Really difficult to make decision help me !!!

[bulgan]

Hi and thank you for reading my post .
I finished my high school last year and now I am a freshman in my home country, Mongolia. My university is one of the best universities in Mongolia. My major is Information system management and I don't really interest it. I had planned and wanted to study for financial management but I took not good score at entrance exam even though I practiced lot. I was good at math in my high school but that day I was very unlucky. I tried to change my major after I entered but they said it is possible after 2 semesters , it means I will lose one year.
Then I decided to study abroad . I have prepared for IELTS test to study in the USA and I took my score on March so it was band 6.5 from 9. It is quite enough for undergraduate school in America except for top universities such as Harvard and Yale. But most scholarship deadlines have passed on march 1. I was planning to take SAT test on May but it is not necessary if scholarship deadlines have already passed. But next year after I take all necessary tests I can apply for early decision deadline of schools , but I will lose one year too. After one year I will be 19 years old , and I think it is quite old for undergraduate freshman.
But there is a still chance to go and study in american undergraduate school by Agency. But it costs 5000 USD only for intervening . And schools they offered is not good enough , but not very bad. They offer 50%-100% scholarships to study in those schools. But there has been no one who has taken 100% scholarship. But they said it is possible to take full scholarships. And they said I will pay 10000$ to 15000$ minimum. My father earns 3000$ per month. And we need proof of finance to take a visa and pay for school tuition . And there will be more costs such as flight and any other. My 2 best friends study in America and they went by Agency too . but not same as mine. We don't have any savings for my tuition , but my father said he will lend money if necessary and pay back part by part from his monthly earning. But I don' t want to burden to my father.
What should I do? Wait one year to take full scholarship or pay money to agency for go and study in american normal accredited schools?

[starslayer]

I would wait a year and get a full scholarship. 19 years old is not terribly unusual for incoming university freshmen here in the US, and many people don't even have a major until their second year or switch it after a year. No one's going to look at you funny or anything just because you're 19 and entering university. If you're also thinking, "Oh man, I'm going to be 23 when I graduate! 23!! That's way too old!" Don't. Many people, including some of my friends who are damn smart people (several are going to graduate school in the physical sciences) took/are taking five years to graduate.

Another reason to wait is your financial situation. You have no substantial savings for university, and your father only makes $36,000 a year. You don't want to be in the position of having to take out student loans to graduate in your situation, which you would have to do even with a reasonable amount of support from your father, since you would not benefit from resident tuition. This means that even at public universities your tuition bill would be on the order of $30-40,000/year in the absence of scholarships.

I would also think about what you are going to do with this degree. Will going to an American university as opposed to the one you currently attend actually benefit you in getting a job? That is, will employers care that you have a degree from, say, UC Berkeley instead of the University of Mongolia or wherever? Have you at all thought about if you might be interested in going to graduate school at any point?

Also, on what criteria are you judging schools? What makes you say that the schools offered by Agency are not good enough (it would help if you could provide a list of some example schools from their offerings)? Keep in mind that the U.S. News and World Report rankings (the ones most commonly cited/used in the U.S.) and similar are largely complete bullshit, and not really a very good metric to use on judging the quality of a given university.

[freakish777]

I would also think about what you are going to do with this degree. Will going to an American university as opposed to the one you currently attend actually benefit you in getting a job?

Yes. A startling number of World Leaders have US educations:

http://www.educationusa.info/files/a3a6 ... 0Today.pdf

The number of international business leaders (for businesses not created in the US) is probably also disproportionate in favor of leaders with a higher education degree from a US university (although I don't have any statistics off hand to back this up at the moment).


A degree from the best Mongolian University will be good inside of Mongolia (from anyone that's heard of it's reputation). A degree from an average or above average American University (that's well known) will be good just about anywhere (from anyone that's heard of it's reputation).

The important question after that is "Do you want to move away from your home country permanently?" If yes, then an education from a US University will go a much longer way. Even if you don't, if you wanted to be, say, "Mongolian Ambassador to the US" then studying in the US would likely be more beneficial than studying in Mongolia, as you'd have a perspective on the way Americans think, and how to interact with them when you need to make a deal or come to a consensus on the best way forward. If you wanted to be "Mongolian Ambassador to China" then studying in China would probably be better.

Speaking of China, they've been sending engineering students here (the US) for years, trying to overcome the gap in our economies to the number 1 position (the idea is that the students bring the knowledge home with them, to improve processes in China, and make China a better place). Unfortunately for them, this has back fired:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_drain#China

[Bakemaster]

Do not trust independent agencies that say they will send you to the US for whatever. Many are dishonest, some are criminal, and even the ones that aren't bad can cause you all sorts of problems if you happen to get in some sort of trouble or want to extend your stay, for example. I would strongly advise you to wait a year. There really is nothing special about being 18 or 19 or 17 or 25 as a freshman in college. Hardly anyone cares exactly what age you are. The only time it ever comes up is in relation to alcohol, and even then, older is generally better.