International Student Blog

Continuing on from our series of posts that are addressing concerns and issues from our Facebook international students, this post is concentrating on how to save money buying college textbooks.

College textbooks are an everyday item that you will need for any course that you take, and depending on your course the costs can certainly mount up. Luckily, thanks to our friends over at Edvisors, they have created this fantastic new eBook which provides an overview for students on how to search and find cheap college textbooks.

The eBook is free and will certainly provide you with some excellent tips and hints on where to find the very best deals and the cheapest prices.

>> Download the Cheap College Textbook eBook here!

If you have other ideas and suggestions on how to get free or cheap textbooks for college please post your comments and suggestions below.

The eBook is available in Abode PDF format, and you will need to download and install the appropriate PDF reader in order to view this document. You can obtain this from the Adobe website for free.

The latest edition of the newsletter has been sent, containing the big news that we have launched the 2008 Annual Travel Video contest. We hope you will all take a shot at creating your own video under 5 minutes and submit it for your chance to win $3,000 or one of the fantastic runner up prizes.

Of course, the newsletter has many other great items for you including:
- Student Bloggers
- From the Mailbag
- Student Insurance
- Fun Site of the Month
- Student News
- Learn Spanish
- Internships/ Jobs

If you do not get the newsletter via email, you can always read it at:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/newsletter/issue115.html

As we have announced recently, we have a brand new student blogger who is joining the InternationalStudent.com blogging team. Laura is now our resident study in the USA student blogger and will be blogging throughout the year on all aspects of being an international student in the USA. She has already started her blogs as she starts her new college in the USA and you can follow her at:

http://www.internationalstudent.com/study_usa/blog/

We are also excited to announce our new study in the UK student blogger who has just started on our sister UK site. Juan is an international student who has just started to study art at the Glasgow School of Art and will be blogging throughout the year on all types of topics that affect an international student in the UK. You can follow Juan online at:

http://uk.internationalstudent.com/blog/

How can these blogs help me?
We have student bloggers on our site as we feel it provides you with a fantastic insight into life when you are abroad, and what better way to share information and advice than from current international students who are experiencing it all first hand.

To keep track of all the blogs, you can either subscribe to the RSS feed or sign up to receive the latest blog posts to your email address. If you need more information about student RSS feeds, please see our previous post.

You can also post comments on the blogs, so if you have any input about what our bloggers are writing about or you would like to ask them questions - please post comments!

After sending our email to the members of the InternationalStudent.com Facebook group asking for feedback on what you wanted to hear and read more about - we have our first posting covering one of the topics - Fraternities and Sororities.

We are covering this topic via a guest post from Elena V, who responded to our email with a great viewpoint on Fraternities and Sororities from an international students standpoint. Her post follows:

Being an international student I frequently interact with the members of these groups and it seems to be both a fun and exciting experience, however, I’d not recommend an international student to join one in their first year of studies.

First of all, sororities ( I will speak about them because I am a female so it’s easier for me) have their own culture and it’s very American. I live in the South and here people are not generally very receptive of foreign cultures or are not aware of international developments all over the world. It could be hard to become one of the “sisters” right off the bat, because activities and events conducted by an average sorority imply prior knowledge of American culture and expectations.

We, international students, have a tiny bit more to accomplish during our years of study than an average American student- 1) learn foreign language 2) adapt to the local culture and lifestyle 3) make new friends 4) excell acdemically and socially 5) personal goals

A social sorority might help initially as a friend-making mechanism, but later it will take time for things that don’t matter as much in the long run. (Functions, volunteering, tailgaiting, bake sales). Yes, volunteering is important, but the thing is you have to pay a membership fee to do that.

However, major-related fraternities and sororities can be a wonderful addition to the resume and can bring important contacts into the horizon. Instead of being a part of a big group with many interests, I’d join a smaller one with a focus on something that matters to me. My friend Anna from Spain joined a Tennis Club and an Advertising Club, both of which involved people with similar passions.

Joining groups is a must for an international student, I myself am a part of the Student Ambassador Program and it helped me to meet some wonderful students and their parents. Moreover, now I know there is a network of American students that can help me with advice, rides, or other college-related issues.

Before you make a decision to join a fraternity or a sorority, think about these things: 1) is it worth your time and money? 2) will it bring good dividend? 3) will it take your time from other activities, such as classes?

Thank you to Elena V for providing us with a great insight into her thoughts and views about Fraternities and Sororities for international students. Elena has also asked if other international students could post their comments with their views - so please let us know what you think.

If you would like to find out more information about Fraternities and Sororities, please check out the Wikipedia Sorority and Fraternity Page

As some of you may have realized, last week we sent an email to our 1,000 plus Facebook members and asked for some feedback about what is important to you in the run up to the new semester - and we were overwhelmed by the number of you that got back in touch with us! We have tried to respond to all the comments we have received, and we are just sorry we could not personally respond to all of you.

