Hoping to enter an American university

[wingedfriend]

I'm currently in 10th grade. I should be a Junior but because I came from a different country, they had to bring me down one year level.

I am somewhat worried of my unsure future. We do have financial problems. I am worried about financial stuff for college. That is why I'm looking for a good possible financial aid (need base financial aid would be awesome). Because of this, I feel so pessimistic about my future. Every time I try to imagine it, something's telling me that it's impossible. But I know it isn't. I know there is a way. I'm willing to do as much hardwork as I can as long as I know I can be sure about my future outcome.

Can any of you give me informations about good universities in America for me as an international student coming from Japan? And what do I need to do in order to get accepted in these universities that offer really good financial aids?

Once I can be sure about my College future, that would be the start of my serious real goal oriented hard work.
I haven't been doing my best recently because I feel so lost and unsure about the outcomes of my future. It's one of the biggest thing that's stressing me out or making me depressed. Having no goal, I feel like my motivation to do something productive is being sucked up

 

[bibliophile934]

[MENTION=14069]wingedfriend[/MENTION]

I think it is wonderful that you would like to both go to the US and go to college. There are many colleges that are always looking for international students to provide diversity to their campuses. They also provide an abundance of need based scholarships. Along with these need based scholarships offered by universities, there are several private scholarships by foundations and such that I'm sure you would qualify for.

Do you have any idea what type of degree you would like or where in the US you would like to go?

 

[j654dgj7]

If you can't get into an American college, a lot of universities have extended exchange programs for people looking to study in the US. Economically it just might make sense. Good luck!

 

[wingedfriend]

I'm still trying to decide which degree I want to take. But I'm leaning to psychology.

Literature is also on my list, but I also need to make sure to have a stable job. I'm not good at writing but I'm somewhat interested.

I'm also considering computer science. When I was a kid, I was obssesed with computers and technology. But they say you need to be good at math. So I'm not yet sure about that because I feel so "outdated" with math classes lol

California would be nice.
I also heard that some Ivy Universities are good for need based financial aid, but getting in would be a big competition... But I'm willing to do everything that I can.

 

[bionic]

I'm still trying to decide which degree I want to take. But I'm leaning to psychology.

Literature is also on my list, but I also need to make sure to have a stable job. I'm not good at writing but I'm somewhat interested.

I'm also considering computer science. When I was a kid, I was obssesed with computers and technology. But they say you need to be good at math. So I'm not yet sure about that because I feel so "outdated" with math classes lol

California would be nice.
I also heard that some Ivy Universities are good for need based financial aid, but getting in would be a big competition... But I'm willing to do everything that I can.

I had a friend of mine that went to school in Japan (he's from there) and he said that the math classes in the US are actually a few years behind so you should be fine.

Also, Ivy Leagues colleges are VERY expensive in the US (like 50,000 a semester & +) so please keep that in mind. There are other cheaper universities and colleges that have a great quality education. You don't want to put yourself into too much debt when you graduate. If you can find a lot of financial aid and scholarships (I think you can through international study programs... the counselors would know more about it). California, Oregon, and Washington state have some great colleges. Also, I assume the West Coast of the US is easier for you since a plane ticket to Japan is cheaper from here than say... NY.

Try not to stress yourself out too much though. I think its great that you're thinking about your future and college. The fact that you feel motivated to work hard toward this is great!!! Keep up the spirit. Bottle those negative thoughts and just use it as fuel.

Also, when you do your college search, you can contact & email the admissions counselors and ask them about their international programs, financial aid, and scholarships available. Maybe that might help you feel more clarity about what you have to do/expect when you apply and go to college.

 

[drummergirlbk]

A lot of colleges have departments solely for facilitating and taking care of the needs of international students. The university I'm currently attending has a fantastic program like this. And for the price, it's a fantastic institution. The cost of living is quite low here in Tennessee as well. However, the nearest airport is an hour away, but I don't know how close you would prefer to be to cities, airports, etc. A lot of institutions require international students to take the TOEFL exam, but judging from your posts you should do just fine on that. Anyway, good luck!! Congrats on dreaming big and seeing how your goals can be realised.

