International students
If $40,000 does not come into Khanh Lu’s bursar account soon to pay for her OSU tuition, her dream of becoming an aerospace engineer will soon end.
Lu, like many of the 16,000 international students at OSU, came to the United States expecting the American dream that she had seen on television back home in Vietnam. But if her family does not have the money to show they can pay her next year at OSU when she needs to enroll, she may have to go home a little sooner than she expected.
“It is difficult for me to concentrate on my studies sometimes because I worry about the financial burden I am putting on my family,” Lu, an aerospace engineering junior, said.
Lu’s family pays all of her tuition, which is an estimated $14,000 per semester.
Lu works on campus to help pay for her expenses, but she is only allowed to work 20 hours per week under the regulations of the U.S. Department of State. International students are prohibited from working off campus unless they are accepted into a degree training program after they graduate, according to the International Students and Scholars program documents.
If a student is caught working off campus, they immediately have to stop their studies and return home. So a campus job is their only hope for employment, but even so, a part-time job that pays minimum wage doesn’t contribute much to a $40,000 tab.
“It is difficult to focus on your studies when you are worried about your finances, especially studying in another language,” said Jenny Ho, a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in business administration.
However, Ho was lucky enough to be awarded an assistantship in the spring 2010 semester. Assistantships are offered through specific departments and are open to all graduate students, not just international students.
Assistantships also allow students to receive their tuition as an in-state student, according to the OSU graduate student Web site. So international students with assistantships pay one-third of the cost of what other international students pay.
But if they apply for a sponsorship from their government or the institutes or organizations that offer financial assistance for international studies, they could get all of their expenses paid for.
One of the most well-known student sponsors, the Institute of International Education, works with several U.S. universities to provide sponsorships for international students with limited finances, according to the IIE official Web site. The sponsorships are highly competitive and have a rigorous application process.
In Iraq, an IIE graduate student sponsorship called the Iraq Scholars and Leaders program selects only 10 Iraqi students out of more than 600 applicants for sponsorships to study in the U.S., Muthanna Abdulwahid, an ISLP sponsored student, said.
Abdulwahid, who is in his second year of the graduate program for International Business at OSU, is also the International Liaison for the Graduate and Professional Student Government Association and the president of the Iraqi Association.
The sponsorship covers all of Abdulwahid’s expenses since he first arrived in the U.S. Abdulwahid said without this sponsorship, he would not have been able to study at OSU. Abdulwahid said this sponsorship has enabled him to fully experience college life and focus on his studies and extracurricular activities because he does not have to worry about his finances or feel pressure to pay for his expenses.
But university expenses are not the only contributors to the heavy financial burden. Just getting the necessary documentation to get to the United States and legally stay is costly.
Before the students come the U.S., they must interview for their visa at the U.S. Embassy in their country and are required to prove their financial capability to pay for their expenses while in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State visa process explanation. But proving the money is in their bank account does not necessarily mean the money can be spared.
OSU predicts $28,645 for an undergraduate, international student to study, but that does not include the travel document fees, which varies from $500 to $1,000, according to the ISS Financial Guarantee sheet.
But the ISS office at OSU helps the students with all the legal documentation for their stay in the United States and is also quick at getting the students their necessary travel documents. OSU was the first university to e-mail Emurode Ziregbe with her acceptance as well as her travel documents.
“Even if I would e-mail them a question, they would get back to me that day, and the feedback was great,” Ziregbe, an economics and finance senior said. “OSU’s rapid response is why I decided I would go to Oklahoma State.”
After receiving their degrees, Ziregbe, Abdulwahid, Ho and Lu would like to get some hands-on experience before returning to their home countries and starting their careers.
A student work program called Optical Practical Training allows the students to get a job working in their field of study for a year. But after Lu finishes her program, she plans to get an engineering job where she can financially help her family as they have helped her.
“Even though my family and I have to worry about my finances while I am studying, I know that coming to school at OSU was better than staying home,” Lu said.
Sponsored student
This year OSU has close to 180 sponsored students who could not study in the United States if they did not have a sponsor to pay for their stay.
“I would not be working on my master’s in international business if it wasn’t for my sponsorship,” said Muthanna Abdulwahid, a second-year graduate student at OSU.
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