Applying to Grad School

[nitad3 80]

Hi all, 

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I hope this is the right place to do so! 

 

I'm currently waiting for my K1 via approval, and I am hoping to make it out to US before September. When there, I'm hoping to attend a grad school in my state (Michigan). 

From what I understand and read on similar forums thus far, I am able to apply for Grad schools or perhaps community colleges whilst waiting for my AOS. Could anyone confirm that this is the case? 

Does anyone have any experience with applying to Grad schools and could give me some guidance on how their experience was whilst awaiting an AOS? I would love to hear any experiences anyone had with the process. 

Thank you so much in advance! 

[Loren Y 2,731]

I enrolled my fiancee in college shortly after she arrived here on a K1. She also started a trade tech school a few months ago. Since she can't work yet, gives her something to do. Just know going in the only thing that isn't good is you are here legally, but not a citizen, or technically a resident of the state you live in, so expect to pay more for credit hours as you will be an international student basically. I finally managed to get her a state id after the first month or so so I was able to prove she is a resident of the state, and that is why I was able to get her in the trade school. Make sure the first thing you do is get a SS card, do it the day you land, or the next, once you have that you should be able to get a limited term state ID, but that's good enough for most schools to get the in state rates for education. So get a state ID, then enroll in college or grad school. Every school is different I'm sure, but they all have different rates for in state, out of state, and international students.

 

I don't think you need to wait to enroll, once you're here, you should be good. My fiancee enrolled on her I94 with no issues, and that was only good for 90 days, and they haven't said anything about her status since, and the I94 expired in mid February.

[nitad3 80]

5 minutes ago, Loren Y said:

I enrolled my fiancee in college shortly after she arrived here on a K1. She also started a trade tech school a few months ago. Since she can't work yet, gives her something to do. Just know going in the only thing that isn't good is you are here legally, but not a citizen, or technically a resident of the state you live in, so expect to pay more for credit hours as you will be an international student basically. I finally managed to get her a state id after the first month or so so I was able to prove she is a resident of the state, and that is why I was able to get her in the trade school. Make sure the first thing you do is get a SS card, do it the day you land, or the next, once you have that you should be able to get a limited term state ID, but that's good enough for most schools to get the in state rates for education. So get a state ID, then enroll in college or grad school. Every school is different I'm sure, but they all have different rates for in state, out of state, and international students.

 

I don't think you need to wait to enroll, once you're here, you should be good. My fiancee enrolled on her I94 with no issues, and that was only good for 90 days, and they haven't said anything about her status since, and the I94 expired in mid February.

Thank you so much for your quick and very helpful response. Makes me a little more assured that I will be able to apply to school, and like your fiancé, have something to do! 

 

Did you call up the admission offices of different schools to find out their requirements beforehand? Or did you wait until she was out there? 

[Sarah&Facundo 576]

My husband started community college two months after arriving at the start of the semester. He did not have his EAD card or anything yet. They let him pay in-state tuition, not international tuition. I guess it depends on the school.

[Loren Y 2,731]

2 hours ago, nitad3 said:

Thank you so much for your quick and very helpful response. Makes me a little more assured that I will be able to apply to school, and like your fiancé, have something to do! 

 

Did you call up the admission offices of different schools to find out their requirements beforehand? Or did you wait until she was out there? 

I didn't check anything beforehand, but that is a good idea. I'm sure most of the requirements are on the schools website, and like the other poster said, some schools will let you do in state, some won't, depends on the school, but one thing you should have no issues with is all the admission people we delt with knew a lot about all the visas and immigration rules and how the whole thing works. Can't say the same for the DMV, SS office, and everywhere else you try to get things done.

[millefleur 5,035]

Not so much about AOS but more about going to college in general while being an immigrant, this is what I can say: it all really depends on each individual school. The community college here is super relaxed about in-state residency requirements, but the state university here required my husband to wait 1 year before he could qualify for in-state tuition...despite the fact that he has obviously never lived in any other state before ever. 

 

Also my husband already had a GC because we did the CR-1 and the uni here did specifically ask to see a copy of his GC and visas. The community college, however, did not ask to see any of that. Again, this will probably hugely vary from school to school. Have you tried checking in with the schools' admissions and residency offices specially yet?

[nitad3 80]

9 hours ago, Sarah&Facundo said:

My husband started community college two months after arriving at the start of the semester. He did not have his EAD card or anything yet. They let him pay in-state tuition, not international tuition. I guess it depends on the school.

Thank you for letting me know, definitely reassuring that in general most places seem to be fine with accepting students without AOS!

7 hours ago, Loren Y said:

I didn't check anything beforehand, but that is a good idea. I'm sure most of the requirements are on the schools website, and like the other poster said, some schools will let you do in state, some won't, depends on the school, but one thing you should have no issues with is all the admission people we delt with knew a lot about all the visas and immigration rules and how the whole thing works. Can't say the same for the DMV, SS office, and everywhere else you try to get things done.

Perfect, I think I'll start trying to gather more information about all schools. I'm glad at least one of the processes appears simple enough then! Haha 

[nitad3 80]

46 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Not so much about AOS but more about going to college in general while being an immigrant, this is what I can say: it all really depends on each individual school. The community college here is super relaxed about in-state residency requirements, but the state university here required my husband to wait 1 year before he could qualify for in-state tuition...despite the fact that he has obviously never lived in any other state before ever. 

 

Also my husband already had a GC because we did the CR-1 and the uni here did specifically ask to see a copy of his GC and visas. The community college, however, did not ask to see any of that. Again, this will probably hugely vary from school to school. Have you tried checking in with the schools' admissions and residency offices specially yet?

Thank you so much for telling me about your experience, it's so helpful to see that the process looked like for your husband! 

