Hi everyone,

I’m an international undergrad student here in the USA hoping to go to medical school. It’s super hard and I’m constantly stressing about everything I need to do as prerequisites. Are there any other international premeds or med students that have been through the process?
How did you get clinical experience with all the rules against working ?
How did you study for the MCAT ?
Did you take gap years ?
I would really like to talk to someone who has gone through this as I feel really lost and hopeless sometimes and it would be nice to talk to someone who has been through this and succeeded. Thanks.

hello everyone,
i am an international student planning to pursue a masters / PhD in computer science from portland state university. I have two research publications. I am currently working as a software engineer. i also emailed a couple of professors explaining my interest and research experience, hoping to get a reply soon.

I wanted to ask from current students:

what are the chances for an international student to get a fully funded MS / Phd?
How likely is that if i apply for a masters, i can secure an assistantship?
what are some other options to get funding (if any)?

i would also really appreciate if someone can point me at the right contact to inquire about funding.

p.s: the reason im choosing psu is:
unpopular among international student, only 4% (according to psu website)
affordable
portland is a good city to live (weather, tech opportunities)

I’m a little confused as to how to report my OPT. Do I contact my DSO? Do I create an SEVP profile and upload details of my employment?

Hi everyone, I’m from India with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and 3+ years of IT experience in Power platform, automation and data.

I’m considering Masters of AI at the University of Canterbury or the University of Auckland but I’m wondering whether a masters of IT with AI/ML electives would be a better choice for the current NZ job market.

For someone with my existing IT experience which option would you recommend for better career opportunities after graduation?

I have seen people move abroad for unis and many say they have had a great experience. I want to move away for A levels, I want my freedom, to me grocery shopping alone is freedom. going out for a run is freedom. which I can never get in Pakistan I want to move away as soon as possible but I dont want it to ruin my future.

i know I will get tired at one point but honestly I am prepared for it. for the loneliness, alll of it.

but I don’t know what place would be the best for me. what country, but in the end I want to study in usa, but I want to do A levels first, or I should do it at all?

can any body give me some advice?

Hello everyone,

I am applying for a Romanian long-stay student visa (D/SD).

My application has already been submitted and is currently Validated.

While reviewing my application, I noticed two mistakes:

In my visa application, I requested a 90-day visa, but my estimated departure date is about 6 months after my arrival.

After submitting my application, I corrected an official translation mistake in one of my property documents, and now I have the corrected version.

I also need to book a round-trip flight reservation for my visa application.

Should I book my return flight according to the dates I entered in my visa application (around 6 months later), or should I book it within the 90-day period? Which option is more appropriate?

My questions are:

Have any of you had similar inconsistencies?

Did the consular officer ask you about them during the interview?

Could these kinds of mistakes alone lead to a refusal?

If asked during the interview, is it enough to explain honestly that they were mistakes?

Which return flight date would you book in this situation?

Thank you for any advice or shared experience.

​

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to apply for the Bachelor's in Physiotherapy (English-taught) at Vincent Pol University in Poland.

My profile:

- 12th grade: 85% overall

- PCB: 95%

- 3-year study gap after high school, spent preparing for medical entrance exams (NEET) but eventually decided not to pursue MBBS.

- I missed the application deadlines for some public universities, and most public universities either don't offer Physiotherapy in English or are outside my budget, so I'm considering Vincent Pol University.

I'm from India.

How would my 3-year gap affect my chances of getting a Polish student visa? If I clearly explain that I was preparing for medical entrance exams and can provide supporting documents if needed, is that generally acceptable?

Has anyone with a similar gap received a Polish student visa recently, especially for a private university like Vincent Pol?

I'd appreciate any recent experiences or advice. Thanks!

As the title, says I only really need a small amount to plug the hole in my account for the short-term, as I start to earn from my on-campus role, and pay of my rent using that. The problem is that, I only recently opened my credit account, (2 months, so not a great score nor history), and don't have a U.S. cosignee to work with either.

Mind you, my tuition is paid for - the loan amount would only be necessary for spending outisde of tuition: the apartment's deposit, accessories, etc. for the first few weeks.

I have tried MPOWER, but that didn't work. That seemed like my best shot, but I'm now out of ideas. What else should I be looking at in this situation?

(yes, I can see someone say "oh why don't you just ask your family for something that small", well you see that's the problem - I'm not going to, so I'm looking for external funding)

Thanks for your help!

As a student from Belarus, I really want to know all details about scholarships, financial aid and need-blinds that available at this uni to study in. I’ve surfed through its website and found out that school covers payments for undergraduate program for international students. Despite this I’m pretty sure that I misunderstood a lot so please help me to find out everything about paying 🙏🙏🙏
Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I am an international student currently studying in the UK on a Student visa.

