in the last few years and state financial aid diminished. Expect that trend to continue in an accelerated fashion over the next couple of years.

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Thank you for your reply. Yes, we think we qualify for instate fees as we will have been living here for 12 months when she applies. Why did you have to wait for the authorities to "cave in" - is the situation open to interpreatation? (Please say not!) She is booked in on an SAT preparation course at the school which should help her but she will not have AS/A levels, just GCSEs and her high school diploma.

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Yes, she will be leaving high school in June 2010 with a high school diploma (hopefully!) and SAT/ACT tests with 2-3 AP courses so she will not start uni until 2010. I just know that it takes time to get the full picture so I'm starting the preparation early.

Re: US College System
 

I don't know if L1 qualifies but Stafford Loans (low interest for students) and ParentsPlus Loans (higher interest than student but still low) are options. Even if you are going to get the loan, I recommend you have your daughter get the loan in her name as it can be as much as 2% lower interest rate and deferred payments.

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Suzy Orman was talking about student loans the other day on TV and said exactly what you've said (are you Suzie in disguise ;)??) That you should get your child to have the loan in their name even if you're going to pay it because of the lower rates.

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No, but I've got a 21- and a 19-yr old in college....you learn fast about all the options.

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I appreciate the info too as my son is a HS freshman and I'm well aware of the mine field we're about to step into !!

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Find out from the uni who they want to translate the grades, because it's an unregulated business, anyone can do it, so uni's tend to have a preference, no point doing it in advance unless you know who they want, WES probably, but might not be.

Also note, as an L2, your kid won't be allowed to work whilst studying and I know that affects some here, less the money, just the fact that they can't get involved doing stuff with friends.

BoA offer private loans to be used for college, the rates are crap though, but if that's all that your able to get, it's something.

Oh, and in v out state fees would depend on the uni, most do require you living in the state for 12 months or so, but some still won't give you in state rates unless you are a permanent resident, so double check that with the uni.

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Check the university rules - my uni has an exclusion that people on non-immigrant visas do not qualify for instate tuition even if they've been living here for 12 months. However - you can appeal, which I did, given that my visa is indefinitely renewable.

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It was just slightly different for us as my DD was out here on a visa working for Disney for a year before we moved. So we had to prove that she had been living independently in Florida for 12 months. Which fortunatley as she had paid rent and a car loan we were able to do. We had no problem with then converting her english results but she is at UF and they take quite a few international kids and are therefore used to it. If she did GCSE's she should have no problem with her SAT's


Anyone any idea why I am not getting e-mail alerts at the moment when I have ticked that box ?????

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Hi
I need as much info as possible as we are poss moving out towards end of year and my daughter will be completing her GCSE's by end of June..... Can you point me in right direction to even finding a suitable - good college in the Kissimmee sort of area.
Would appreciate all your help.
Thanks

Re: US College System
 

Ok, from my limited knowledge of Brit terminology from my OH, I know that Brits consider 'college' different from 'uni'. FYI, here in the US, they are one and the same. There are literally tens of thousands of colleges/uni's in the US. Just to give you a crash course, in case you don't already know:

You get local community colleges that typically offer certificates and associates degrees (2yr degrees), and some will even offer bachelor degrees. They usually only offer limited fields of study. Then you have the higher level uni's/colleges that offer bachelor's and masters and PhD's. Some are going to be more specialized for certain fields (such as liberal arts, science, medicine, etc) or at the very least they will have a reputation for certain degrees (med, business, engineering).

To find a uni, you can use Google to find ones local to area, and then start eliminating them based on tuition, degrees offered, locale, admission standards, etc. What you define as good will be completely diff from what I consider good. You probably need to get started looking into admission standards now. Given that she will have no education history in the US, you may need quite a bit of documentation. It's almost absolutely certain that they will have to evaluate her scores into a US equivalent in order to deem it sufficient for admisstion. This procedure differs by school, so it's best to narrow down the schools first, so that you are not going through too many of these evaluations (sometimes you may have to pay for yourself - I know we had to).

