 How should students create a budget for themselves and what are some good tips? Right. Well I think this is a subject that's very near and dear to my heart personally because when we as university admissions representatives are reaching out to students whether at the graduate or the undergraduate level we're not just looking at the outreach we're looking at the retention of that student and there are several levels of retention there's the academic retention so when we're making a decision we want to feel confident that the students can succeed in our program whether it's an undergraduate or a graduate but then we also are saying fiscally can they sustain themselves over the four years if it's an undergraduate or two years or five or seven years if it's a PhD program so the tips one would be as I mentioned earlier planning ahead having a really good conversation with your family doing your homework checking the resources in country through your education USA advising center through your ministry of education if they're offering scholarship incentives through any organizations if your city has a sister city agreement with another with a city in the United States maybe there's some interesting homestay opportunities that could save money so some of the tips would be and maybe I'll focus now more on the undergraduate side of the house that all of the above planning ahead contacting education USA looking at opportunities to perhaps start at another institution that is less expensive whether in your home country or in the US and then transfer I always tell students it really doesn't matter when somebody asks you where did you go to school what they're asking is where did you graduate so where you started is the starting point where you end up is what you are going to be more or less talking about to the world if a student is coming in from a system the educational system of the British A levels the Caribbean Cape exams the French baccalaureate the German Abitur the IB programs or AP high school programs anywhere in the world many universities may have advanced standing policies that would allow the student to get credits for those classes taken if they meet the academic criteria that can save money as well that can save sometimes up to a semester which could be translated into a lot of money at an institution so one strategy would be check the policies of the university to see if they have advanced standing policies check and see if they have sports scholarships check and see if you're in the performing or the visual arts if they have talent based scholarships check and see if they have endowments based on diversity and if you come from a background that is very interesting you may be a unique person that they want to bring to that university but strategy is think four years don't think one year to the next go in with a plan that is going to be a long term sustainability because we as universities want to have you there till you graduate and to be very proud of you when you are when the students are a love as well thank you Evelyn