changing spring for fall semester

[nemanja]

dear Elisabeth,

My name is Nemanja; I had applied for M.A. in media studies at the New School University in New York, but I received a letter of acceptance quite late and couldn't prepare to move to New York right now (visa, funds, etc). I need to call the admissions to tell inform them about the problem and ask if I can begin my studies in Fall semester 2007 instead of spring semester 2007, but I wanted to ask you first about your opinion. Practically, I can say that I was pretty optimistic when applied for spring semester, and now I've got myself in the trouble. In the letter which I received from the University I was offered a 25% of expanses as the award so I had to cover the rest of the costs, which is the amount of money that I can raise during following months. Can you give me the instruction how to negotiate that issue, how to explain that I am still very confident to study at the New School, but that there are obstacles for me to start in spring semester. Thank you very much for any kind of help or advice.

Greetings,

Nemanja B.

[elz]

Dear Nemanja,

In this case you wish to "defer" your admission. You need to check the school to see what their policy is on deferments and follow that policy. In addition, this 25% is actually a pretty generous offer from the New School, which does not have a track record of offering full aid packages for international students. You can attempt to negotiate for a better financial aid package and see what happens. In the event that you are not able to collect enough funds or negotiate a suitable financial aid package, you can always look at other schools since 44% of all international students have their graduate studies fully paid for by the institution that they attend. Of course applying to those universities that are generous to international students, encourages other universities to be generous as well....My philosophy tends toward the idea that if a school truly wants the diversity and enrichment that international students can bring to its program, then a school needs to be aware that since international students do not have access to the same financial assistance that citizens and eligible non-citizens have. Thus, in order to be serious about providing a diverse campus and not just from countries with booming economies and lots of cash, but from other parts of the world as well, schools need to forumulate the most attractive financial aid packages possible in order to attract the best and the brightest throughout the world.

Best regards,

Elz