 

[mirquin]

Hi again, I am currently attending an university in California. Because of recent budget cuts, the UCs are sticklers for money. International students pay dearly to come here. If money is not issue, knowing what major you want to go into is most important. The public UCs are divided into three tiers. The lowest tiers include Riverside, Merced, and Santa Cruz. The mid tiers include Irvine, SD, and Davis. The top tiers include Berkeley and UCLA. A lot of Californians are biased because of the tier system. I say: ignore it. If you want to get a good education, what you need is a school which suits you. Every school has a handful of majors they specialize in. For example, SD is well known for its biology department. Berkeley is excellent if you want to go into computer science. UCLA is strong in linguistics, accounting, etc. When I applied to the UCs, I was offered 1k per quarter if I kept my grades up. That's not much considering I pay 30k per year. On the other hand, private schools tend to be more generous with scholarships.

If you would like to know more about math specifically, feel free to PM me. I have a friend who just entered Berkeley as a math major. He also came from Japan two years ago, so he will know more about TOEFL and stuff like that.

Good luck.

 

[thirdhalf]

I would suggest looking into the state colleges.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_universities_in_the_United_States

 

[Artisan]

[MENTION=14069]wingedfriend[/MENTION]

If finances are the issue then I recommend looking towards europe for an education. The education is really good and in a lot of countries less pricey.
For example In america you're looking at the price of a brand new car for an education, in most european countries the price is that of a secondhand motorcycle.
I specifically recommend looking into scandinavian and east-european (russia included) universities as the quality of the education there in a lot of cases is much higher.

The netherlands though has a tutuition fee of like 1800-2200 USD for dutch students, though its the same or near that price for international students.
A lot of germans come to study in Holland because it is cheaper for them.

A lot of it though, depends on the subject that you wish to study.
Some countries have a better educations in some studies than others.
Over all though, unless america is the only country you wish to go to, there are equivelant and often better yet cheaper alternatives in europe.

If it's america tho then you should keep in mind that most people tend to incur a huge study debt there in order to study.

 

[ImaginaryBloke]

I'm still trying to decide which degree I want to take. But I'm leaning to psychology.

Literature is also on my list, but I also need to make sure to have a stable job. I'm not good at writing but I'm somewhat interested.

I'm also considering computer science. When I was a kid, I was obssesed with computers and technology. But they say you need to be good at math. So I'm not yet sure about that because I feel so "outdated" with math classes lol

California would be nice.
I also heard that some Ivy Universities are good for need based financial aid, but getting in would be a big competition... But I'm willing to do everything that I can.

There are many different fields within computer science. Some are maths-heavy, others less so. If you are doing C, C++, Java, there will be lots of maths. If you into algorithms, there will also be lots of maths. If you are doing HTML, there will be less need for maths. If you are interested in statistics, then doing a combination of maths and programming would be a good choice. R is a typical programming language of this category.

There are two approaches: (1) Choose a job first, and then the skills; or (2) first the skills, and then find a job given those. I did approach no. 2 when I was younger.

I think that you should get an idea of what kinds of programming jobs are interesting before making the jump into computer science. Take a look what different jobs exist in job sites and pick one or a few that look interesting.

Women are a minority in computer science, but I have come across some. One category of women were working with R in academia. Another category (only one woman) was doing engineering maths in C++. C++ is only for computer nerds really.

 

[Artisan]

I think that you should get an idea of what kinds of programming jobs are interesting before making the jump into computer science. Take a look what different jobs exist in job sites and pick one or a few that look interesting.

That's true, regardless of what study you pick, [MENTION=14069]wingedfriend[/MENTION] You should definately heed this guy's advice, and apply it to whatever study choice you take.
It helps tremendously to decide on what you want beforehand and lots of universities are specialised more in specific kinds of psychology, whilst still offering the other kinds.

I also think it will help you a lot to visit local universities and such to find out what possibilities specific educations have to offer.
Something that works in your favour though with computer science is that some jobs in this field can be easily freelanced from home.
The advantage of that is that if you ever are between jobs, get unwell for a while which makes going to work really difficult or if you wish to concentrate more on say your family or something, then you can still generate some income with a lot of these jobs. A lot of coding skills can also be easily self taught by sources on the internet. The degree comes in handy for the more specific specialized jobs such as embedded systems programming, whilst website building skills for example can easily be proven by showing websites you made. SO find out what jobs appeal to you with each type of degree you are interested in.

If you are uncertain about your math then you can refresh it all the way up to the level of a professional mathematician on www.KhanAcademy.com
I am a sucker for khan academy myself after trying it out. It basically look which mathskills have deterriorated, offers video lectures and the whole thing.
So getting up to speed on your math skills should not be a problem with this as its intended to do exactly that and more ^^

Still, I recommend you follow IB's advice and look into what jobs sound appealing to you in each degree that you are interested in.