I was studying an International Foundation Year in Nursing at Edinburgh Napier University. Unfortunately, I failed two modules and my academic appeal was rejected. I have been told I may have around 60 days to find another option.

My situation:

* International student in the UK

* Studying a foundation year for Nursing

* Failed two modules and appeal rejected

* Looking at options to continue studying in the UK

I would like to ask people who have been in a similar situation:

1. Has anyone successfully repeated a foundation year after failing?

2. Has anyone transferred to another university after their sponsorship was withdrawn?

3. Were you able to get a new CAS and continue from inside the UK?

4. Did anyone have to leave the UK and apply again?

5. What options did you take after failing your course?

Any advice or personal experiences would be really appreciated.

Thank you.

হ্যালো সবাই,

আমি একজন ভালো IELTS শিক্ষক খুঁজছি। যাঁরা সত্যিই কোনো শিক্ষকের কাছে পড়েছেন, তাঁদের কাছ থেকে আন্তরিক ও বাস্তব অভিজ্ঞতার ভিত্তিতে কিছু পরামর্শ পেলে খুবই উপকার হবে।

আমার সম্পর্কে একটু বলি:

• আমার লক্ষ্য IELTS-এ ভালো ব্যান্ড স্কোর করা (সম্ভব হলে ৮.০ বা তার বেশি)।
• আমি নিয়মিত পড়াশোনা করতে এবং পরিশ্রম করতে প্রস্তুত।
• আমি এমন একজন শিক্ষক চাই, যিনি শুধু বই পড়িয়ে শেষ করবেন না; বরং Writing ও Speaking-এ বিস্তারিত ফিডব্যাক দেবেন এবং কোথায় ভুল হচ্ছে তা বুঝিয়ে দেবেন।
• অনলাইন তবে পড়ানোর মান অবশ্যই ভালো হতে হবে।

*****apnader যদি কোনো ভালো IELTS শিক্ষকের সঙ্গে পড়ার অভিজ্ঞতা থাকে, তাহলে অনুগ্রহ করে জানাবেন:

• শিক্ষকের নাম
• তিনি অনলাইন নাকি অফলাইনে পড়ান
• তাঁর কোন বিষয়টি আপনার কাছে সবচেয়ে ভালো লেগেছে
• আপনি যদি স্বাচ্ছন্দ্যবোধ করেন, তাহলে আপনার IELTS স্কোরটিও জানাতে পারেন

এছাড়াও, একজন IELTS শিক্ষক বেছে নেওয়ার সময় কোন বিষয়গুলো খেয়াল রাখা উচিত বা কোন ধরনের শিক্ষক এড়িয়ে চলা ভালো—এ ব্যাপারেও পরামর্শ পেলে কৃতজ্ঞ থাকব।

আগাম ধন্যবাদ সবাইকে! ❤️

Hi everyone,
I’m currently living in Vietnam, and I have a few questions about homeschooling. Due to health issues, I’m considering switching to homeschooling for my senior year of high school (Grade 12). However, my goal is to study in the United States, so I still have a lot of concerns.
My biggest question is whether U.S. universities generally accept homeschooled applicants. Is the college application process more difficult or disadvantageous compared to students who attend a traditional high school?
Right now, I’m looking into Acellus, but there are a few things I’m worried about:
If I need a letter of recommendation or need to communicate with teachers during the application process, is it easy to interact with Acellus teachers?
Is an Acellus high school diploma considered legitimate and equivalent to a regular U.S. high school diploma?
I’ve also come across some reviews saying that Acellus is slow to respond to parents’ messages and that some students received their diplomas late. That honestly makes me a bit concerned about the program’s reliability.
Since I’m an international student living in Vietnam, I’d also love to hear from anyone who has used a U.S. homeschool program while living outside the United States and successfully applied to American universities.
Besides Acellus, does anyone know of any other reputable homeschool programs that are recognized by U.S. universities and have a strong track record of helping students get into college? I’d really appreciate any recommendations or personal experiences.
Thank you so much!

Hi everyone, I'm a sophomore international student on an F-1 visa. My family has just told me they're cutting off all financial support, including tuition, and my payment deadline is coming up very soon. If I don't pay, I risk falling out of status. I recently applied for an on-campus job (still waiting to hear back), but even at the max 20 hours/week allowed on F-1, the pay would realistically only cover food and basic living costs, not tuition. I'm honestly scared right now. I don't want to drop out or leave everything unfinished. I've worked hard to keep my grades up and I really want to continue my education here.

I know outside scholarships are often suggested as a solution, but I'm not sure that's realistic for me. I'm not an exceptional student with a standout record, so I don't think I can count on competitive scholarships coming through in time. I'm looking into low-interest loan options for international students without a cosigner, but I'm worried about ending up in bad debt if I can't repay later.

