25 questions about studying in the USA

hey guys and welcome to my channel today I'm gonna answer 25 of your questions regarding studying in the US you've asked me them on Instagram if you're not following me on Instagram yet it's so lingua morena please make sure to follow me because I post stories in English daily about life here in the US about you know business and studying so make sure to follow me and let's move on to those 25 questions [Music] question number one general advice for everyone who's seeking education in the United States my general advice just be ready to work hard it takes time to get admitted here because you have to make sure you have all your recommendation letters personal statements exams ready your English should be good enough second you need to make sure you have money to pay for your education or if you're applying for financially it's even a longer process and it requires a lot of again research like what university is financial aid I'm gonna talk about that a little later it's just a little work so make sure you have enough time don't be like oh I want to study in the US starting next month that might happen if you're playing for a language course but if you're applying for like bachelors and masters it's gonna take a while okay question number two I'm just gonna explain how educational system in the u.s. works so if you're an international student coming without your parents you're gonna pay around twenty five thousand dollars a year and that's tuition accommodation and your food every so everything is included it starts at twenty five thousand dollars a year if you are here already if one of your parents is a resident then there is a free school that's a completely different topic and I'm mostly talking about international students here if you want to do your bachelor's what you need is the unis do high school education from your country there is no like a foundation program or whatever you might have heard about that in the UK America is very democratic and accepts you a high school diploma from your country so no worries about that bachelor's program lasts for four years I would say apply during the last year of your school education but again there is no age limit you can also finish your school spend some time working and then apply for your bachelor's master's program lasts from one to two years you would need a bachelor's diploma from your country to apply again you can apply later in your life I apply it I think I've lied who was it 2014 I've lied two years after graduation from my bachelor's program in Russia you can also do your MBA MBA is the same as masters but it's mostly a program for managers and there's also PhD PhD the program where there's 99% chance to gonna get some financial aid it's really good in terms of financing but it's a full-time program it's four years and you spend those four years doing your research it's everyday hard work and in order to get accepted you need to prove that you have some significant experience in research number three exams that you need to take this is a very interesting part so first of all there's this examination called TOEFL and TOEFL is something that you have to take doesn't matter which program you're applying to TOEFL is an examination that checks your level of English they have four parts speaking reading listening writing and you absolutely have to take it and my advice is start preparing for it as early as possible and by the way we just released a completely new intensive course a way you can prepare for TOEFL online the link will be below the thing is there are a lot of changes this year to TOEFL examination it will prepare this brand new course to make sure we cover all of those changes and in this course you're gonna be able to find all the templates that you need to pass TOEFL we're gonna explain how people actually check your TOEFL exercises how they look at you and we created this course because it took me a while to figure out what are the best resources to prepare for this exam and we just grabbed like all the best resources created the scores together with other teachers who have scored 118 on TOEFL out of 120 I score it 117 out of 120 so you're gonna get all the templates you're gonna get all the explanations for all four parts you're gonna get exercises that you can work on make sure to hit a link below to enroll in this course it's gonna be really useful and I think this is the only resource that you need to prepare for TOEFL yes of course you need your English but then you don't need any extra books to get ready for this exam and again you need it for any program in the US the link is below there are some other exams that you need if you're applying for a bachelors program if it's a competitive program like if it's not a competitive program TOEFL would be enough if it's a very competitive program you would also need a fast SATs subjects for master's programs there is a GRE exam which is mostly for assent slash humanitarian subjects and there is GMAT for economics the same for a PhD but again if it's not a competitive university one TOEFL exam would be enough question number four how to apply to an American University it's actually very easy you go to the University's website and hit apply and everything is online you just attach scanned documents recommendation letters personal statement like everything is online and then you hear from them also online you're gonna receive like an email some universities will ask you to come on campus for an interview but that's only top universities like MIT Harvard the rest with either half interview via Skype or not have it at all question number five what is Americans relationship to foreigners a lot of universities are very international so don't be scared especially if we're talking about big cities New York like Los Angeles San Francisco there's so many immigrants here so everything should be fine please don't worry about it just make sure your English is good enough so you can communicate with other people but in general people are very friendly I've been in the US since 2015 I've never ever had a problem because I'm a Russian girl you know if you're smiling if you are not socially awkward if you're good at communicating with people then you won't have any problems so please don't worry about that how often should I be in classes during my studies in America you will have a chance to choose your own subjects and you have a chance to choose hello that you are during the semester for example you can take ten classes or you can take three classes and then it depends how much time you're gonna spend studying but also make sure you have enough time for rest for self-work because