Studying in the USA as a non citizen

[everymeeveryyou]

DS3 is in Y12 and after asking him to narrow down Unis for visits he has presented me with an option of studying in America instead. 2 of his siblings have been through/are going through the English Uni system and I am looking for advice on what to consider and expect if we support his request.
He is looking at Marine Biology in Florida or California.
Currently DD is in London so we are already experiencing the cost of that, but am aware that US universities are much more expensive.
Any advice, signposting or information would be gratefully received.

this is a long time ago but I did a year in California paid for (literally all the fees paid just I had to pay living costs) as an exchange student from my UK university which had a reciprocity program.
you could also look and see if Fulbright scholarships are still a thing.
good luck to him.
is he looking at San Diego for marine biology? I did a minor unit there as it wasn’t my degree subject but the institute was world renowned.

Does he school support him in this and do they have a history of sending pupils to US to study? If so they will know all the ins and outs. If not, their are people who, for a fee, will help you negotiate the process.

Undergraduate study in the USA | Fulbright has useful info

Be aware that there are different application rounds - early admission etc and the odds of an place vary depending on which application round you go for

We are paying over £60K a year not including travel

I'd look at the cancelling of student visas for students mid-way through their courses in May and June 2025 and consider whether it's worth the risk of something similar happening.

Any young person considering studying in a country where they do not have work rights (nationality or appropriate visa) needs to tread very carefully and work out both what their work rights will be be during their course (for both casual jobs and internships) and upon graduation. I have seen far too many students embrace US university with enthusiasm and their parents spend an awful lot of money only to find themselves back in Europe after 4 years with an almost worthless degree on the European labour market.

I’m joining because I know dd1 (year 11 now) will want to do this though what state the us will be by then who knows!

In the US there is so much variety that it is impossible to generalise. For instance, places like Harvard and Yale now cover tuition for any student with a family income under $200 K and give full coverage of tuition and all living expenses for families with an income under $75 K. This offer is for non citizens as well as citizens. It is not a loan, but a full scholarship based on need.

I don't know about the specific programme your son is looking at, but general information might not be helpful: look at the specific place, if he already knows where he wants to study.

Also, he should look carefully at what the programme really offers and requires. You probably already know that US universities tend to specialise later, so he would probably still do distribution requirements in the humanities, etc especially in his first 2 years.

I studied for 2 years in the US, in San Jose, California, so I can share some info your DS will need.

The colleges he is looking at will have an international student team. He should make contact with them and ask their advice about the process, costs, accommodation options etc. They are the experts on this stuff, and they will always be helpful.

He will pay international student rate or 'non resident' rate, not the US 'in state' student rate for his tuition. For somewhere like San Diego State, that will work out at around $50,000 per year, and the degree will be a four year degree. There will be other costs he will have to pay on top of that, such as books, health insurance, visa, general living expenses etc. It will likely be broken down on a per semester basis, so payable at the beginning of each semester.

sacd.sdsu.edu/financial-aid/financial-aid/eligibility/cost-of-attendance/cost-of-attendance-tables/undergraduate-non-resident

He will need an F1 student visa, for which he will have to visit a US embassy to apply in person once he's been offered a place (or at least that was the case pre Covid). He will also have to cover the cost of this. If he doesn't have a passport, or it's due to run out before the course starts, it will need renewing before he goes to the embassy appointment, as he will have to hand it over as part of the application. He will likely have to be able to prove how he will afford the cost of the whole degree during that appointment, or they may not approve the visa.

The visa will have restrictions on what he can do employment wise. In the first year of his degree he will only be able to work on campus, and after that he may be able to find work off campus only if he is in severe hardship, or if he is doing something related to his course. There will be varying amounts of work on campus, for somewhere like San Diego state there will be loads of cafes, shops, food halls etc. But there will be lots of competing people too, so it's best to assume he will not find work in the first year and plan accordingly. In his second year onwards, his course department might be able to help him find work, but again it's not a given.

Some universities insist first years live on campus, some insist international students live on campus for the whole of their course. He should check the rules for his chosen course/uni.

