 Hello, my people. Welcome back to the Score Channel. Last week we showed you the first half of how to study in the United States, and this week we're finishing it off. If you haven't seen the first half of the video, then go back, check it out, and then when you're done, come here. Let's get started. I guess we do have to talk about the elephant, don't we? So, okay. Everything about the United States is great, except in this one little detail. You said it, the rent is too damn high. It's actually the most expensive country on the planet to study, and that makes it tough. Now, there are ways for you to save money on studies in the United States. I made a video a little while back about seven ways that you can save money on studying, and I talked about some of those ways which specifically apply to the United States. None of you people watched it, so I assume you're all super rich, in which case I'm probably going to be opening a Patreon soon. So, how bad is it? The most expensive universities cost $78,000 a year, including room and board, and for that price, considering a four-year plan for university, you could easily buy a Ferrari and simply drive around and pretend like you graduated from university, and people would probably believe you. Education in the United States can cost more than a Ferrari, but it doesn't have to. There are ways for you to save money in the United States, and very few people actually pay the full price. It's kind of like buying a car. There's a sticker price on the window, but then there's what you actually pay after you negotiate and haggle and bring your used car in for some trade-in value. You're going to see a big inflated price, but the truth is 90% of students do not pay that price. Most people get some kind of financial aid. That financial aid can come in two forms, merit-based scholarships and need-based scholarships. Need-based scholarships are, as they sound like, scholarships based on your economic need. If you can show that your family doesn't have the money to pay for this ridiculously expensive education, they might be able to help you. Merit-based scholarships, on the other hand, focus on your academic records and your performance in your SATs or your GPA to get an idea of whether you're a really good student and whether you deserve a pat on the back for your hard work. If you're interested in getting a scholarship as a student-athlete, it's a wildly different process and you need to be prepared far in advance, so we're going to have another video on that coming up soon as well. Here's the thing. The dirty little secret of studying in the United States is that if you can pay the full price, you're more likely to get in. The university system in the U.S. is kind of pay-to-win and the reason for it is simple. What's happened over the years is that burden of paying for college has shifted from state taxpayers to the families themselves. Public universities are underfunded and don't get enough support from their state governments, so they don't have enough space for most people and that means that private universities have an advantage. They know that there's not enough space in public schools, so they take advantage of that and charge higher prices. Just this last year, Columbia students refused to pay their tuition because of the outrageous prices. It's starting to reach a point where a bubble might burst. Will it get cheaper in the future? It's hard to say. At the moment, if we're being honest, the United States is not the best value. There are other places where you can study and get a high quality education for less. Having said that, if you can't afford it, give it a shot because it's one of the best systems in the world in terms of individual freedom, flexibility, and the opportunity to, you know, practice shooting guns. And this is my baron arms with bear arms. Merrick, if you can pay for it and money's not an obstacle, go for it. Enjoy yourself. If you need some financial aid, then ask the universities, but understand that when you ask for that money, your chances of getting admitted go down. Don't be surprised if you get rejected because you asked for a full ride scholarship. They just don't give those out that much anymore. What we generally do at SCORE is that we recommend that you put your United States universities on your list, but you have your plan B. If money's an obstacle, make plan B somewhere in Europe. So if you get admitted and you got the cash, time to get a visa. The U.S. has three different visa types for educational purposes. Those are the J visa for exchange students, the M visa for vocational studies, and the F visa for university students. You're not allowed to accumulate university credits on any other kind of non-immigrant visa, so don't even try as a tourist. We've talked about the visa process in other countries and usually you need an acceptance letter to get your visa. In the United States, we go a step further. You have to tell the university that you decide to enroll with them and once you start enrollment, they will then send you an I-20 form. You'll then be able to pay the I-901 fee, which is $350. Go to FMJfee.com to pay the $350 fee to SEVIS, the student exchange visitor's information system. Once you have your I-20 form and your I-901 receipt for your payment, then you can pay the MRV, which is the non-resident visa fee. Yes, two fees. That visa fee is $160. Then finally, you can fill out your DS-160 form and schedule your appointment at the embassy. Now to fill out your DS-160, you're going to want to have your passport handy because they typically ask you questions about your recent travel or travel to the United States as well as some basic information that's on your passport. So the form takes about an hour to fill out and it's okay for you to get some additional help. If you need that help, you know where to go. Once your form is filled out, you can schedule your interview at the embassy. A lot of the other countries we've covered are pretty much a guarantee for you to get the visa. Like you show up, you've got your papers, they look at the papers, they look at you, they say, okay, here's your visa. Not so easy in the United States. There's no clear information on what percentage of F visas get rejected, but some sources say it's about a third of them. Now not all of those are just because the admission officer was in a bad mood. Most of the time it's because of an error on the application itself, but sometimes it can also be because the officer thinks that you want to stay in the country. Just like we talked about in the Australia video, you need to make it really clear that while you love the United States, you don't love it that much. If your forms are all correctly filled out and it's clear that you're not going to stay after you graduate, then chances are you'll get your visa. Most students do. If you get rejected, make sure you do ask for a specific reason why you were rejected because if it was a clerical error with your forms, you can usually fix that. But there are no appeals if they decide that they think you're going to stay in the country. So if you've made it this far, congratulations! That is everything you need to know to study in the United States. Oh, it's a long process. It's a big country and that's why we're trying to make this information a little easier for you. But if you need some help and you want someone to walk you through the process from start to finish, then you know where to go. prepwithscore.com Check us out on Instagram at prepwithscore and let us know how we can help you. We've helped a bunch of people get admitted to great universities in the United States and we're only seeing even better results going into this year. Now that we've finished this last admission cycle, it's time to start again. If you're thinking about studying in the United States, you need to start now. It's never too early to start, but it definitely can be too late. Thanks to a bunch of people clamoring for the United States, this video exists. So if you want to make a video exist, let me know in the comments below. I'll see you next week.