in America the program is structured in a way that yes you receive some tuition in class but you also have to do a lot of homework read books work on your projects and stuff so don't overload yourself but be ready to spend five to six hours in classes per day and then you know two or three hours in the library making sure you have all your homework done the next question why I decided to go to America instead of Germany so I studied in Germany when I was twenty years old nine years ago and when I came there like I love Germany Germany is one of my favourite countries and I love going there I love coming back there but the thing is the mentality is just not mine like Europe is not my mentality in terms of what I want to be now maybe in five years this changes completely but right now I want to be surrounded by people who are very successful because I you know I just see how I grow here in the US and when you realize like here in San Francisco you're surrounded by people who are billionaires and they started with like a small start-up and now the startup is Instagram or they started with a small travel company now this company's Airbnb and you like maybe I have a chance as well you know people come here with nothing and they hustle and then they become really successful this is something that I'm looking for for myself whereas in Europe everything is super relaxed like nothing works on the weekends everyone has this work-life balance you know 5 p.m. I'm sorry the office is closed I can't help you yes some people love it and I can see why people love it but right now at this stage of my life I just think that it's a little you know to come in too slow for me but again this is just my opinion you really have to make this decision for yourself safety in the u.s. I know it's a huge concern and mostly because there have been a lot of events recently with mass shootings and you know with stuff like people getting into prison and illegal immigration but the thing is I've done my research like I prefer to look at statistics and if we look at stats like why people die in the u.s. like top reasons would be heart disease or like cardiac arrest and stuff car accidents like even in the world these are top problems the thing is there are some problems that get a lot of media attention and we start fearing them instead of fearing what really matters like for example if the plane crashes we get it everywhere in the news but your chance of dying in a plane crash is like super super low but your chance of dying of a heart attack is huge and instead of like focusing on you know whether you it's dangerous to fly whether it's dangerous to be in this in that place make sure you're not eating in McDonald's every day make sure you're not consuming too much sugar because this is what actually messes up your system yes things can happen car accidents can happen flights crash etc but if you just avoid those things and sit in the tent and continue eating sugar there's like more probability that something's gonna happen to you so just focus on statistics you can always research the safety of you know the town you're going to there is open stats and research safety of your own city and compare again I prefer to look at statistics I prefer to even stop watching the news kits again they're talking about events that are just you know good for media and this is not a good picture of what you should be afraid of in your life because I will prefer if they talked about like bad influence of sugar and fast food on your body every day in the news instead of like focusing on something that's just you know really loud and huge event etc what should I study great question so again I think that you should only study things that you're interested in and if I tell you like hey you know if you study IT or engineering you're gonna have really good chance of getting a job which is true but if you hate it you're gonna hit your life and you were brought to this world not to hate your life you were brought to this world to do something that you're passionate about and if I tell you like become a youtuber or something like there are so many examples when people just do things that are not mainstream and they become successful and so the main question that you should ask yourself what I enjoy doing and try to scale it a little like if you're enjoy playing games would you be happy to design a game by yourself and this is like game design and this is a great thing to do in your life you're interested in painting would you be interested in becoming graphic designer and this is also a great profession but in general engineers IT specialists are in very high demand very easy to get a job - job how much is the tuition okay so bachelor's you can find programs that are as cheap as three four five thousand dollars a year but I would say these not the best programs and I would say you'd rather go and study in your own country in a better place instead of coming to the yes to get this ya know very good education good education costs twenty five thirty thousand dollars a year some programs at Stanford would be even more expensive fifty to sixty thousand dollars a year but again there is financial aid and there are things you can do to offset educational costs okay let's talk about financial aid in general if you're a good student I would tell you my case so you can compare but they're also like you don't have to be exactly like me my case I was a straight-a student at the University I scored seven hundred out of 800 on GMAT a hundred seventeen out of hundred twenty on TOEFL I got some really good prizes from the American government from German government so I have this really nice portfolio and I had my startup but I also know students who have done ten volunteering jobs and they got financial aid I will also know students that are very strong academically who got full financial aid and you know if we're talking about financial aid I actually wrote a book where it you know just gave all the information I have on financial aid how to find the right University how to pass examinations how to reach out a university inquire about financial aid and I can go on about this like for a very long time but yeah there's a link below I would suggest like just getting the book and reading everything it's a it's a pretty long book one video will not be enough to explain everything so if you're really interested in getting financial aid to study in the u.s. the link is below the book would help you 100% describes everything that I've gone through if I did work in travel would I have problems getting a visa the answer in general if you got accepted to a good university you won't have trouble getting a visa