As far as I know, this school is accredited both in the United States (by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges) and in Bulgaria (by the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation). I heard nice things about this school. But can someone give me specific insights about the Financial Aid and Scholarships there? I know 12,000 is not much, but still, 5-7k is preferable for my family.
Is American U in Bulgaria good school? And how about the FinAid, since the tuition+fees are just 12k
I’d look elsewhere unless you are from Bulgaria.
Bulgaria is very close to a very unstable region on the brink of war (Turkey). Several month ago there were machine gun shootings on the border between Bulgarian border patrol and some Afghan “refugees” seeking better life in EU. With machine guns. 8-|
I also don’t understand why you think Bulgaria would be a nice place to live and go to school. Why not go to school here? What are your stats? 5-7k is doable at many community colleges, and may be possible right out of the gate at a 4-year college or university depending on your stats.
I know nothing about this college, but there are some ridiculous comments from peoople about perceived safety of attending college in Bulgaria. So what if there is trouble in another country near Bulgaria? Bulgaria is stable as far as I am aware. That is like saying there is trouble in Mexico with drug gangs, so don’t attend college in the US. And quite frankly, you have more chance of being shot up while attending college here in the good old USA than you do of being shot in Bulgaria. Let’s not forget that 36,000 people are killed by guns every year in the USA. In 2012, Bulgaira had 120 gun deaths for a population of 7.5 million people. Even if you multiply that to match the population of the USA, that figure is nowhere the same. Maybe the OP wants to attend college in a very affordable Easter European nation. Maybe OP wants to explore Europe easily and be educated too. There is nothing wrong with Bulgaria, apart from uneducated people who make assumptions about a place they know nothing about.
I have been in Bulgaria several times.
And I know what’s going on in that region much better than you think. Turkey is already in civil war. 10,000 army against Turkish kurds. They bomb their own territory where kurds live.
And now Erdogan is threatening to invade Syria in addition to his own kurds problems.
Where will refugees go? Including the armed ones?
Are you old enough to remember Yugoslavia? Because I am.
God bless your ignorance!
And Turkey, Syria, and former Yugoslavia are not in Bulgaria. God bless your paranoia.
Hi all. I came across this thread while I was searching “American University in Bulgaria” (AUBG) on Google. Then I cannot help logging in to give you my insights since I’m a current student here. Maybe I’ll be biased since I love the school, but I will try to give you my honest opinion.
First, we have something in common about the financial problem. Then AUBG is an ideal place for you because of its affordable education. You can go to my profile and see that other than AUBG, I applied to Smith, MoHo… All have a good reputation of giving aids to international students. Still, with a contribution of 5-7k, it’s hard to get into these schools, let alone receive some aids. But with 5-7k, you can surely go to AUBG.
So, is it easier to get into AUBG? Honestly, yes. Does this mean the quality of education is worse? I probably say No. The professors coming from the US, Bulgaria, Italia, Germany… Not all, but some have really impressive qualifications. The education is Liberal Arts styles as US colleges. Some graduate stds work in McKinsey, Google, HP… It’ll be long to list everything here. But you can pm me, and I’ll give you my insights about the professors, majors, and minors in AUBG.
About safety, since most ppl above worried about this problem. I don’t know well about other parts of Bulgaria. But Blagoevgrad (the university’s city) is 99% safe. I believe the capital Sofia is safe too. Actually, I saw some refugees, but other than that, there are no other problems. I didn’t see anyone using guns here. You can check the city in Google Map: https://www.google.bg/maps/@42.0205196,23.1004253,3a,75y,26.97h,72.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syxAdUuhefz5E3dA9uDZIog!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
In short, the city is pretty nice. In Fall and Spring, you can even see colorful umbrella hanging. Too romantic for a students’ city =)). There are even bars and night clubs if you’re a party person.
Last, my most favorite thing about the school is the student body. 50% are international students (although there are mostly from Eastern Europe, we have American, Asian and Western European as well). They are all extremely nice. I don’t know about other international students from other countries, but I come from Vietnam, and I have a lot of friends studying in the US (from Ivy League to top 50 NU, top 200 LAC…). Most of them tell me that they mostly hang out with only Vietnamese, or maybe other Asian students. It’s hard to hang out with American students except for some friends of mine studying in Europe or the US in High school. Last semester, I had a close friend from the US, and one from Spain. They both missed the school a lot when they came back to their home countries.
Just asked me questions if you still want to know more about the school. Omg, it had been a year I believe since I last logged into CC.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the scholarship & aid. Mostly, big packages are distributed to Bulgarian students. But since the tuition is low, you don’t really need a very big package. If you can contribute 5-7,000 per year, you can afford the school.