Money for College

I have a J1 visa and I want to continue my education with an MA; is there a way of getting a loan if I don't know any American person who could co-sign for one? What about other ways of funding? A scholarship is out of discussion, as I don't have an F1 visa. Thank you all for your reply. Appreciate it.

I have a J1 visa and I want to continue my education with an MA; is there a way of getting a loan if I don't know any American person who could co-sign for one? What about other ways of funding? A scholarship is out of discussion, as I don't have an F1 visa. Thank you all for your reply. Appreciate it.

I think you need to first adjust your status to F1 before you can go to school.

I'm no expert, but I would try to get a teaching or research asssistant position at a university you are interested in. Talk to the department that you are interested in studying in at some universities and ask what kind of TA or RA positions they have available for graduate students. If they are interested in you, they will help you work out the visa details. If no luck that way, try the financial aid offices at some universities you are interested in. A word of advice - large state schools seem to have the most positions available.

Sorry, I am ignorant about j1 visas ~ my understanding is that you need an f-1 visa to go to school.

Regarding financial aid:
Since you are not a Citizen or Resident you will not be able to qualify for any federally funded schoolarships, which pretty much pushes the State Schools out of your domain (true, state schools may have a limited amount of privately funded scholarships, but they are limited).

I came to America a while back, and quickly realised that only Private Schools will give me the financial aid I needed (I needed 100%) ~ though Private schools cost more than Public (double or triple is standard), they have the freedom to give their $ to non-citizens and non-residents (they also offer some government funding, but I am talking about their private funds they receive from alumni, their communities and such).

Another thing that worked in my benefit, was that the president of the school I went to had it on his personal agenda to increase the diversity in this school, and my graduation and success became somewhat of their goal as well ~ so look for schools eager to proove their commitment to Diversity (smaller schools may be easier to work with). So I received both private grants and private loans while on f-1 visa...

That's what I can offer from my experience.

Good luck!

[Asylee]

If you are a citizen or one of these:

An eligible noncitizen is one of the following:

A U.S. permanent resident who has an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-551 or I-151)

A conditional permanent resident (I-551C)

A noncitizen with a Departure record (I-94) from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) showing any one of the following designations: "Refugee," "Asylum Granted," "Indefinite Parole," "Humanitarian Parole," or "Cuban-Haitian Entrant."

Then you can get financial aid.

Thank you all for the answers. I'll look more into this and I'm sure I'll find sth that will work out eventually.