Nicole Namy, adviser for international students and scholars said this increase is really expected this year. She said this welcome development for international education program is shown to be successful as students in different countries continue to enroll overseas despite the global economic crisis. In fact, Ziying Pan paid MSU full tuition for the whole semester as she is not eligible for scholarship programs of the school as well as government grants.
It is reported that there was an increase of at least 7.1 percent in the tuition for international students per academic year and undergrad international students are included in this increase in tuition. The truth is that they are not also eligible for financial aid being enjoyed by US residents. But Pan said in order to augment her other schooling expenses she needed to work part time in the campus. Pan is taking a math major at MSU and she’s originally from China.
Val Meyers, MSU associate director for the Office of Financial said Americans students can easily apply for student loan through the FAFSA program of the US government or otherwise known as Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Unfortunately for international students they don’t have such option enjoyed by the Americans. In other cases, Meyers said, there are international students that are also financed by their home countries maybe for study purposes in other countries. “Actually, there are 38 percent last of our international students who have availed of students but the interest rates are too high just because they are not citizens of America. She said the MSU alone has more than a hundred scholarship programs but the qualifications are strictly for the Americans.Another international student Mamud Dako from Nigeria, and who enrolled at MSU since 2005, also enjoy the full tuition paid by his family. He said Americans are very lucky they can enjoy student loans to guarantee their future. There are only few private student loan international students can qualify.