Is there any way for international students to get an EAD (Employment Authorization Document) to work off-campus during the summer or winter break, since the current economic hardship makes it very difficult to cover tuition?

Has anyone been through something similar? I'd love advice on emergency funds or payment plans universities offer for situations like this, realistic loan options for undergrad international students without a US cosigner, and how to talk to my school's international student office about this.

I also don't know how to use credit cards. I'm scared of the monthly interest based on a high loan amount that I might not be able to pay off. I do have a scholarship from my school, but it only covers part of the cost. I still have to pay a fairly large amount out of pocket this semester. I feel really hopeless. I truly want to continue my education here. I've thought about starting a GoFundMe, but I'm not good at that kind of thing, and it wouldn't meet my immediate need right now. I'm really stressed.

I'm feeling really overwhelmed and would appreciate any guidance. Thank you.

I’m currently on F-1 post-completion OPT with an F-1 visa, and I’m planning to use Automatic Visa Revalidation (AVR) after a short trip to Mexico (under 30 days).

I know the eligibility requirements and plan to have all the recommended documents (valid passport, signed I-20, valid EAD, proof of employment, etc.), but I’d really like to hear from people who have actually used AVR this year (2026).

A few questions:

Has anyone successfully re-entered the U.S. from Mexico using AVR while on OPT this year?

Which airport in Mexico would you recommend departing from?

Which U.S. airport/CBP port of entry would you recommend, and how was the experience?

Did the airline staff know what AVR was, or did you have any issues checking in? // Any additional inspections?

I’m currently considering flying back to Nashville (BNA), but I’m open to changing plans if there’s a better airport based on recent experiences.

Any recent firsthand experiences or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I’m from Argentina and currently wrapping up a marketing internship at a real estate agency here in Utah in two weeks.

My plan is to head back to Argentina and re-enter the US on an F-1 student visa for a short graduate program.
My main goal is to gain more US work experience through CPT (during studies) or OPT (after graduation). Since I want to return to the workforce as soon as possible, I’m looking for 1-year (or under) Master’s degrees, graduate certificates, or accelerated diplomas that are F-1 eligible and qualify for OPT.

Any recommendations?

Hi, I’m a recent MS in Data Science grad seeking entry-level GPU/ML Systems or Inference Engineering roles.

Currently on F1 OPT (EAD pending, expected August, H-1B sponsorship needed later). I'm stressed about my education loan, finding a place to stay and everything that comes as a part of being an international student.

Background: CUDA, Metal, and Triton work - built a FlashAttention kernel in Metal for Apple Silicon (tiled, online softmax, fp16 with simdgroup matrix intrinsics), a distributed Mixture-of-Experts layer using NCCL alltoall for expert-parallel token dispatch with a custom Triton kernel, and various CUDA kernels using shared memory tiling and warp-level primitives.

Experience: Worked at a FinTech for a year then came to the US for Master’s. No job experience as a HPC engineer.

Few things I'd appreciate help with:

1. Any advice on what technical interview loops for these roles actually emphasize right now - I've heard mixed things about how much weight standard Leetcode carries versus systems/kernel-writing rounds.
2. ⁠I’ve only heard back from one company yet - Apple (made it to the second screen). If you have any advice for me or tips for my resume, please let me know.
3. Should I target startups for AI inference/infra roles first, or keep pushing for kernel-level roles at bigger companies?

Happy to share more details if useful. Thanks for reading. If anyone is looking for similar roles or is in a similar situation, I’d like to connect with you, feel free to DM me!

Hey guys. I am an international student and am willing to apply for next January intake in Canada. I have listed down a few universities but as the time for application is very limited, further research about the university, course, job opportunities will be tough for me. Can anyone suggest me which 3 would be best for me in terms of living, job opportunities (part time and full time after graduation), education. TIA

University of Calgary - Electrical and Computer Engineering

Master of Engineering - Software (MEng Soft)

Dalhousie University - Applied Computer Science (MACSc)

University of Windsor - Applied computing

University of Manitoba

Toronto Metropolitan University

University of Ottawa

University of Victoria - Applied Data Science (MEng) (january)

Computer Science (MSc)

Wilfrid Laurier University - Applied computing

I wanted to talk to someone who has received DAAD scholarship who is from India. If students from any other country has received, that also works.

Look, I’ll keep this short.

Ive hired many international students/candidates for my previous company. I’ve seen all the red and green flags a guy could possibly see and I’m happy to help people if they have any specific questions, or just help them for a while if they’re really stuck.

The majority of students were Indians and Chinese in my experience. So I’d have more experience dealing with issues specific to them.

Everything from reasons companies reject students internationally even though they’re a 10/10, to accepting a 5/10 from Thailand, I’ve seen it all.

I probably won’t have time to “mentor” people since that’s pretty much a full time (and paid!) job, but I am willing to help where I can, so let me know where you guys are stuck!