He will not be entitled to a standard UK student loan, or a government backed US student loan. There are private US and UK based companies who do student loans for international students, but I would recommend getting some serious financial advice before going down that road. He may be entitled to a bursary, scholarship or grant. The university can support him with applying for grants or awards that international students would be eligible for, but they can be very competitive, and shouldn't be relied upon until they are actually offered. There also may be charities and organisations in the UK who sponsor students to study abroad. He should get googling now on that.

He may have to take some academic assessments in basic stuff like maths and english, and he will also be required to study a range of classes not related to his major subject. That to me was one of the big appeals of a US style degree, it allowed me to study a broad range of things I wouldn't have necessarily covered in the UK.

My US study experience was amazing, and I would absolutely do it again. I learned so much outside of my academic programme, there were tonnes of student associations, so much going on on campus, and I would go back and do it again in a heartbeat.

The other thing to do is to look for UK universities which teach marine biology and offer a year abroad at US universities.

Unless you are really rich, or your DS can get a scholarship, it is v expensive.
My DD had an offer from San Diego State on a full scholarship (for sport). And we wouldn't have been able to do it without.
Why is he attracted to the US particularly? My DD has ended up at Uni of British Columbia in Vancouver. Top 50 world uni.

Friend's DS has a football scolarship at a uni in New Jersey, but it is still far more expensive than attending a UK uni. Also, DS is also jealous of friends' experience at UK unis re drinking/partying, as the student experience is very different in the states. I would try and steer towards Southampton, which has an excellent rep for marine biology, with a year abroad in the States.

Hi, OP -

Lots of good advice above. The Fulbright website gives excellent pointers to financial aid. The Fulbright scholarships, AFAIK, are for PG study and academic research only. It is a moot point, sadly, as the Trump administration has cut funding by over 90%.

You will see from that website that the financial aid situation can look overwhelming, so I agree with PP that it might be worthwhile engaging a professional, at least to create a road map.

Ironically the public universities (state universities) tend to restrict most financial aid (excepting athletic scholarships, etc) to in state residents. They do not tend to discriminate between out of state American applicants and international applicants regarding admissions and aid, except perhaps for some particular scholarships.

Private universities vary. It tends to be the strongest that offer equal financial consideration to international applicants. The best do ‘needs blind’ admissions - applicants are assessed without regard for their ability to pay.

PP was basically correct about Harvard and Yale, except that the threshold for a free ride at Harvard, and nearly so at Yale, is now $100,000 or roughly £75,000 pa of family income. A number of other Ivy League+ institutions offer similar packages. Nor are these figures cliff edges.

The Cal State University system is a fine thing, but the crown jewel in Calif is the University of California and the Scripps Oceanography Institute is part of UC San Diego, no SDSU as linked by PP. That’s public, so subject to the financial aid limitations I mentioned above.

HE in Florida is rather fraught at the moment, from academics’ perspective. But I don’t know how badly this is affecting the undergraduate experience.

Is DS interested in studying at any private universities? That’s where he is most likely to find financial aid.

Everything @poetryandwine says - she's very knowledgeable.

I'd be quizzing my DC about why the USA? There are excellent marine biology courses in the UK, and also in the EU. If he wants to leave the UK, Australia would be a really obvious choice for marine biology. Especially if he wants warm water/Pacific marine biology.

What does he want to do post-degree? A less-well known 'name' US university (especially one not Ivy League) will not be particularly legible to a UK employer.

What about UG in the UK (it really IS so much cheaper than the US) then a Masters in the US?

The US application process is very different from the UK application process. Young Americans prepare for 3 or more years to have the right kind of profile for the college they want to go to, and they have school counsellors who are experienced in placing pupils in appropriate "schools."

Financially, you'll need to factor in not just fees, but health care and travelling expenses several times annually.

And yes, the issue with Florida: many universities are laying off staff in Florida. It's a bit of a mess.

Thank you, @ParmaVioletTea

Your ideas about studying in Australia or the EU sound good to me. I also agree with you and PP that a British degree with a year abroad may be a good option.

Doctoral funding in America is likely to be fully funded, OP, but in the current research climate there are fewer positions than before. Hopefully that will change before its possible relevance for DS.

