How to Get Into, and Afford, University In the United States

I was lost. Like, literally lost. It was my first day at New York University. The school prides itself on being a vital part of the city itself. It's not set back from the rest of New York on a cloistered campus or way out on the edge of some outer borough.

But the thing about a school that's indistinguishable from the rest of the city is that it's so easy to get lost. Then there was the rest of it. At this freshman ice breaker event, I told everyone I was from Indonesia to be met with a room of blank stares. One of them asked me if that was in Polynesia. But then later, someone else's face lit up at the mention of Indonesia and asked if that was where Rich Brian was from—at least we're getting somewhere.

I had gotten the opportunity to do something a lot of Indonesians dream of—attending university abroad. And I've been lucky enough to do it in New York, of all places. Of course, this wasn't time for a victory lap. I still had at least four years of classes, exams, and all-night crams to pack in before I earned a degree. That's four years of living in one of the most-expensive cities on Earth, taking classes about stuff don't teach back home, and navigating the social fabric of a rapidly changing country full of outrage and frustration.

But, still, I had done it! How? Here's what I learned during my long journey to university abroad so that, you too, can find yourself walking into a dorm during freshman year on some campus far, far away.

Universities in the US cost A LOT of money. In a list of the most-expensive universities on Earth, four of the top five are in the US. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) costs an outrageous $51,520 USD per year. That's an insane bill by graduation, one that looks even more unreal when you convert it to rupiah (so many zeroes!).

The first thing you need to do is visit your preferred university's website and scroll over to the part titled "International Student Expenses." This is where you're going to learn, for the first time, exactly how much trouble you're in. In the US, students who attend a public university and live in the same state get to pay a discount. International students? We pay full price.

My school, NYU, told me that it would cost $50,644 USD a year. I considered immediately closing the tab, opening up a Google tab, and looking for another school that wouldn't take so much of my money (OK, my family's money). It's a common reaction. But right then, when you're feeling like this whole dream is impossible, take a moment and remember that there's help out there.

I'm talking about financial aid. You need to learn the difference between scholarships, financial awards (one's you don't need to pay back) and student loans (ones you do). Financial aid is what you want here. It's available to Indonesian students, and, unlike loans, it's all yours for free.

Some of these knock a few thousand dollars off your annual tuition to covering the entire cost. It's important to poke around and figure out which universities and colleges offer the best financial aid packages to Indonesian (and other international) students.

Take Wesleyan University, for example. The liberal arts school offers students from Asia the Wesleyan Freeman Asian Scholarship Program, which covers the entire tuition of 11 students from across Asia. That still leaves you with the costs of travel, housing, textbooks, and living expenses, but all of those pale in comparison to the cost of actual tuition.

And then there's schools that offer the same financial aid packages to everyone, regardless of the color of their passports. Emerson College is one of these. Emerson will consider all students for scholarships that total between $6,000 USD and $18,000 USD, amounts that can make a serious dent in the cost of school abroad.

Tulane University, in New Orleans, has scholarships available for students who can commit to working a pre-defined number of community service hours per week. There are so many of these out there and, instead of listing them all, the point here is that you need to shop around and find the school that's best for your future and your bank account.

There's always the other way—student loans—to pay your way through a university in the US. Most of your classmates will have at least one loan to the their name by freshman year, but international stories aren't eligible for loans offered by the US government. This leaves private loans, which tend to be far less attractive an option.

You need to learn the difference between "needs-blind" universities and the ones that are just "needs-aware." "Needs-blind," means a school has a policy to not take your, or your parents', financial situation into account when deciding on your application. That means that they often have a wider range of financial aid packages than most.

But not all "needs-blind," universities are actually blind. Some of them are "needs-aware," meaning that they'll ask you what kinds of help you need, if you're an international student. The "needs-blind," stuff is only for domestic students in those instances.

So while Cornell University and the University of Southern California (USC) are truly "needs-blind," schools like the University of Pennsylvania and unfortunately my very own NYU aren't exactly the kindest towards international applicants.

The best time to start applying for, and receiving, scholarships and other financial aid packages is during your final year of high school. This way you have plenty of time to think about how else to afford your education. While it's usually against the rules to work on a student visa in the US, international students can typically work on-campus jobs, like shifts at the library. You're legally limited to only 20 hours a week, but the extra cash definitely helps.

It can take so much effort to make it overseas, why waste it by being too uptight to embrace a new experience? Throw yourself into your classes, engage with others in conversation, and ask a lot of questions. Talk to your professors and, whenever you feel like it's a bit much, just remember how much this all costs.

Eat new foods. Meet new people. All of those things. But also don't be ashamed of who you are. After all, New York might be full of amazing food, but my roommates rice cooker is still the most-valuable thing in our dorm room. Some things don't change.