Golden Ticket to a USA Education

This is the 3rd post in  a series of information from my upcoming book, Your Golden Ticket to College in the USA, which explains every step you can take to save you and your family tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. How? By going to a community college for your first two years as an international student and then transferring to a four year university for your final degree.Before I unwrap your Golden Ticket to a USA education, I’m going to explain how to take advantage of attending a community college for your first two years, here is some helpful information about the myths about community colleges here in the USA.document.createElement('video');http://visausaexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Willy-Wonka-And-The-Chocolate-Factory-Charlie-Finds-A-Golden-Ticket-1971.mp4These myths about community colleges make getting your own Golden Ticket so much easier because they allow for almost any student to be accepted and they are not overcrowded and expensive like four year universities here in the U.S.Myth #1: Students go to community college because they weren’t accepted by a four year school.Fact: There are many reasons students attend community colleges instead of traditional four-year colleges and most of them have nothing to do with being accepted to a university.Sure, a year or two in community college can be great for students who want to improve their grades and improve their English proficiency.It also gives them time to adjust to the lifestyle of college instead of having them show up a week before classes and jump into a full load, after just moving to a new country.The primary reason students go to community college first is because of the tremendous cost savings. According to the College Board, tuition and fees for a public two year school average only $2,544 during the 2009-2010 school year.Compare this to $50,000+ price tags of public universities like UC Berkeley and Sarah Lawrence, and this means students can graduate without a lifetime of debt hanging over their heads.Also, since schedules are much more flexible, even international students on an F1 visa can find the time to work at a job, part-time, if they desire.When all of these advantages are combined, it’s easy to see why international students should take advantage of our community college system before transferring to a four year university.Myth #2: If you decide to switch schools, very few credits will transfer.Fact: Selecting the right school is important and for international students picking a community college with the intention of transferring to a four year it’s even more important.The best way to ensure your credits will transfer is to meet with an adviser or counselor before or during your first semester at community college. All international programs have an advisor who can explain the agreements in place where you are located and they will also discuss your goals and help you pick out an effective schedule of classes.This guidance will include letting you know about the classes that offer the most credits to reviewing articulation agreements, which are negotiated documents that clarify what’s needed to transfer from one school to another.Myth #3: If it costs less to attend, the quality of education must be worse.Fact: Although most students in the USA believe this to be true, the numbers and costs show clearly that community colleges offer an excellent education for tremendous savings.I touched on this in the 1st and 2nd posts in this series, but let me elaborate. Attending a community college allows international students to get credit for courses that are taught by qualified instructors, in smaller classes, with a support network built in to their college lifestyle, for up to 1/8 the price of a university.The classes in a community college are nearly identical and in many schools the college faculty members also hold teaching positions at universities in the area. The woman teaching your English class could actually be the same professor teaching your new friend at the big state college, or a private university across the city.The difference is you will be on a first name basis with your instructor because you are not part of the other 300 students in a lecture hall class.In this Washington Post article, it explains how community college professors are more motivated by their students because they usually show more motivation and determination that their four year counterparts.Myth #4: Most community college students are older, grown up students.Fact: There are indeed a number of community college students who are older and have decided to go back to school in order to gain additional training or switch careers, don’t think these classmates are going to have grey hair and talk about the good old days.Research shows the average age of a community college student is 28 and only 16% are over 40. There are also large numbers of younger faces because some community colleges allow middle and high school students who are not challenged at the high school level to attend classes.Myth #5: Your two year degree won’t be take you as far as a four year degree at a university.Fact: This is perhaps one of the biggest changes happening in higher education here in the USA. There are too many students to count who have attended community colleges and gone on to become famous here in the USA: There’s Oscar winners Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood, presidential candidate H.Ross Perot, fashion designer Calvin Klein, Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, astronauts James McDivitt, Eileen Collins and Fred Haise, MasterCard founder Melvin Salveson and the man responsible for many of our fondest childhood memories, Walt Disney.Although you will be on a two year transfer degree as an international student, there is also research now that shows some two year career degrees earn far more money than four year degrees from a university.Your college experience is what you make of it regardless of where you go to school and you owe it to yourself and your family to do like these individuals did and use every resource available to your advantage.Your Golden TicketSo you and your family, if you follow the steps in my book, can eventually watch you walk down the aisle from Rutgers, or Princeton, or Virginia, or the Florida State University and receive your bachelor’s degree.  All of your will be smiling because as an international student you were smart enough to realize that you paid far less than half of the four year’s tuition (average today to be close to $100,000+) because you took advantage of going to a community college first!This is the 3rd post in a series of information from my upcoming book, Your Golden Ticket to College in the USA, which explains every step in the process of saving you and your family tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars by going to a community college for your first two years as an international student and then transferring to a four year university for your final degree.Keep reading about how to unwrap and reveal your own Golden Ticket at gousavisacenter and please send me a comment if you have any questions or want to know more about anything I’ve written here on my site.GoUSA!– Mike