Apologies for the confusion. I have a long visa for tourism and business. Not a student visa, so that’s something I have to definitely research.
This is a B1/B2 visitor visa. The “business” part does not mean you can get employment in the US. It allows you to, for example, attend work meetings or conferences on behalf of an employer in your home country. While it is [usually) a 10-year visa, you cannot spend more than 6 months on any individual visit to the US - sometimes shorter, at the discretion of the CBP officer admitting you to the country.
Travel Purposes Not Permitted On Visitor Visas
These are some examples of activities that require different categories of visas and cannot be done while on a visitor visa:
- Study
- Employment
- Paid performances, or any professional performance before a paying audience
- Arrival as a crewmember on a ship or aircraft
- Work as foreign press, in radio, film, print journalism, or other information media
- Permanent residence in the United States
—-
If you want to study, you need a study visa (F1) - see link below. If you want to work in the US, you (at the moment) can get 1-3 years in your field of study at the end of your student visa, but for anything longer term than that you need a work visa sponsored by an employer.
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Which publics can cost as low as $25k with reasonable merit aid?
This thread of public colleges that don’t charge an OOS premium (generally including international students) is a good starting place that discusses specific schools, many of which come in under $25K average net COA.
Some specific schools with below a $25K average net price that I’ve seen mentioned in my neck of the woods and/or on CC (but there are many more especially for relatively strong students):
Both Southern Illinois campuses
Western Carolina
Southeast Missouri State
U Minnesota Morris
Central Michigan
In the big picture I would encourage OP to look outside the US for college because of the uncertainty of the visa situation here and the relatively low chances of finding permanent employment in the US post-grad.
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You’re aware that there is a Mandarin proficiency requirement to graduate I assume?
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Texas state and UT Arlington also give a waiver for the oos portion of tuition if you get a scholarship above $1000, which are quite doable.
Some of the ones I know about include Grand Valley State and Ole Miss. [Edit: obviously a much more comprehensive list is above]
GVSU provides in-state tuition rates, then also adds $2500/year in International merit:
That get’s you under $30K, but you’d need to live off campus cheaply to get down to $25K.
Ole Miss has both GPA and ACT-based auto merit:
I actually think at the max levels, those may get you under $25K.
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