like 99% if you got accepted to a weird university the very cheap one you don't have travel history you've done work in travel you've done all this stuff yes you might not get a visa so in general I would ask a visa specialist in New York country to help you with that but yeah I would say that if you went on working travel came back home had no problems and didn't break the rules when you were here you won't have any problems with your visa is it hard to study in the is it competitive I think the u.s. is one of the most competitive countries in the world so yes it's hard to study here and get ready to work hard but my favorite saying is that if you make it here you can make it anywhere so if you made it in the United States if you're a good student here it's gonna be very easy for you to get a job anywhere in the world it's gonna be easy for you to start a company here so you know you're investing yourself you're invested in your future success when you're young it's really worth a while to you know spend time studying and I don't regret those years when I just sat down you know studied studied studied every single day cuz it's paying off it really helped can I work when I study yes you can on an f1 visa on the student visa you get 20 hours of work on campus if your program suggests that you have an internship you can apply for a CPT that means you can work off campus as well and when you graduate you have this opt and opt when you can work in the United States from 1 to 3 years after graduation and this is full time can I make savings during studies well I know some people who made some savings I was talking to the student and he was really into Bitcoin I don't know how he's doing now but he said he saves like thirty thousand dollars just because he was like buying Bitcoin and yes I know people who work in the evenings could doing some freelance jobs and stuff but I would say you're coming to the u.s. not to save money you're coming here to invest in yourself invest in your education I wouldn't necessarily look at this experience as something when you're you know building your savings yes this is when you mostly spend your money and when you work during your program how would you mostly use this money to make your life easier you know to rent an apartment to eat well to invest in some social activities and trips but no really to save money what is better academic success or publications this is a really good question I would say that numbers are really important so when somebody looks at your resume your portfolio they would look at what you scored and TOEFL they would look at your GMAT score and I would really invest your time in you sure your GPAs high your test scores are high and then if you have some time left then do your publications to your conference talks yes they add a lot but first focus on your numbers the next question is for me if I want to go back home and if I miss my mom of course I miss my mom of course I miss my grandparents and my father but what I also realized I go to st. Petersburg very often what I realized when I'm there is that yes I love this place but I get bored really quickly like two weeks to st. Petersburg and I'm like what should I do next because I don't know how to explain it like here in San Francisco I'm like oh my god there are so many people who are so much more successful than I am and they really need to work hard I want to meet them you know today I was talking to team drivers assistant about interviewing Tim Draper who's a billionaire and I realized this guy lives 20 minutes from here I realized there's instagrams office right here across the street there's Airbnb down the road and those guys started as a small startup and now they're like a billion dollar company several billion dollar company this is what I like to be surrounded by and I think but so my home doesn't give me that and I'm at this stage when I want to grow as a personality grow as an entrepreneur and I just want to stay here and my mom comes to visit and I talk to her every day but I think I'm better off being here right now maybe that would change maybe I would move back someday but you know for sure not this year and not the next year we'll see we'll see how things go I will update you on on my progress but again I think you should invest your youth into being in a competitive environment so then you can make your money or whatever and retire earlier u.s. or Canada this is a great question in terms of staying after setting I would say Canada 100% because you know what happens in Canada you graduate from your program you work for one year and you get this work for MIT and after you work on the year you can apply for a residency in Canada which means that your resident straight away you don't need an employer to sponsor a visa stop what happens in the u.s. is you need to find an employer I was gonna file for a visa there is h-1b visa which is competitive because there are only 65,000 visas a year and over 200,000 people apply you can get married in the US and stay here you can start your own startup and apply for an o1 visa and there are also other options but you need to work for them and get it or your like if you want to stay after your setting you just stay there which is amazing but again these are two different countries Canada is more secure Canada is more relaxed more like Europe I would say there are not so many top universities in Canada they receivership Toronto McGill University I mean University of British Columbia but America is Harvard MIT and stuff and headquarters of top companies that here in the US Canada is I would say in terms of like average salary would be lower level but again it's it depends on your character it depends on your personality if you prefer you know the slower life really safe I've been there it's Canada if you prefer to hustle if you prefer you know growing like crazy being really competitive them it's the u.s. which state is better for immigrants again there is no I haven't experienced any hate towards immigrants I know things happen so my rule of thumb would be we have Republicans and we have Democrats here in the US and Trump is a Republican and he's you know against illegal immigration and stuff so a Republican states would be more unfriendly to it towards immigrants but if you're an American and watching correct me if I'm wrong I don't know because I live in a democratic state I live in California and I would say 50% of people here are immigrants and we love immigrants and you know I don't even when I talk to a person I'm know like if he's an immigrant no he's local because there are not a lot of people who were born in San Francisco and still here I would say like San