Thank you for attending our Kickin’ it Old School Class Room Series. I’m Bryanna Davis at Internationalstudent.com and today we’re going to cover how to find your dream school! How to find the perfect school to attend is something we have a lot of students ask us about but this can be a tricky question because the answer is going to vary with each student. However, there are a few main items that every international student will want to take into consideration when trying to find the perfect school to study abroad at.

First let’s look at the cost. You need to find a school that you can afford. If you have around $75,000 annually to spend on your education, then a private school is a good option for you. However, if that’s more than you can afford, or ever want to spend on your education, then you might want to consider a state school which is closer to around $18,000. Narrowing down how much you can spend will help you weed out the schools you can’t afford very quickly. On www.internationalstudent.com you can see schools in the US, how much they cost and filter out the ones you don’t want to consider.

Second, look at the degrees that are offered- you will want to of course make sure that the school you are considering has the degree program you want to pursue. For example, if you want to pursue Aviation you need to make sure that the school you are interested in has an aviation degree program that you think will help you excel in the industry. Going beyond that, make sure that the program is one that will help you succeed in your future career path. You can do this by seeing what past and current students who took the program before you have to say about it, if they were able to find a job, and how long it took them to find a job after graduation. You can also check out the required classes you will be taking with the program to see if they will interest you and be a challenge.

Third is location. Where do you dream of studying? Do you want to live in a big city, do you see yourself at the beach all the time? The US is huge so more than likely it has whatever type of landscape you are after. One thing to keep in mind when deciding on your location- the cost of living. Living in New York City is going to be vastly more expensive than living in Kansas City Missouri for example. Pick your dream location, but be financially realistic when you do.

Fourth is rankings and reviews- We all know about ranking programs, and while that’s fine, looking at the rankings of a school shouldn’t be your final deciding point when picking a school. What you do want to check out are student forums where you can get actual feedback on schools along with the social media pages of the schools you’re interested in. Seeing what they are doing on Facebook and Twitter, and how students are interacting will give you great insight into the culture at your prospective school. If you want to check out and compare school profiles, along with the cost of tuition and their social media profiles, keep in mind you can do so at www.internationalstudent.com.

-Just to recap- using these four tips will hopefully help you find your dream school. If you still need help finding the perfect school or you, go to www.internationalstudent.com and check out the school profile pages for more information on schools including the cost of tuition, degrees offered and their social media pages. Good luck, and class dismissed.