<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I’m an Israeli who is interested in applying to a college in the U.S for an undergraduate degree in aero/astro engineering. I’m planning to either apply for 2008 and defer my studies until 2009 or wait and apply directly for 2009. </p>
<p>I’m 22 years old, and am entirely self-sufficient (I live in an apartment on my own, and have a job as a .NET programmer and even have my own savings, and a very respectable salary). My parents are, in fact, unable to fund anything for me due to massive debts.</p>
<p>Although I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to get accepted into one of the colleges I’m aiming for, it is less likely that I’ll be able to fund my way through a 4-year degree without financial aid of some sort.</p>
<p>This poses a problem for me, since practically all the colleges I’ve looked at assume that a student’s parents will be completely involved in paying for the tuition of the student. I’ve even heard about cases where parents put a second mortgage on a house, or sell a car to get their kid through a degree. Such things aren’t a possibility for me since I don’t yet own a home or a car.</p>
<p>While I don’t mind filling the fin-aid forms with my parents’ financial information, I haven’t really seen anything about self-sufficient students beyond the old ‘we’ll judge it case-by-case’ thing. I worry that I won’t be able to get any sort of financial aid from a college.</p>
<p>I did see a little check-box that asks whether a student can be defined as independent (as opposed to a dependent one), but I am unsure how colleges treat students who ceck it… and I don’t actually qualify for it since I was born 3 months too late, and although I -am- a veteran of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force - Israeli military), I don’t think that counts as ‘U.S military veteran’. </p>
<p>I’ve recently found out that I can take out a loan for the entire (or part of the) sum of my tuition in Israel, but its conditions are very harsh and I have to repay it in 12 years (as opposed to a U.S loan that you can pay back in 15 or 20 years). In my local currency, such a loan would be the equivalent of taking out a million dollars and having to repay it in 12 years…</p>
<p>So, essentially, I’m looking for any unformation regarding scholarships for non-U.S citizens, merit-based (I’ve got good grades), children of holocaust survivors, aero/astro undergrads, women in engineering, women from non-U.S countries in engineering etc.</p>
<p>I am looking in various scholarship search sites, but would like to see if anyone here knows a scholarship that fits me and can save me a bit of slogging through zillions of web-pages.</p>
<p>I’m also looking for information about on-campus jobs, since on an F-1 visa those are the only kind of jobs available to me during the school year. What kind of jobs are there? How much do they pay? What percentage of a college tuition can these cover?</p>
<p>Also, if there’s any sort of loan for international students that doesn’t require a U.S citizen as a co-signer, I’d love to hear about it… (fat chance, I know)</p>
<p>…And finally, if anyone knows of a company who wants a .NET programmer and doesn’t mind giving out L-1 visas, let me know :P</p>
<p>Anything that will help me cover a substancial percent of a tuition will do, really. </p>
<p>Thanks,
-M.</p>