From the main comments that came out these are the main items you wanted to hear more about and provide more information:

- How to schedule for classes
- How to choose professors
- How to save on books
- Opinions on fraternities and sororities
- Staying on Campus vs Off Campus
- Remain and work in the USA/ Internships/ Jobs/ Immigration
- International Scholarships
- What to do if you lose your sponsor/ finding sponsor
- International Student Loans
- Health Insurance/ Dental Insurance
- Find new friends/ roommates (particularly international students)
- Things to do for fun at college/ activities/ get more involved at college
- Improving language skills/ promote other colleges in Europe
- How to get to the USA, starting from scratch

Over the coming weeks, we are going to have a few guest post from international students who are writing topics on these subjects and providing us with their tips and viewpoints - plus we will also provide some factual posts that give guidance on these items.

We also plan to update the website and include some more content and sections that cover some of these items in a little more depth.

We hope you enjoy the posts, and please leave any comments with things we have missed that you would like to hear about!

We have great pleasure in announcing the relaunch of the Study in the USA student blog. Following on from our hugely popular and successful Study in the UK Student Blog and the Study Abroad Student Blog - we have have a brand new student blogger who is joining the InternationalStudent.com community.

Laura Herrejón is an international student from Mexico who has been studying in the USA for the last year as an international student, and is just returning to the USA to start her second year as an international student. Laura will be blogging about international student life and covering loads of topics that many of you will be going through - so please take a look, sign up for email updates and post your comments back to Laura.

The blog is available online at:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/study_usa/blog/

The August issue of the InternationalStudent.com newsletter is on its way to your inbox, packed full with helpful news, information and advice for students who are starting international student orientation week in August. The newsletter this month provides you with:

* Student Health Insurance
* Int’l Student Loans
* From the Mailbag
* Learn Spanish
* Fun Site of the Month
* Student News
* iHipo Internships
* Int’l Calling Cards
* Last Word

You can also see the newsletter online at:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/newsletter/issue114.html

Enjoy!

The latest issue of the International Student News has just been sent, and this month we are starting to gear up for the new school semester - with only 1 month to go before orientation will start for many of you. In this months issue:

* School Insurance Requirements
* RSS Feeds for Students
* From the Mailbag
* Study in the UK
* Fun Site of the Month
* Student News
* Learn French
* Internationall Internships
* IEFA Scholarships
* Last Word

You can also see the newsletter online at:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/newsletter/issue113.html

A topic that was brought up in our international student forums a while ago titled “Sweden - Seriously Free”, was the subject of obtaining an international education in Sweden and whether this was in fact free. After a lot of talking back and forth, it was discovered that for non-EU international students there are in fact no fees to study as an international student at Universities in Sweden.

However, that is all about to change if the Swedish government has their way and a bill is going to be put before the Swedish parliament this fall to discuss and implement fees for international students. But, do not worry if you are planning to studying this year - the bill (if it comes into law) will not come into effect until 2010.

For more information about this please see:
http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/10403/a/107816

If you cannot read Swedish, please try the online website translator at:
http://www.systran.co.uk/

As an international student, making sense and trying to keep up-to-date with all the information that is available to you can be hard - you may have to visit 10 sites to get information, help and advice on a number of topics and then when that information changes, you want to be on top of it and the first to know.

Luckily, there is a way that you can manage this information quickly and easily through the power of RSS (or Really Simple Syndication). International Student and our entire network of sites now uses RSS feeds to allow you to collate all the information we provide into one central spot. Plus, it allows you to get the latest news and information the minute we post it!

But what is an RSS feed?
An RSS feed is basically a way to share information through an online web feed, that you can then read in your own RSS reader, which can either be an online RSS reader, or a local piece of software you download to your computer. To learn more about RSS feeds, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)

How do I get an RSS reader?
There are two main types of RSS reader, either online web based readers, or offline local readers that you download to your computer. They are all free, so you do not need to pay for a reader and the most popular ones to use are:

Online RSS Reader - http://www.google.com/reader/
Mac Download RSS Reader - http://www.vienna-rss.org/vienna2.php
PC Download RSS Reader - http://www.feedreader.com/

These are just a few examples of readers you can use, so please let us know if you use another reader which you find useful.

How do I subscribe to feeds?
If you have downloaded one of the software applications to your computer, you generally just need to click on the feed and most applications will automatically recognize its an RSS feed and load it up. For online readers, or for software readers that do not automatically add RSS feeds, you will need to look for the “Add” button or in the Google reader this is a large button which says “+ Add Subscription”

Where can I get feeds?
RSS feeds are all over the web - most of the time you just need to look for the words RSS or for the image that we have posted with this blog entry. This signifies there is an RSS feed there which you can subscribe to. At International Student, our main RSS feeds are:

Main Blog (this blog) - http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternationalStudentBlog
Study in the UK Blog - http://feeds.feedburner.com/study-in-the-uk
Study Abroad Blog - http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternationalStudent-StudyAbroadBlog
International Financial Aid Blog - http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternationalFinancialAidBlog
Calling Cards/ Sim Cards Blog - http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternationalCallingCard
Student Insurance Blog - http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternationalStudentHealthInsurance
Message Board Postings - http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternationalStudentMessageBoard/

And you can of course, track this all online at:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/blogs-forums/

If you have any questions about RSS feeds and how you can use them, or you currently use an RSS reader you like or subscribe to an international student RSS feed that you think we should all see - please post a comment!