Ok so my girlfriend is in college right now in Europe, Belgium to be exact and we’re wondering how difficult would it be for her to transfer to a college in america? She has no specific college in mind, it doesn’t have to be a big college, it could be a smaller cheaper one. She is studying computer graphics as well. We are just curious because about the difficulty and price of paying for it. Also the overall process of doing it. Thank you.
The first question would be what kind of “college” she is at. Are we talking about a university or a vocational school?
Please make sure she understands that “colleges” in the US do not correspond to “universities” in Belgium. Belgian universities are selective research universities (e.g. they all require calculus for admission). Other post-secondary institutions with lesser admission requirements go by a different name. Importantly, university curricula are standardized and you’d get about the same education regardless of which university you attend.
In contrast, all post-secondary schools in the US go by the name “college” (or ‘university’ for larger schools). Which college you attend will have a huge impact on the education you receive and may severely limit your job prospects. Europeans who complete a semester abroad at a cheap ‘university’ in the US often leave thinking that all American universities are crap. Of course that’s not true. The exchange students just didn’t understand that they were attending the American equivalent of a European vocational school. Mismatch of expectations.
I am emphasizing this difference because you said that she’s open to attending a “smaller cheaper” college. Very few small colleges match the educational level of European universities, and those tend to be very expensive private schools.
The other important difference between European universities and American colleges are “general education requirements.” Those mostly don’t exist in Europe. Would your girlfriend still want to attend an American college knowing that she’ll have to spend 1-2 years taking courses unrelated to her major? (It is quite possible that her European coursework satisfies almost all of her major requirements, and she’ll be spending the rest of her education only taking courses outside of her major…)
That all said, it usually doesn’t make sense to transfer from a European university to an American one mid-degree.The more popular route would be to finish her Bachelor’s degree in Europe, and complete a Master’s degree in the US afterwards.
It’s certainly possible to transfer to an American college/university – though your girlfriend should expect to lose a lot of credits, and would likely have to take longer than 4 years to graduate.
She should also expect to pay a lot of money. There is very little financial aid for international students, and almost no aid for international transfers. For international students, even community colleges (the cheapest 2-year colleges from which students transfer to 4-year schools) can cost over $15,000 per year (just for tuition) – and then there are fees, books, health insurance plus living expenses. An average 4-year college or university for international students will almost always cost more than $25,000 per year, plus expenses.
If you’re ready to go absolutely anywhere, there are some cheap colleges in remote area that cost less than that:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2016-09-15/10-universities-with-the-cheapest-out-of-state-tuition
As for the process, each school will explain it in detail on their web page.
@b@r!um @katliamom thank you both! very very helpful stuff, and to clarify my apologies its actually an art school she’s attending, im not sure if that would change anything?
^^ Not significantly, no. The issue of credit, general education requirements and costs would still be in play – along with whatever particular transfer requirements the US art school would have.
There’s no financial aid for international transfer students. She’ll certainly get into a college but will she be able to pay for it?
Art (graphic design) is not necessarily taught in an art school in the US, which is better because Art schools are even more expensive and poorly funded than regular Universities, since art school graduates typically don’t make millions.
Do you have a sense of her parents income?
Can you clarify if she would be a transfer or if her art school classification may allow her to be considered a freshman?
Has she attended a university or a school that would be considered non university/ secondary status/continuing education (such as Ecole des beaux arts) - this type of school would preserve her freshman status (basically that means that even if she got her VW or Maturity or whatever last year, she didn’t earn ECTS credits this year.)
Indeed international freshmen are eligible for financial aid. Often they may be eligible for merit aid, which may be her best hope, if she manages to score high on the SAT or act.