Cutting Costs
For the 500,000 international students who study in the United States every year, financial aid is far more difficult to obtain than for American students. One cost-saving option that is becoming more popular among international and American students alike is attending community colleges for two years and then moving on to a larger state or private school.
Hidden costs, such as the price of textbooks, affect international students' budgets as well. Buying used, instead of new, textbooks helps keep the cost down. Another expense is health insurance. International students, especially those from countries where the government provides health care, often don't realize they have to pay for health insurance when they come to the United States. For international students, buying a health insurance plan can become costly, but buying health insurance through a group such as the International Student Organization, which bands international students together to provide lower health insurance costs, can reduce the financial burden.
All
these costs may seem like a roadblock to studying in a country with one
of the highest regarded higher education systems in the world. But
Karen Ziv, an Israeli who received her master's degree at Fairleigh
Dickinson University, believes a U.S. degree can be worth its weight in
gold when you return to your home country. “You come back to your home
country with a foreign education, and you build more status,” Ziv says.
“You can build more opportunity for yourself.”
