A. It is extremely rare to find a 100% scholarship to study at high school. In order to be eligible, you would first need to be an excellent student from a top high school in your city and to have excellent English. Even with these qualifications, you may not succeed. It is easier to get a scholarship of 50% of your total fees or just your tuition fees, which means your parents would have to pay the rest.

Remember that after high school you have to go to University for 3-4 years, and that there is no guarantee you can get a high scholarship for this.

If you are determined to study overseas, you need to find out from your parents exactly how much money they can afford for your studies in total- either the total amount or an amount per year. Then you should calculate how many years of education you will need support for.

Before looking for a scholarship for the UK, USA, Australia etc. you should be sure that your parents have at least $15,000 - $20,000 per year available or you may be disappointed.

You should also remember that if your budget is limited, there may be other ways of reducing the overall cost and that a scholarship may not be the only answer. 50% of a very high fee is still a lot of money, so do your calculations carefully.

Some tips for reducing costs while still getting a good education:

• Consider shorter courses. For example if you are now in year 11 and targeting the UK or Australia, you will find Foundation pathways available which will shorten your overall study time. Saving on living costs is a very smart way to plan as living costs may be higher than tuition fees.
• Consider alternative pathways. For example, you want a degree from a good University, but exactly the same degree- or the first 2 years of it- may be offered by a partner institution which has lower fees. For example, in the USA, students can complete the first 2 years of their higher education in a community college and progress to the University for the last 2 years (or in some cases, complete the University degree at College). This is also possible in the UK, Australia and Singapore.
• Consider areas with lower living costs- in the UK, Wales and Scotland and the north of England are much cheaper to live in than London and the south, and offer exactly the same quality of education. Look for areas where you can easily find a part-time job while studying- for example, areas with a tourist industry, where jobs in restaurants and hotels are easily available. In Australia, Sydney and Melbourne and the east coast are much more expensive areas to live in than Western Australia, South Australia or Tasmania. WA is also experiencing labour shortages and it is easier to find a job there and earn good money. In the US, the areas to avoid if you want to save money are New York and New England, Florida and California.
• Finally, if you still can’t afford any of the options open to you, consider a cheaper country where the standards of education are very high. The Education Company can give you a range of options according to your age, budget and career plans.

A. Finding a school is not difficult but if you apply for a visa with this intention, you will almost certainly find that it is refused. The US Embassy will look for evidence that you have enough money to support your daughter through high school and University, and that she intends to return to Vietnam after her degree. Living with relatives casts doubt on both these areas.

The best way of getting a visa is to find a good school within your price range where other Vietnamese students have previously gone. The Education Company can help you with this. Then be prepared to pay for at least the first year’s homestay fees. If after that you want to move your daughter to a school nearer the relatives, you can.

Remember, too, that unless you have a very close relationship with these relatives, this may not be the ideal situation, although it may save you money in the short term. Your daughter is studying in the USA and to achieve success she needs the best conditions possible- a room to herself where she can study without distractions, contact with English-speaking people who can help her get culturally oriented and the chance to make friends with people from her school. Saving money on living costs can sometimes turn out to be very costly in other ways if your daughter is unhappy or cannot reach her target level in English because she is speaking Vietnamese at home all the time.

Generally, the US Embassy relaxes its attitude towards relatives when students reach University level, so if your finances are tight it may be better to let your daughter stay in Vietnam to complete her high school education, or be prepared to send her to a private high school with a host family until she is ready to go to College or University.

A. Yes, this should be possible, provided your relatives are aware of the full responsibility they have taken on and can prove that they have enough money to pay his fees as well as provide for their own family. If he is under 18 and you intend him to live with them, they will also need to become government-approved guardians. The Education Company can explain to you how they can do that.

A. The MBA programme is really designed for people who have been working for at least 3 years and have already entered management within their organisation. The average age of people on top MBA courses is around 35.

If you really want an MBA , you should get a job after graduating and work for at least 1-2 years before applying. The Education Company has a number of UK partners who may take you onto their MBA courses with a minimum of 1-2 years experience. For Australia you would need at least 2-3 years

If you want to do a Masters immmediately after graduating, then consider a Masters of International Business or another business-related area instead, one which requires no previous work experience.

A. No, not necessarily. Depending on the area you live in in each country and the type of institution you attend, fees in the UK are not higher, and in some case may actually be cheaper, than in certain areas of the USA or Australia. You need to research carefully to make a valid comparison. For example, the cheapest high school package (for over 16 year olds) in the UK would be around US$15,000 per year for tuition and living costs. This would be hard to find in the USA (apart from the one year Cultural Exchange programme), but similar in Australia.

University honours degrees in the UK are only 3 years in length, whereas in Australia and the USA they are 4 years. International students applying from Vietnam usually have to complete a Foundation course before starting University, but an increasing number of Fast Track Diploma programmes are available which allow students to finish their degree in 3 years. The average cost of a 3 year Business degree with honours in the UK, including living costs, is around US$70,000. In the US, a 4 year University degree would be around US$130,000 and in Australia a 4 year honours degree would be around US$100,000, and a Fast Track 3 year degree around US$65,000.

Masters degrees are only 12 months in the UK but 2 years in the USA and 1.5- 2 years in Australia. An average priced postgraduate degree in the UK including living costs ( outside London) would cost a total of around US$27,000. In the USA this would be at least US$60,000 for 2 years, and in Australia around US$30,000 for 1.5 years.

English language courses are priced similarly in all three countries.