Is the FL school the University of Miami? It is excellent, but as @ParmaVioletTea says, not generally well known in the UK. I suspect that within Marine Biology/Oceanography the name will carry weight, but positions for someone with a UG degree are not plentiful. I sadly agree with @Ceramiq ’s warning that it may not be possible to work in America with just a UG degree in the current climate.

The University of Miami is private and does consider merit scholarships for all applicants, so that could help. In Calif, Stanford and Caltech both offer Marine Biology programmes and offer financial aid to overseas students. (I think Caltech’s is within Env Sci) But all 3 of these do ‘needs aware’ international admissions and acknowledge that overseas students requiring aid have a harder time gaining a place. (Neither Stanford nor Caltech offer merit scholarships)

Being private, U Miami is largely shielded from the turmoil the FL state government is causing to HE.

Stanford and CalTech would need quite stellar applications, I should think (although Marine Bio is not my field at all!).

I agree, @ParmaVioletTea . I think that for an international student requiring financial aid, both will be considerably more competitive than Oxbridge

I would also be wary of the US. As I said above, my DD could have gone. She never loved it when we visited and thankfully Canada came along instead.
Canada are also tightening up on overseas student quotas and so you need an exceptional app, or be a national level athlete (like my DD).
As a little anecdote DD's team plays regualrly in the US in preseason..last time she crossed the land border from Canada into the US, and despite having a valid ESTA, and being with her whole team and coach, clearly there to play a match, she was hauled out of their van and questioned closely. She was also asked to pay $60, which is not required. A sort.of bribe. In the end she didnt pay it as she argued her way out of it. This was last summer. When she goes again in a few weeks, I have told her to just pay and not argue at all. Its too risky.
I hate to add these details but she is white as well. The mere fact that she would 'prob be ok in the US as she is white' is enough to put me off entirely.

Horrifying. And would possibly have been worse if she had a different ethnicity

For marine biology in Florida, look at Eckerd college. They have scholarships up to $27,000 per year, which can bring the all inclusive total cost of attendance down to around $42,000 per year

https://www.eckerd.edu/marinescience/

What's your budget, OP? There are lesser ranked schools that give more significant merit scholarships with a lower net cost of attendance.

Marine biology would require a strong background in biology and chemistry. Most universities offering MB do so within the scope of a biology degree. A student would graduate with a BSc with a concentration in marine bio.

For up to full funding (based on demonstrated need) as an international student, your DS should be looking at Duke or Harvard.

You will need to start asap to research the application process - make contact with the admissions offices and financial aid offices of those universities.

A collegeboard account should be set up asap for applications. Individual universities sometimes have their own separate application forms in addition.

You will need to complete the CSSProfile detailing your finances.

Students with degrees from well regarded American universities get hired all over the world.

Duke and Harvard are great options for MB.

But Duke also admits international students on a needs-sensitive basis and has gotten as competitive as most of the Ivies, in general. Harvard is needs blind with that wonderful aid package discussed above, but the UG acceptance rate is under 4%. (Oxford’s rate is 13-16% and the rate at Cambridge is a bit higher)

Also Harvard is currently in negotiations with the Trump administration and a point of contention is the claim that international students are crowding out Americans. I don’t think this is true; I suspect this is Trump trying to placate his donors whose DC were rejected, but that’s where we are. The point is that I don’t think it is going to be an easy time for international applicants.

It never hurts for stellar students to apply to Harvard and Duke but they should be regarded as stretches by almost anyone in the UK.

@poetryandwine Harvard (and some other Ivies) often prefer international students with ties to the United States. I have been to talks in European cities by Ivy recruiters who are explicit about the fact that they are going to recruit a fixed number of students from eg the Netherlands or Italy and that, in that fixed number, ties to the US (eg nationality or previous residence or even years of summer camp) are major brownie points.

I know several children who got sports scholarships to study in the states. Is that a possibility.

I know this is generally true, @Ceramiq

Harvard may be in particularly tough spot at the moment because just this week Trump went back to demanding a $1B financial settlement from them, via SM. He may drop it (again) in return for other concessions.

Just coming back to say thanks to everyone so far. So much great information. Will come back this weekend to clarify a few points.