Parents need at least 1 billion VND/year to be able to send their children to study abroad.

Sharing at a recent study abroad seminar, Ms. Le Dieu Linh - Deputy Director of Summit Education Organization gave statistics on the average cost for an international student studying popular majors such as Engineering, Business, Computer Science, Healthcare... in the US, Canada, Australia, UK. Accordingly, the average cost (both public and private schools) is about 1.3 billion VND/year, including accommodation and living expenses.

Healthcare is always the most expensive field because it requires long-term investment. Engineering is next because there are usually few scholarships.

Specifically, at well-ranked schools in Australia, the UK or Canada, international students still spend about 1-1.2 billion VND/year for all tuition and accommodation expenses. However, according to Ms. Linh, there are still universities that cost about 600-700 million VND/year, but they are usually not well-ranked schools.

In the US, the financial level needed to prepare for studying abroad is more diverse because it depends on the region and the model of public or private school. In particular, the highest level currently in the US is about 2.5 billion VND/year for top schools, such as Harvard University or Johns Hopkins (USA).

For “premium” private schools, if the candidate is well prepared and gets a scholarship, he will have to pay about 800 million to 1 billion per year. Excellent students who win scholarships may only have to pay 100-200 million VND per year.

In addition, the amount of financial contribution also depends on the duration of study. For Engineering, Finance, Business, usually 4 years of study can be completed and students can work immediately after graduation. But for majors such as Health Care or Law, students will have to go a long way, about 6-8 years.

“Therefore, students need to try to apply for maximum scholarships in the first four years, because in the years after graduate school, financial support may be less,” said Ms. Linh.

Parents need at least 1 billion VND/year to be able to send their children to study abroad. *Illustrative photo*

Many parents and students expect that when studying abroad they will be able to work part-time to cover their expenses. However, according to Ms. Linh, in the context that some countries have created “barriers” in recent times, international students and their families should carefully calculate enough finances for 4 years.

“If you plan to work part-time to cover your tuition fees, it will be difficult to quantify your financial capacity. Especially in the context of countries creating barriers for international students, working part-time unrelated to your major will easily be classified as illegal work and you will be deported,” said Ms. Linh.

In addition, even with scholarships, the cost of studying abroad is still a burden if the family is not financially strong. For example, in the US, if you win a 100% scholarship, international students still have to spend several hundred million VND on other miscellaneous expenses besides tuition and accommodation.

Sharing the same opinion, Ms. Harriet Pham, admissions officer of the University of Toronto (Canada's number 1 university), said that international students and their families need to prepare about 1.5 billion VND/year, including tuition and accommodation costs if there is no scholarship.

Currently, this school has about 5,000 scholarships for international students each year, which are automatically considered based on the students' academic performance.

In addition, each year, the school offers 37 full scholarships (including all costs from tuition, accommodation, books for 4 years) for excellent international students. However, this scholarship is fiercely competitive, with about 2,000 applications submitted each year worldwide . Each year, Vietnam has about 1-2 students who win this scholarship, all of whom are the only representatives nominated by high schools.

Meanwhile, Ms. Vivian Vo, admissions officer at the University of California, Riverside (USA), said that on average, international students spend about 2 billion VND/year for all expenses of accommodation, study, and insurance.

“The school’s current maximum scholarship is about 550 million VND/year. So, parents still need to pay about 1.4 billion VND/year,” said Ms. Vivian Vo. This is also the highest scholarship currently among the 9 schools in the University of California system.

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Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/phu-huynh-can-it-nhat-1-ty-dong-nam-moi-co-the-cho-con-di-du-hoc-2446865.html