The United States of America is one of the top countries for education and work opportunities. The USA is a vast country with tons of universities and colleges, and also, it is an expensive country to study, but it does not mean you can’t consider the United States for your future education. You have a lot of opportunities to get an American Education.
What options do we have to study in American universities?
The easiest and most necessary way to study in the USA is to enroll in an English Language Course. Why? It is easy, and you don’t need to take any tests such as TOEFL or SAT. You can take a summer camp or intensive summer courses at the university campus such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford and have an opportunity to live together with university students. Completed will tell you a lot about American universities, and you will get used to using American English more than British English. This will also help you to decide which American university or college is right for you. It is easy to choose the most top-ranked university when you are in Azerbaijan, but it is hard to study in those kinds of universities once you start your courses on campus. Many Azerbaijani students have suffered from making the wrong choice, failed and returned their home country.
Additionally, you can transfer from Azerbaijani High School to the USA High School and finish your school there. This will make your transition to the US universities much easier. You will know what is going to expect you at an American university level. You will be confident in the American English that will help you a lot at the university. I can assuredly tell that even though your TOEFL score much higher, you may suffer from following professors’ lectures at the university. Real usage of American Academic English is much more different than the TOEFL score. If you don’t want to study full high school there, you can quickly do a one-year exchange program in the USA and then come back to Azerbaijan to finish your high school and then apply for a university. This will help you a lot, and it will be cheaper.
What about if you have finished your High School in Azerbaijan?
Landing in a foreign country where you don’t know anyone will be hard for you to manage everything smoothly. Without friends, parents, it won’t be easy to cook and study. It is a new country with new people, and you have to explore and learn a lot. That is where university preparation programs come to help. Many great universities understand that US universities are going to be difficult for international students to start university directly. So, they have prepared programs that help students to improve their English and study at the end of subjects to be able to survive the first year (freshman year).
Most international students think that it is terrible to study in preparation first, and they go directly to the degree which will be challenging to manage. You will have no real help because as an independent freshman student, you will get less help to get used to the American education system.
To tell the truth, most American students don’t go to the university directly from high school as well. You would be surprised! They are American, they speak the language, and they have finished an American high school. Nope. They also understand that they need a transition to be able to study in the US university. They don’t want to get lower grades, so they enroll in the community colleges first and take classes for one or two years there and then transfer to an American university.
Taking community college after high school is a perfect choice for many reasons. First, community colleges are half price in compared to university tuition fees and they are easy to study. It is called 2+2 program. It is effortless to follow, and you save a lot of money in the end. Plus, you don’t need even to take SAT to go to the community colleges. You may not need IELTS as well, but you should have an intermediate level of English to be able to take classes and progress.
Which route should I take then as an International student?
1. You can study one year preparation and then go to the second year of university ( the most recommended option). If you have good IELTS score and no SAT, and your high school grades are good or excellent, this route is for you. You will have a nice transition and will not lose any year to finish your bachelor’s degree in time.
2. You can take the 2+2 route, enroll in the community colleges if you don’t have an SAT, IELTS scores. You will take classes for two years year get better with the help of the college (many Americans take this route) and then finish the last two years at your desired university.
3. The final one is to apply for a direct course which is more difficult and has more risks of failing and returning to Azerbaijan unhappy. If you have higher TOEFL or IELTS score, higher SAT I score, and excellent grades from your High School, then this route is for you. It does not have any difference among the options as all three is going to be four years. This one is only for students who have studied well in his/her high school, have skills in note-taking, writing and understanding natural English. This means you have to take your classes as most talented American students and be able to study thoroughly like them.
I would recommend direct bachelor studies in the USA for students who have spent one or two years in an Azerbaijani University. They have already exposed to some degree of the university experience, so they can survive in an American university and can keep their grade above average.
There are universities where you don’t need an SAT to get direct bachelor. This doesn’t mean they are weak universities; this is just to show that test is not everything for university admissions. You could be an excellent student but not able to get higher scores on standardized tests.
What should I do if I have a bachelor’s degree from an Azerbaijani university?
Doing a master’s degree in an American university is much more rewarded than many other masters in the world. At the same time, it is also challenging to study. Almost all US universities require GRE or GMAT exams on top of TOEFL score. It is hard for the most Azerbaijanis to deal with TOEFL preparation, GRE and university studies simultaneously. So, most students most likely can take TOEFL exam and finish university.
The only solution for this is Pre-master or Graduate Pathway programs to finish master’s degree in two years. All US master programs are two years anyway, but if you don’t have a GMAT or GRE, you will need to take Graduate pathway together with your master’s and finish in two years. The first year you take your master classes and your GMAT or GRE preparation. And the second year you are entirely focused on your master thesis project and finish your degree.
What about if I want to study direct master’s degree?
Yes, it is possible even though I don’t recommend it. I have taken it myself and have suffered a lot for it. It will be too hard for you if you go to a typical American university and if you have finished bachelor’s degree in Azerbaijan. Also, you need to have higher TOEFL score (100-110), plus GRE or GMAT. If you have worked in an international company in Azerbaijan, that would be very helpful, and you would have enough skills to finish American master’s.
How much does a university cost and how do I pay?
Apparently, there isn’t a free university in the United States. All English speaking countries offer free education neither for their citizens nor international students. But there are many scholarship opportunities for you to explore and cut your costs into the half. If you want to pay less and study in the United States, please look at the options below:
- If you have higher SAT I score, higher TOEFL score and excellent grades from high school, then you have higher chances to win a scholarship. I would advise you to take all your documents and visit one of our CELT Offices (Iceri Sheher, 28 May or Narimanov office). We will analyze your documents and will recommend you the best scholarship opportunities. For example, if your university studies are 20,000 USD, we can get a scholarship and cut it into the half. If you save 10,000 each year this makes 40,000 USD for four years and this is a lot of savings for you already.
- What about if you don’t have a higher TOEFL score and no SAT I? You can still study with lower tuition fees and get real US education. I would suggest 2+2 programs for you. You can pay 13,000 or more dollars for a community college and then move to the university after two years. If you have higher grades from community colleges, you have higher chances to get a scholarship from universities as well.Finally, how much does it cost to study in a US university if there is no any scholarship opportunities? That is a great question I wanted to answer it at the end of the blog. Most students just want to look at the costs and then don’t study the rest of the article. You just need to accept that there is no free education in the US. You just need to accept it. You have to be able to pay something at least to continue your education.
- But if you an international Olympic winner in Education, you have a lot of opportunities to study for free but if you are!. So, let us accept your boundaries and act accordingly. Otherwise, you will get burned in the middle and will have no way further.
So, the minimum education costs including your accommodation and meals together start from 20,000 USD per year to 60,000. Of course, this changes from states to states, from cities to cities. In the USA, the first year, you have to live in the university dormitory, and I would recommend adding your meals. The first year you have to focus on your education only. Not other things would take your time.
Good luck and please leave a comment below if you have any question.