 

I have contacted a few schools, and similarly to what you have said, I've received quite mixed feedback regarding tuitions. Community colleges seem to be little more relaxed comapired to state universities. 

Did you contact most admissions via telephone or email? I've had some schools not respond to emails I sent a little while ago, so I'm wondering whether it's best to just give them a call... 

[millefleur 5,035]

3 minutes ago, nitad3 said:

Thank you so much for telling me about your experience, it's so helpful to see that the process looked like for your husband! 

 

I have contacted a few schools, and similarly to what you have said, I've received quite mixed feedback regarding tuitions. Community colleges seem to be little more relaxed comapired to state universities. 

Did you contact most admissions via telephone or email? I've had some schools not respond to emails I sent a little while ago, so I'm wondering whether it's best to just give them a call...  

We mostly spoke via email as that was the residency officer's preferred method of communication. She was pretty good about responding too. When my husband was finally eligible to apply for in state tuition after 1 year, we submitted all the docs and he was approved via email.

 

If there's a phone number you can find, calling would be great. I like calling people because you can get answers right then and there. Another good thing to check in about is financial aid. My husband qualified for financial aid right away as a GC holder, I'm not sure if there are restrictions on that when waiting for AOS.

 

 

[nitad3 80]

2 minutes ago, millefleur said:

We mostly spoke via email as that was the residency officer's preferred method of communication. She was pretty good about responding too. When my husband was finally eligible to apply for in state tuition after 1 year, we submitted all the docs and he was approved via email.

 

If there's a phone number you can find, calling would be great. I like calling people because you can get answers right then and there. Another good thing to check in about is financial aid. My husband qualified for financial aid right away as a GC holder, I'm not sure if there are restrictions on that when waiting for AOS.

 

 

I didn't think of asking about that, so I'll definitely do that next time I manage to get hold of someone. Thank you for your suggestion! 

 

What kind of documents did the university need to determine financial aid? 

 

Again, thank you so much for your help, this is such a confusing time, and I feel like I'm having to dig for information everywhere about everything. So I really appreciate your help. 

[millefleur 5,035]

7 minutes ago, nitad3 said:

What kind of documents did the university need to determine financial aid? 

Actually, financial aid was the easiest part. We just went through the FAFSA and filled it out and that was it, no supporting docs necessary. Once my husband's in-state residency was approved, we contacted the FA office and told them that he was now in-state. Once they verified that with the admissions office, they then updated his FA package and he got more financial aid - woot! I think you might have to be a LPR (GC holder) to fill out the FAFSA though.

 

In terms of the residency, the uni had an application form and a list of supporting docs to prove in-state residency. We submitted tax returns (married filing jointly), a copy of our lease, copy of my husband's driver's license and car registration/title, copy of GC, a few other things with my husband's in-state address and a cover letter explaining the situation: basically, that he's a foreigner and has never lived in any other state and he moved here to be with his spouse. They were concerned about "Why did you move to this state?" and the main thing was, you had to prove that it wasn't for school. This process may vary depending on the school, but here (Oregon) this was the standard process for all state schools. It could be more relaxed in your state, I've heard the process is really different in other states.

Edited March 16, 2019 by millefleur

[Liam2021 551]

Community college is two year college, so they only offer associate degree. The Grad School(Master) offer at any State University and the requirement to get in Grad School is you already have bachelor degree.

[samuelam 19]

Most Grad School in US require GRE from applicate from other country. You might want to plan on take the exam and get the score before applying to the University.. 

[C90 376]

14 hours ago, nitad3 said:

Hi all, 

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I hope this is the right place to do so! 

 

I'm currently waiting for my K1 via approval, and I am hoping to make it out to US before September. When there, I'm hoping to attend a grad school in my state (Michigan). 

From what I understand and read on similar forums thus far, I am able to apply for Grad schools or perhaps community colleges whilst waiting for my AOS. Could anyone confirm that this is the case? 

Does anyone have any experience with applying to Grad schools and could give me some guidance on how their experience was whilst awaiting an AOS? I would love to hear any experiences anyone had with the process. 

Thank you so much in advance! 

Basically what others said already, depends on the school. Some schools won't even accept K1 holders that are in the AOS process (before EAD) since they have no proof of legal status (although this is pretty uncommon)

The community college I went to for info told me I can enroll, but have to pay international student fees as long as I don't have my green card. Not sure why some schools do that and other let you pay the in state tuition, but make sure you get all the info before enrolling in any school to avoid financial surprises.

[millefleur 5,035]

27 minutes ago, samuelam said:

Most Grad School in US require GRE from applicate from other country. You might want to plan on take the exam and get the score before applying to the University.. 

This is a really good point. My husband enrolled as a transfer student (from his uni in Russia) to an undergrad program, so we didn't have to deal with test scores.

 

16 minutes ago, C90 said:

Basically what others said already, depends on the school. Some schools won't even accept K1 holders that are in the AOS process (before EAD) since they have no proof of legal status (although this is pretty uncommon)

The community college I went to for info told me I can enroll, but have to pay international student fees as long as I don't have my green card. Not sure why some schools do that and other let you pay the in state tuition, but make sure you get all the info before enrolling in any school to avoid financial surprises.

I think it's because AOS is a kind of limbo period before permanent residency and doesn't have a hard and fast definition the same way full LPR does, therefore every school just goes about it differently. Once you're a full LPR, you're basically not considered an international student at all, you're treated no different from US citizens.

 

Totally agree about getting all info before enrolling to any schools. Also, grad programs tend to be very expensive and more competitive than undergrad, so it's worth double checking that it makes sense financially. I'm pretty sure a student wouldn't qualify for government loans or grants until they are a full LPR.