It’s already hard to figure out what university to go to when you’re from the US – being from a foreign country makes it so much more difficult. After all, if you’re in the US you can at least visit the campuses, talk to people who know what they’re doing and you’ve already been exposed to a lot of the universities through TV and social media. If you are from Nepal, on the other hand, where are you going to get your information from? And if you don’t know how to go, how are you ever going to find the college of your dreams or choose the right career path afterwards?
For that reason, it’s important that we have articles that will give you some insight into what universities which will work for you. And so – as there doesn’t seem to be much on the topic out there –we decided to write one ourselves.
Here are some universities well suited for foreign students and Nepalese students in particular. Which universities are those? Read on!
Santa Monica College (SMC)
The California-based Santa Monica College is a two-year public junior college (and public means cheaper than private) that is right up there near the top of all the transfer colleges. The great thing is that once you’ve attended SMC you’re more likely to be able to transfer to such high-ranking universities as the University of California, University of Southern California, and other four-year universities.
In other words, you’re positioning yourself for a bright future.
The school has occupational certificate programs in 80 different fields, as well as an Arts Mentor Program in case that’s your thing. Here select students get to have grade-level training from actual professionals from the field.
If you do go here then you’ll be joining such luminaries are Rickie Lee Jones, Ryan Seacrest, Sean Penn, Dustin Hoffman, James Dean, David Geffen, Hilary Swank and more.
University of California, Berkeley
UC Berkeley is old – at least by US standards. It was founded in 1869, though back then it was the University of California. It moved to Berkeley a year later and was later renamed to ‘Berkley’ in honour of the philosopher George Berkeley.
It’s famous for being very research-oriented. For example, The Berkeley Lab has discovered 16 chemical elements, which is more than any other university worldwide (as of 2011). A more dubious but equally important distinction is that the physicist Robert Oppenheimer – you know, the guy who invented the atomic bomb – heralded from its ranks.
It doesn’t end there either, with faculty, alumni, and researchers have won a total of 72 Nobel Prizes. Seven Nobel laureates and 4 Pulitzer Prize winners currently work there. There are 14 colleges and schools, 130 departments and 80+ interdisciplinary research units.
And all that is just the tip of the iceberg.
University of California
While we’re in California, let’s look at the university that actually has the name. The University of California was founded in 1882, while the UCLA campus was established in 1919. UCLA is an ivy school that is also public.
It is the third-oldest campus in the California system and, together with Berkley, is probably one of the most famous. It isn’t an easy school to get into, as UCLA is one of the most applied to schools in the entire of the US. For example, in 2014 105,000 applications were received. Still, that isn’t quite as bad as it sounds, as the school is also very big. There are five undergrad colleges, seven professional schools, four professional health science schools.
The staff includes 15 Nobel Prizes, 12 Rhodes Scholars, 1 Fields Medalist, 3 Turing Award winners. Fifty-two faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Science and 26 more to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. And it goes on.
If you’re into sports, then there’s another distinction that the UCLA holds and that is that it has the second most Olympic Medalists of any school in the US – not counting the most recent Olympics.
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University may be the largest privately-owned art and design school in the United States. They’ve been awarding Bachelor’s degrees since 1966, right after the school was incorporated.
There are two degrees that you can get, as well as three master’s degrees, one associate’s degree, and several certificate programs. While there, you can also attend Continuing Art Education courses in more than 30 different areas.
The school charges blanket tuition, no matter where you come from. For those reasons somewhere around 30% of the Academy’s students are international. Of course, as you probably already know, federal and state financial assistance isn’t available to you as a non-us citizen.
University of Texas
Over in Texas is the University of Texas. It always ranks highly for the best universities in the US. For example, in the Times Higher Education magazine in 2013 it was ranked 15th in its ranking of top ‘young’ schools.
Even more impressive, according to Fortune magazine 14 out of the 20 most profitable businesses in the US recruit from this university.
Of course, as everything is bigger in Texas, so is the university. It has 130 undergrad and graduate programs. This includes the highly prestigious MBA program.
Where it isn’t bigger is in terms of how many staff they have to students. This number is 1 to 21. And that means small classrooms with lots of personal attention. Here too there are a lot of international students, with 20% of the student body coming from across the borders.
Last words
Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot more good universities out there. Still, these are some of the best choices out there and you should definitely consider applying to them if you think you’ve got a chance of getting in.
If you want more advice to talk to the United States Education Foundation in Nepal. They can offer you some great insights into what your possibilities are and where you should try applying. Good luck with the hunt. I’m sure you’ll do fantastic!