EDUCATION EXPENSES

[AKteacher 104]

My future spouse would like to continue her education in the US (get a Masters Degree) as soon as possible after she arrives.

I'm a US citizen and a resident of my state. Once we are married, will she be considered a resident for tuition purposes, and thus be able to get resident tuition rates? Nonresident rates are usually about twice as much as resident rates. I realize this is up to the individual educational institution, but has anybody had any experiences with this?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

My future spouse would like to continue her education in the US (get a Masters Degree) as soon as possible after she arrives.

I'm a US citizen and a resident of my state. Once we are married, will she be considered a resident for tuition purposes, and thus be able to get resident tuition rates? Nonresident rates are usually about twice as much as resident rates. I realize this is up to the individual educational institution, but has anybody had any experiences with this?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Depends on your state and your school. Alla was granted residncy status immediately by her college. We got her SSN 16 hours after she arrived and she began her classes for her Masters of Teaching English as a Second Language 5 days after arriving. The SCHOOL accepted her aws a resident upon demonstrating that she did not move here for the intent of attending school. I actually did this before she arrived. The SCHOOL gave her a 50% tuition grant. It is a private college.

The STATE of Vermont would not accept her as a resident for tuition or loan/grant purposes until she had been here for one year, regardless of her reasons for moving. This ruling applies to state universities and state loans/grants ONLY. You state may be different. Our local communinty college WOULD accept her as a resident for tuition purposes, but they did not offer a masters program she wanted.

The federal government will not consider her a resident until she has a green card. Since she already has a 4 year degree, she will not be eligible for any Federal student GRANTS, including Pell Grants (unless that changes with the recent education funding bill, but I think it will not) She CAN receive federal student loans after she has a green card.

Private scholarships of any kind, of course, make their own rules.

Get her diplomas and transcripts and get them translated. Send them off to "ECE" for a professional evaluation of her credentials (Google "ECE"). Check into the TOEFL exam, she will most likely need to take and pass witha minimum score (varies by college) the TOEFL exam. She can take the TOEFL exam before she arrives. Alla and our oldest son took the TOEFL exam in Russia. It is an assessment of English ability and is required by most colleges and universities. Community Colleges usually do NOT require the TOEFL exam. If she speaks English pretty well (approx. high school level ability) she will pass the TOEFL wuth no problem

This is all stuff you can be preparing now, before she arrives, which helps to pass the time and is very constructive.

FYI, despite the fact that Alla spoke English very well before I met her, and even worked as an interpretor in Ukraine/Russia, she took a few months of ESL classes upon arriving. These are free and not a bad idea. Alla is crazy about studying and spends a lot of time at it, so for her it was great. It was surprising, despite her ability at English, how difficut it was for her to communicate with Americans at first. The accent throws them off plus they use just TONS of slang and idioms that foreign students never get taught and we take for granted. Example...We dropped a car for service the first week she was here, the repair shop guy says "OK, Gary, I will buzz you when it is all set" Alla says "Voooowhat veel he do to you?" LOL They DO cover slang and idioms in higher levels of ESL classes. Alla was studying them every night, pages of them!

Good luck

[andana_dj 0]

My future spouse would like to continue her education in the US (get a Masters Degree) as soon as possible after she arrives.

I'm a US citizen and a resident of my state. Once we are married, will she be considered a resident for tuition purposes, and thus be able to get resident tuition rates? Nonresident rates are usually about twice as much as resident rates. I realize this is up to the individual educational institution, but has anybody had any experiences with this?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Hello,

I am looking forward to get my Master Degree as well, and the Institutions I am interested in are requiring at least 12 months proven residency (i.e bills, tickets, bank accounts, ID). And yes this resident/non resident tuition difference is more than double in most cases, which is very discouraging...

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Moving from Finding Work forum to Moving Here and Your New Life in America forum as post is not related to finding work.

[K and L 27]

The SCHOOL accepted her as a resident upon demonstrating that she did not move here for the intent of attending school. I actually did this before she arrived. The SCHOOL gave her a 50% tuition grant. It is a private college.

We had the same experience here. Because L isn't coming on a student visa, and he's coming to the US to marry me NOT to go to school, because *I* am a resident, they said he gets to be treated as one for tuition purposes. (ETA: Obviously, this is something we've talked to the school in advance as we don't even have the visa yet.)

That said, like Gary said, the state and federal government don't consider him to be a resident. State run colleges & universities are so screwy, because the state will consider you a resident for everything else (taxes, driver's license requirements) but oh oh oh, not for university.

Edited March 22, 2010 by K and L