Something you should consider though is that most jobs that come down to writing do not require a degree, and either require work to be submitted and reviewed or previous experiences in writing that can be shown, such as a professional looking blog that is well written. If you wish to become a writer in the forms of books though then you could get some great advice from the podcasts on www.writingexcuses.com/ where professional writers like brandon sanderson give advice on everything.

But lets say you decide to go computer science after finishing your education your desire to write sparks up. You now have a skillset to support you during your initial drafts, inbetween books, etc. Or you start a blog about the things you know with computer science, tutorial videos on youtube, you name it. One you got a stable source of money, you can reduce the amount of hours you work to a minimum to support you and/in your other ventures.

You should not see your degree as something that confines you to only one possibility. If it is about knowledge, you can always self study other things afterwards, if it is about work, then you can always self study first and then find cheap quick course to get you the nessisary degree. ( Assuming its something mostly/purely theoretical like psychology) And if you're not sure about what to do yet, then it is okay to wait it out for a school year, you can just get a simple job for in the weekends to earn a little income and spend the rest of the time figuring out on what you want.

Make lists of things that interest you, go through them, google them on the internet, see what people think about the work they do and how well it fits with what you seek. Hack, you could even try to make appointments to "work" somewhere for a day / drive along to see what the job is like and what it entails. The important thing though is that you look carefully into what you want, and if its something in which getting a degree offers you a significant advantage in getting hired or not. If not and a degree is not needed to get hired, then getting a degree in that field might not nessisarily be the best route as theres cheaper ways to get certified, up to speed on material & learned.

 

[ImaginaryBloke]

I'm still trying to decide which degree I want to take. But I'm leaning to psychology.

Literature is also on my list, but I also need to make sure to have a stable job. I'm not good at writing but I'm somewhat interested.

I'm also considering computer science. When I was a kid, I was obssesed with computers and technology. But they say you need to be good at math. So I'm not yet sure about that because I feel so "outdated" with math classes lol

California would be nice.
I also heard that some Ivy Universities are good for need based financial aid, but getting in would be a big competition... But I'm willing to do everything that I can.

I would take that as a warning sign. Without experience, it is of course difficult to know what you are getting yourself into.

If you are a complete maths nerd, your interest will quell any fear. You will get a university degree in maths, for example, and then you have a good chance of getting a job afterwards because you did so well and had such good grades.

But that is unlikely to happen if you are unsure of yourself. It might happen that you will get depressed later because your expectations and dreams differ from reality.

INFJs are not supreme at maths. Ti is your tertiary cognitive function. You will need determination if you are going to succeed with your tertiary function.

Ti doms and Ti auxiliaries can also struggle with maths if they feel insecure of themselves. But because they have better control of thinking, they will need less determination to succeed. It is a skill that "just comes naturally".

There are two approaches: (1) Choose a job first, and then the skills; or (2) first the skills, and then find a job given those. I did approach no. 2 when I was younger.

I should have written it like this:

(1) Choose a job -> Learn the skills required -> Get that job
(2) Have a particular interest -> Get a degree based on that interest -> Get a job
(3) Have an interest/many interests, but be unsure of a particular job -> Write down a list of suitable job(s) -> Learn the skills required -> Get that job/one of those jobs

I was thinking that your were heading for strategy (2) above.

With strategy (1), you have a goal and ideally you know how to reach that goal. With strategy (2), you know what you are interested in and hope to get a job where you can use those skills.

Many employers, particularly in the private sector, favor strategy (1). This is typical of the INTJ and ENTJ way-of-thinking. So for anyone of another personality, this can be difficult to understand. Some of them choose strategy (2).

The drawback of strategy (2) is that you might lose interest in your subject and not know what else to do or that you realize that you cannot get a job with the degree that you chose.

I would think that strategy (3) strikes a good balance between your interior wishes and the exterior demands of society.

Knowing the (potential) consequences of your actions will give you the internal motivation to succeed after making a choice. This increases the likelihood that you will succeed with your favored choice, if that is also your best interest.

In case that your favored choice turns out not to be interesting or perhaps you cannot get any jobs with it, then you should switch to another degree It might. Having already made a list of your interests and what jobs you can get will make it easier to make that switch.