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Hiya
Well thanks for that, was quite confused re college/uni - I have trawled the net so to speak, but will get back on it. Thank you :)

Re: US College System
 

Hi:

Elder daughter went private on East Coast, but is now in scientific PhD for which she has grant money. Younger one graduated from UC Santa Cruz.

The rules can get complicated -- had a client with a green card, but whose father had abandoned residence -- Community College and CSU&C considered him a resident eligible for in-state fees, but UC did not. The weird thing is that CSU&C and UC were following the SAME legislative provisions -- go figure.

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Here kids attend high school for year 11 and 12...they don't go to college during this time as many do in the UK.

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Hi
So are you saying she should really go to High School until she is 18 (is it 18 years...) and then look to go to a US College/Uni as she would in the UK. Then I can look at High Schools, dont suppose it would make a lot of difference if she was a year older/younger... thanks

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Yes normally kids attend high school until they're 18...then go onto uni. It used to be the same in the UK until 6th form colleges were introduced.

BTW an undergrad degree takes approx 4 yrs in the US.

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Generally speaking a college offers degrees in only one field of study, and a university is collection of many colleges. The University of Illinois has a College of Engineering, a College of Business, a College of Liberal Arts, etc. whereas you may see smaller schools like St. Johns College offering only Liberal Arts degrees (no business, engineering, etc). Community colleges are 'associate' degrees--two years that can either provide you some vocational skills (auto shop, carpentry) or can be a low-cost way to save before you transfer somewhere to a larger college or university for your bachelor's degree.

It's also worth noting though you've probably already discovered that 'residency' for the purposes of in-state tuition has nothing to do with 'residency' for the purposes of immigration. Two different bureaucracies using the same term with different meaning.

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We came over here when my eldest daughter was 16. She had just taken her GCSE's. She did two years (junior and senior) at a US high school and then applied to US universities.

She was able to use all of that to her advantage because she could say

"look at me...I made a huge transatlantic move at a crucial time but I still graduated high school with a GPA of 4 (her school maximum was a 5 GPA). I took my SATs and ACT and got an acceptable result and I have these funny things called GCSE's. I also joined in with everything I could in my two years at high school and all of this shows what a fabulous person I am!"

or words to that effect.

She was on an H4 visa at the time which caused it's own problems but that's another story.

We found we had to speak directly to the colleges at a really high level..think president/ VP for admissions and she wrote a personal essay outlining her achievements and emphasizing the move.

My middle daughter came here as a freshman but she is still finding that the transatlantic move makes her interesting to colleges now that she is applying.

We now have green cards and so both daughters are eligible for grants/scholarships etc which makes a huge difference.

Re: US College System
 

Hi
Our daughter will be 17 but would you suggest then that she does the last 2 years at High School... sounds from you that it will be the best idea, i dont suppose it would make much difference if she is 19 when she leaves, would it? Do the schools have the same terms as us eg do they start a new school year in Sept, as this would be the date we would have to make sure we were here for ready for her to start a new school year. When we have confirmation of where we will be living is that when you contact the local school? What did you need to provide/produce when you applied for her at High School? Did you have to get her GCSE's converted (as might be difficult as she wont get results until end of August). Thanking you in advance for your answers...thanks....

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I live in PA and here you go to the high school in your area. No choice unless you go private. We pay property taxes to out township and a big portion of them fund the elementary, middle and high school.

We just contacted the counselling office at the local high school and took it from there. They had to take my children as we lived in the town.

I did get copies of the UK national curriculum but it wasn't necessary.
The school did their own evaluation of her GCSE's and gave her a starting GPA. (grade point average). I had already spoken to a British family here in my town and knew from their experiences that the the school had assessed her GCSE's fairly. If I had felt otherwise I would have tried to get them assessed elsewhere.

There is more opportunity here to be put in a class that suits your abilities. For example my eldest struggled with maths and so she was in a freshman class to start with even though she was a junior. They assessed her constantly and switched her around as she improved.

Our school offers AP, Honors and IB as well as straight forward academic classes so there is plenty of ability levels.

AP = advanced placement
IB = International baccalaureate.

We live in a good school district but we pay a lot in property tax.

I think it is worth doing some high school here because it will introduce your daughter to local friends and activities and the school will help you with college applications.