Saying some of their own college on the day-to-day use of money and money-saving habits, the concept of saving money here is partly how not to spend unnecessary money, and partly if you spend money on how to maximize the value of it. I am not an expert in investment and life finance, some small summaries are for reference only.

1. About cards.

I have three cards right now.

One is a BOA tuition card, which is a portion of the money I saved on tuition for school, and the rest was spent on my parents' graduation to the US this summer, as well as on a car and furniture. This card is usually kept at home.

There is also a card Chase (checking account + saving account), this card is a payroll card, work above the direct deposit linked account, every month's salary will be deposited 15% into the saving account (school time income is limited usually 25-70 per month, money is less).

There is also a Discover credit card, which is generally used for travel, but will be transferred in a timely manner to avoid debt.

2.

It's a good and necessary habit to keep a running tally, whether it's in a small notebook or on an app on your phone, whether it's for big purchases or just everyday errands, it's important to keep track of everything. Even if it's not down to the decimal point, it's still a good idea to have an idea of how much money you've spent recently, and on what.

Personally, I love the Handyman app, it takes 2 seconds to write a note, 3 seconds to write a note, and there are so many cute little icons and analytics.

3. Applying for Scholarships

Generally speaking, there are three types of scholarships in the United States: service scholarships, non-service scholarships, and school loans.

Non-service scholarships have the largest number of applicants and the largest amount of money, and include college grants, scholarships, full tuition waivers, and other specific awards.

Service scholarships include teaching assistantships and research assistantships, which are usually required to help teachers with research and development tasks or teaching assignments. However, there are three types of scholarships that do not strictly require you to have excellent grades.

The first is Need-Blind , which means that when studying for admission, once they think you meet the admission criteria, they will make a judgment based on your family situation, and the school will take the initiative to try to provide for expenses that the student is not able to afford. Even if the student does not put forward the need for scholarships, the school is also happy to take the initiative to provide, with the aim of attracting outstanding students to enroll.

The second type is Need-Based, where scholarships are awarded based on the income of the student's family.

The third type of scholarship is Teaching Assistant (TA) and Research Assistant (RA). Usually as a Teaching Assistant, you need to teach classes and correct homework for college students, and the workload is usually more. As for Research Assistant, the workload depends on your professor.

There are also a number of prestigious universities in the United States that have strong requirements for applicants' own academic ability and overall ability, but the vast majority of prestigious universities in the United States, almost 100% of international students have the opportunity to obtain scholarships. The following is a table of scholarships for some of the top schools in the U.S. We can see that the percentage of scholarships awarded by these schools is very high, and some of them are even more than 80%.

4. Work and study

The United States not only has a very large number of famous universities, these schools also provide students with a lot of part-time job opportunities. Usually, American students are not willing to do these part-time jobs, which gives Chinese students more opportunities to fight for them.

Students can get these part-time jobs through the campus network or through recommendations from instructors. On-campus part-time jobs are about 20 hours of work a week, with low pay but safe and enough to subsidize students' living expenses, such as school libraries, campus cafeterias, and computer rooms, which not only satisfy the study requirements, but also solve the problems of living.

Another way to work and study is to participate in Curricular practical training programs (CPT for short), which is equivalent to graduation internship in China, and is provided by the school. International students can take advantage of their vacation to participate in it after completing their course assignments. During CPT, you are treated the same as the employees of the company you work for, which not only satisfies your needs monetarily, but also helps you find a job after graduation.

Of course, you may be able to work on your own if you have experienced "severe financial hardship" since enrolling in the program, have been enrolled in school for at least one year in good academic standing, and are unable to obtain an on-campus part-time job or a part-time on-campus job. The salary of the "on-campus job" does not cover your financial expenses.