How difficult would it be to transfer to a North American university?

March 7, 2008 4:01 PM

I'm half-way through my second semester at Winchester School of Art and I'm thinking about transferring. I'd really like to study in Canada or the US but I'm worried that it would be prohibitively expensive or horribly complicated to set up. Exactly how difficult would it be? Would I have to pay full tuition without any financial aid? Would the different education system cause a lot of problems? What other hurdles would I have to overcome?
posted by Andy Harwood to education (4 comments total)

Our son's experience, when we came from the UK to the US on a working, non-resident visa, was that he had to pay full fees (multiple times higher than California residents paid) and could not get any financial aid -- kind of a double whammy, because as a non-resident dependent he wasn't eligible for a work visa so couldn't get a job. I hope you find a better way, but it sucked financially for us.

I don't think the different education system would cause you problems; things seem more flexible here in 'higher education' (though I'm out of touch with how things are in the UK now.)
posted by anadem at 5:23 PM on March 7, 2008

Find a program in Canada where you can do co-op. Co-op students are allowed to work. So, while you might have to pay $10k a year for tuition, you can pick up 4 paid semesters of work. (I don't know the going rate, but you might swing $2,000 a month x 16 months in total).
posted by acoutu at 5:34 PM on March 7, 2008

Are you now considering transferring instead of doing an exchange program?

The financial aid available at US schools will vary significantly from school to school. Most public universities will charge higher tuition for students who are not from the state where the school is located. Beyond that, different states have different rules about whether you can qualify as a resident after a year if you moved there just for school. If they're charging nonresident tuition, it can be as much as a private school.

Private schools also vary a great deal. It used to be that many offered no financial aid to international students, or did not do need-blind admissions for international students, which was effectively the same thing. There has been a movement away from that, so your options are probably better now than they would have been even 5 years ago.

Are you looking to attend a school focused on art, such as the San Francisco Art Institute or California Institute of the Arts, or do you just want to study art at a North American school? If it's the former, the list of schools you're likely to give serious consideration to is probably short enough that it would not be prohibitively time consuming to just spend an afternoon emailing the admissions and financial aid people at each. Just describe your situation and see how they respond.

SFAI spefically mentions grants for International applicants on their financial aid FAQ:

International Student Grants are need-based grants awarded to international students. Applications are available in the Office of Financial Aid.

So it's not unheard of for them to take students from abroad, or for them to provide financial assistance. I didn't dig around for info about transfers or exchanges.

A lot of the schools have this info available though, and staff whose job it is to answer these questions. Theire admissions people can probably offer insight about the differences in educational system as well.
posted by jewishbuddha at 7:28 PM on March 7, 2008

I have no experience with financial aid (for residents and foreigners) but i CAN tell you that studying in canada will almost always be cheaper than studying in the US. Unless you plan on doing a LOT of shopping, and then taxes might get the better of your budget... I'm studying at a top canadian university now, and I'm paying half of what US students pay at not-as-top universities.
posted by Planet F at 8:15 PM on March 7, 2008