Singaporean connection

International Students
1921

<p>Gah, I am having a huge problem with the international certification of finances thing. A lot of schools that are not need-blind require you to send in your certificate at the exact same time as your application. Do I have about S$70k lounging in family accounts? Hell no! But to even qualify for college scholarships, I need to show that I can pay at least 1 year of school fees (60-70k). Arghhhhhh!</p>

<p>Anyone else having this problem? My parents can pay but they have very little savings since they spend like mad. This is why it is not good to have a philosophy of “why make so much money if you can’t spend it?” >.<</p>

1922

<p>HELLO NELLE. I am having the same problem. I may be letting my USC app slide, sigh. :(</p>

1923

<p>isnt there things like borrowing from the bank? im just shooting in the dark as i really have no idea…</p>

1924

<p>Haha see, the problem is the timeframe. Most SG scholarships only start shortlisting after you get your acceptances. Sometimes the selection process goes as late as May or June. (I’m just sorta guessing here. I know MDA closes 30 April, and most schools want you to respond to your offer of acceptance by 1 May!!!)</p>

<p>Of the schools I applied to, NYU and Texas do not require internationals to send a letter of financial guarantee - that letter is required only when applying for your visa. However, many CA schools require it at the time of application - I think that by CA law they are not allowed to issue you a formal letter of acceptance before they receive that letter, and in some cases they probably don’t even consider your application if the letter isn’t in your file.</p>

<p>What I understand Berkeley does is, if you’re in, they tell you, you send them the certification of finances, and then they issue you the letter of acceptance. (I could be wrong - any Cal people who can clarify this?) USC, I have no idea - I don’t know if they’ll even consider the application without the certification of finances. I’m going to have to write to them.</p>

<p>Any other Singaporean applicants who applied to CA schools who ran into the same problem? Nelle, which schools did you apply to, and which requested the letter of financial guarantee?</p>

<p>As for borrowing from bank - Citibank Global Assist Loan is gone, credit crunch. DBS Further Study Assist lets you borrow up to S$30,000 - that doesn’t even cover one year’s tuition at most private schools. There’s still a Citibank education loan, but it’s 6 times the applicant’s monthly salary up to a max of S$150,000. You can use three people’s combined monthly salary * 6 for this loan, but my family money no enough. Most US loans require a US co-signer, which I don’t have.</p>

<p>Since I was banking on scholarships anyway - boh pian. Either USC considers my app anyway and requests the financial guarantee only if I’m accepted, or I just won’t go there. Besides, if I don’t get accepted into one of NYU or Texas, I probably wouldn’t have been accepted to USC, and I prefer the other two schools anyway.</p>

<p>(OK… what a waste of application fees and postage… but I wanted to try my luck. Sigh.)</p>

1925

<p>^ I doubt CA or federal law would require that of international students. Stanford didn’t ask me for a financial guarantee letter at the time of application - only that an I-20 (essential for your US Visa application) will not be issued until you send proof that you can pay for 4 years of undergraduate education there.</p>

<p>Edit: Come and think of it, none of my schools asked for that at the time of application.</p>

1926

<p>Yes, that’s why I’m not sure. I know Berkeley doesn’t require it at the time of application, only before they issue the letter you need for your visa. But I’m in touch with a Singaporean alumna of USC and Pitzer, and according to her all CA schools need it (at least before they can give you a letter of acceptance). I did a google search and CSU-Long Beach and St Mary’s CA also require the financial guarantee at the time of application for internationals.</p>

<p>The other two schools specifically stated that no financial documents are required from international students before a formal offer of admission is made, but most CA schools I’ve seen either don’t expressly say this, or specifically say they need it at the time of application.</p>

1927

<p>Hi I am also a singaporean and I was reading a couple of threads regarding work after college. I think its difficult for any international to work after college in the US. For singaporeans the work visa is called H1B1. It seems there is a quota. Does anybody know about this and how many numbers are still existing in this quota? Please let me know. Thanks.</p>

1928

<p>The number of applicants for a H1B1 visa is usually less than the quota. However the difference between a H1B and that is that for the H1B1 you cannot apply for a green card.</p>

1929

<p>Wow. Amazing. This forum is still so active after 4 years. and 129 pages of comments! haha. who are still waiting for US results among all the people here?</p>

1930

<p>ME.</p>

<p>Waiting on NYU and Texas (didn’t apply to anywhere else but USC, and problems with USC have been documented above). Also going to apply to NUS and/or NTU because, sigh, I may not get into either NYU or Texas (but I REALLY HOPE NOT LAH).</p>

1931

<p>just curious, but does it make much sense to go overseas to some university that has lower rankings that NUS? not trying to sound smart here, but its just my opinion…</p>

1932

<p>actually i wonder how nus is ranked in the world too. hmm. what schools are you all targeting at?</p>

1933

<p>

</p>

<p>Time for a CBA.</p>

<p>Cost: $$$$$$
Benefit: Perspective. The world is a big place, and we’ve spent 20 years in the same place. You get set in particular ways of thinking. It’s the same reason A*STAR reportedly “blacklisted” Cornell at one point because so many Singaporeans were going there - they said there was no benefit if all their scholars came back thinking alike.</p>

<p>A certain co-worker of mine read about the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Bush and said, “Why so stupid? Next time he will never find work again.” I don’t know about you, but I want to meet people who care about more than landing a $$$ job…</p>

<p>(… then again, I applied to NYU and USC… heh.)</p>

1934

<p>^ Your co-worker is probably confined within the Singaporean mindset of “can’t do anything that runs afoul of the law or my future is doomed.” I bet that journalist will find a job with al-Jazeera (or similar) in no time at all. Probably can get a book deal of out it as well =p.</p>

1935

<p>^ haha…ever heard of jumping ship? haha…i mean, as far as anything is concerned, the guy is most probably regarded as a hero in the islamic world for his actions against bush, and just about every publisher in that region would want him…</p>

1936

<p>@phantompong: NYU’s acceptance rate is like 40%? From what i can tell looking at your posts on CC, you won’t have much trouble getting in :D</p>

<p>I honestly don’t think its worth going to a US college that’s not as good as NUS. Now, the definition of “good”, however, is really quite subjective and not entirely dependent on ranking except when u’re talking about HYPSM. Major-specific ranking might tell you more though.</p>

1937

<p>hey, same mindset here! frankly, i dont really see the point of going overseas to a university that might not be as good as NUS, but then again, the exposure is something you cant really get in a workplace can you? haha</p>

1938

<p>i agree with you two. one shouldn’t go overseas for university simply because it is an overseas university. we got ask ourselves exactly why do we want to go out there instead of staying in singapore</p>

1939

<p>totally agree with you man…but the sad thing is that NUS’s ranking is like dropping, so i think i would most probably try to go overseas to study too! anyway, was wondering, whats the difference between big colleges like Penn and private liberal arts colleges…</p>

1940

<p>Private liberal arts colleges is more focused on general knowledge, therefore covering a lot of topics. Thats why a lot of people say that they are just Prep school for Graduate courses.</p>

<p>Unis are more focused on a topic, therefore having a major.</p>