Hey, I'm in the process of submitting my application to different graduate schools for my phd, but I need to apply for a scholarship or teaching assistantship position as well because I cannot afford the tuition fee and I need a monthly stipend as well in order to meet my daily expenses. I'm applying at the following: MIT, Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, Delaware University, VirginiaTech. Do you think I'll be able to complete my PhD course, although with minimal starting funds from home? That is, I need to find a way to end my studies in US. Are you doing it? Is it feasible in any way? Thank you for your support! PS: for instance I'm facing lots of expenses for my TOEFL and GRE exams. The first costs $150 and it's done in Rome, so it's ok since I won't have to spend in travel expenses, but the second one is held in Milan, therefore I must meet the exam cost ($170), plus the airfare to milan ($150), the hotel ($60) since the exam is at 8.30am in the morning.. and the prep books.. other $100 ... a total of $480 just for the two language exams, assuming I'll obtain a decent score at both at first shot!!
Those are very good schools you mentioned. First its very tough to get admission there. Once you get admitted you can contact different professors who you can work with for research. Generally they will give you tuition waiver plus some money every month. Virginia tech does that I know from my knowledge. I am sure others do the same.
even with got full scholarship + living expense form school, you might have problem with immigration because you don't have money.. you need to be show that you already have the money to pay for your school fee + living expense for all the school year. i used student visa to enter US.