Next start hunting for a job. Most on campus jobs are usually in dining services as dishwashers and food preparers. Go to the offices of the company that manages your school’s dining services and fill out an application form. Similarly, go to the Residential Life office, public safety, campus recreation and the library and submit forms. Remember to submit your resume along side, even if they don’t require one. The school Student Union should also hires a lot of students.

The trick to getting a job is persistence or your application will gather dust. Speak to the supervisor in charge of hiring. Follow up by email, phone or in person once you have submitted your application. I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep in touch with the people who are hiring. This is because often the number of applications is far more than the number of open positions. Since campus jobs require little skill, the thing employers are looking for most is enthusiasm. Show them that you really want the job.

On campus jobs usually pay $7.50/hr but this varies among different states.

If you absolutely need an on campus job while you are going to college, my suggestion is to apply for admission to bigger state universities. This is because bigger universities will have more job positions and therefore more job opportunities for international students. Smaller colleges have less job openings and those usually fill up with American students on federal work study grants. The trick to finding out whether a particular college is “international student friendly” is to look at their international student enrollment. For example, Saint Cloud State University has almost 1000 international students and the number keeps increasing every year. Click here to read the article on Saint Cloud State University.

If you can get a job as a Residential Advisor/Community Advisor, then the school will probably give you free room and board and a little bit of money. Residential advisors are responsible for students who live on their floor. However, you can only get this job once you have studied at the college for some time and have experience of on campus living.

A handful of these colleges (Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Amherst, etc.) offering need based financial aid to international students are also need blind in their admission decision. This means that your capacity to pay for your education will not factor in the admission decision because these universities have a need blind admission policy. Your chances for admission will remain the same whether you apply for aid or not. Basically if you can get in, the expenses will be taken care of. As you can imagine, the universities and colleges offering need based financial aid to international students is limited and the competition is extremely intense. International students who usually get these scholarships are well accomplished in academics and extracurricular activities. Obtaining a seat in any one of these U.S. colleges will get you through college without any financial worries.

Colleges that offer need based financial aid to international students are:

Amherst College

Brown University

California Institute of Technology

Claremont McKenna College

Columbia University

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

Duke University

Georgetown University

Grinnell College

Harvard University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Northwestern University

Pomona College

Princeton University

Rice University

Stanford University

University of Chicago

University of Pennsylvania

University of Richmond

Vassar College

Wellesley College

Williams College

Yale University

This may not be a comprehensive list of all the colleges offering need based financial aid to international students. If you know of other schools that offer similar financial aid, please add it to the comments section.

So what are the steps required to get into an U.S. institution, you might ask. It’s really quite simple actually. One needs to start planning and preparing early. The most important thing to do would be to get good grades in school. U.S. colleges and universities lay great emphasis on student grades in school. So get those grades up. Another thing to do would be to participate in lots of extra curricular activities. Get involved in after school programs and take on leadership roles. These will greatly boost your application for admission and scholarships.

Take the SAT and TOEFL exams by December of the previous year that you wish to enroll. Although some schools do not require the SAT anymore, it is still a good idea to take BOTH these tests because apart from the admission process, they also establish your credibility as a bona fide student to the visa issuing officer.

There are many institutions of higher learning in the United States. Finding a school that matches your educational and financial needs is a course in itself. So start researching early. The internet is always a good place to start. Don’t rely too much on rankings. One criterion that I use to find out if a school is good for me is to see the number of enrolled international students. If you are really serious about studying in the U.S. apply to at least five schools. One of them should be a back up school that you are sure you can get into.