Introduction to Our Foreign Student Series

This week, we begin a series of reports for students around the world who are interested in higher education in the United States.

The last time we broadcast our Foreign Student Series was two years ago. Since then we have gotten more requests for information about how to attend an American college or university.

So we will present new reports in our series with the most current information.

Each week, we will discuss a part of the process for becoming an international student in the United States.

Students have many questions: How do I find out about schools? How do I choose the right one for me? Which tests must I take? What kinds of documents will I need? And a big question -- how much will it all cost?

Listen for answers to these and other questions over the coming weeks.

Our reports will describe the American system of higher education. We will talk about financial aid and rules about employment. We will also discuss English language requirements. And we will tell you where to look in other countries for information and advice about studying in the United States.

Our reports will also take you inside some of the colleges and universities in the United States. We will explore programs of study and report on student life. Students who are not able to come to the United States will find out how to take classes over the Internet.

In addition, we will examine how the threat of terrorism has changed some of the rules for study in the United States.

In researching our series, we talked to people in education and government and to foreign students.

Planning is important to the success of an educational experience. And that is the purpose of our series -- to help you plan.

We would like to hear from anyone who has a general question about studying in the United States. We will answer questions in our reports. And we will try to answer as many questions as possible during our series. Write to special@voanews.com, or VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven U.S.A.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and audio files of each report in our Foreign Student Series will appear online at WWW.testbig.com. I'm Steve Ember.