Francisco is our immigrants from other states other countries and stuff so if you're really worried if this is your fear of phobia you know just look at states that are democratic is it hard to get into the Ivy League that's a great question what you need to do you need find a university that you're interested in and Google this University Plus acceptance rate and you will see that on average for Ivy League universities the acceptance rate is from five to maybe ten percent which means that out of hundred people who apply five to ten people get in yes it's really competitive but you're not just applying to one University right when you're applying to study in the u.s. I would say play to five six universities to competitive to average two safety options and then you will get accepted what should I do if I have a low GPA do I have chance of getting accepted yes you do there's so many universities that accept people with lower GPAs and yes they're not like top universities because for some top universities the minimum GPA would be three point two out of four but come on there are lower ranking universities that you can apply for probably won't get financial aid because those universities don't really provide it but yes you have all the chances of studying in the US with a low GPA are there any scholarships for sportsmen yes there are but you need to make sure that you're an active sportsman that you have your footage from your latest competitions that your winning prizes at competitions that you can come here to the US and play for the team and the process would look like this you would need to find a trainer who's at a University whose training a team reach out of him tell him how professional you are he would want to see your professional sports resume he would want to see footage from your games and then he'll be able to tell you whether he would like to have you on the team and he would help you with getting a sports scholarship this is again a lot of work you would need to do your own research you would need to reach out to those people but yeah I know a lot of students who came here on a sports scholarship they did tennis they did hockey they did fencing swimming so those kinds of sports yes you have chances but again you have to be an active good sportsman with proof that you won competitions residency for tuition purposes this is a great question for example would take like a Californian University and we look at a tuition fees for residents for California residents there be like 10 to 12 thousand dollars a year I'm just you know taking averages for out-of-state students including international they would be like 25 to 30 thousand and some people were like on this to go can I buy a house in California and you know live there for two years and qualify for this lower tuition unfortunately you have to be a resident in California which means you pay taxes here you live here you work here so probably have your green card right and you live here for again it depends on the state but it's from one to two years and if you're already here and you have that then yes you can qualify for tuition for residency purposes but if you're a foreign student if you're outside the US right now I wouldn't even worry about that you know I would focus more on getting financial aid or applying for scholarships instead of just you know researching those residency for tuition purposes options how much does health insurance cost okay my health insurance is really expensive it's around $600 a month and I still have my copay when I go to see the doctor but the thing is healthcare in the u.s. is really expensive and if something bad happens you can end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars which is not the best thing to do so insurance is a way to you know feel safer for students it depends on where you are it depends on your University but I would say it's from 40 to a hundred dollars a month and the last but not the least how do I stay in the US after I graduate so we already talked about opt depending on what you studied you get from one two three years of opt which means you can stay in the US and work if you did stem subjects then you're gonna stay in the US for three years and work and if you did something that's not stem you're gonna stay for one year and you're a task during those years is to find a company that sponsors work visas for foreign students because some companies don't do that and for example you go to some Google's Department and ask them where they sponsor your visa and they would say hey no I unfortunately we don't do that you need to work for our Irish office and then we're gonna transfer you here and this is how it works the company maybe Facebook does that so you really need to ask and make sure that you are interning at a company or working for a company that will be able to sponsor your visa later on and this is super important thing that you would need to do if you want to stay because again getting a work visa is a process it's possible and the most common way the students stay in the u.s. is by getting the h-1b visa to work for a particular company but yeah as I mentioned there are other options like getting married and starting a startup and there's political asylum things so there are many things and you can talk to a lawyer but my advice to you is you know do a lot of internships and do them in companies that sponsor visas and always ask companies if they're gonna sponsor a visa for you that was it for me for today guys thank you so much for watching this video up to the very end if you're annoying subscribe just journal red button below and if you're not yet subscribe to an Instagram its lingual marina I highly suggest that you take her TOEFL course because again TOEFL is the exam that you need for any you know speciality any level of education in the US the link is below also if you're looking for a financial aid the link to my book is below thank you so much for watching this again I will see you in the next videos and yeah thank you bye

Channel: linguamarina

Views: 68,320

Rating: 4.9346323 out of 5

Keywords: english, english language, learn english, linguamarina, marina mogilko, linguatrip, english bro, acceptance rate, admissions, get admitted to your dream university, stanford, harvard, mit, university application, ivy league, college admissions, college decision, acceptance, accent reduction, how i got into harvard, college applications, college application, how to get into college, accepted, how to get into Stanford, university of Toronto, study in the USA, study in America, CalTech

Id: HlN6arL8qGE

Length: 25min 20sec (1520 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 23 2019