Financial Pressure
Financial pressue is another big problem international students have to face, especially those who do not get financial aids and have to pay tuitions and living expenses all by themselves.
Fee international students have to pay to the universities is pretty high, compared to local students. Taking the tuition standard at UF as an example, international graduate students have to pay $971.48 per credit hour while graduate students who are Florida residents only need to pay $341.29 for each credit.
Moreover, as many internatinal students coming from developing countries, the exchange rate between U.S. dollars and their domestic currencies could be high. A small amount of money to an American can be significant to an international student, which also means that international students have to cost a big fortune for study in the U.S., if they do not get any financial aid.
Also, international students are not eligible for loans unless they have a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident willing to co-sign for the loan or they got citizenship themselves.
Then, you would probably say why don't they find a part-time job when studying. In fact, unlike U.S. citizens, international students with F-1 visas are with limited work permit on campus and no more than 20 hours per week. Among the jobs available on campus, some are only available to students of federal work-study program, which lead to even fewer job opportunities for the foreign students. Restrictions on international students really leave them with few viable options. Earning money while at school is difficult for international students.
Possible Solutions
Many international students choose to come to the U.S. due to the wide availability of scholarship awards and financial aid for excellent students from all over the world regardless of race, religion or gender. Although many international students get financial aid in the United States, there are still limited amount of fundings to help international students with financial problems.
Considering all the financial pressure international students have to bear, there are a variety of potential solutions.
First, international students should consider possible financial problems and evaluate their abilities to finance their education abroad when making their plans to attend universities in the United States.
Second, it will be great if universities and the society could provide more scholarship and offer a wider range of job opportunities for international students.