Re: MAN vs. MSN degree in Philippines Originally Posted by Hoss 
One thought Suzanne provoked is possibly a student visa for the USA in an MSN program. My question is can the MSN in the US be completed and the application for GC upgraded under the Masters qualification?
The expense will be horrific on my part, but this very hard working and gifted student is so worth it!!
That's a good question and maybe Suzanne can answer that. But then again, you already brought up the issue of cost. Graduate degree programs, regardless of which field it is in, cost more than undergraduate courses. State universities in the US are usually affordable and that's were most students who are financially strapped apply to. However, the cost of state university tuition is only cheaper for students who are deemed residents of the the geographical area within the university's jurisdiction. A foreign student regardless of how long the student has lived in a particular state of jurisdiction, will not qualify for resident tuition in any state university.
A conservative ball park figure for state university tuition is about $800 per graduate course credit for out-of-state residents. This is the cost of tuition that foreign students will be charged. The total credits for a typical MSN program range from a total of 47 to 50+ credits. If you do the math, that's around $40,000 just for tuition alone. I have not included the cost of books, registration and application fees, and living expenses. Can you imagine how expensive that is if you look at it from the point of view of someone who is coming from the Philippines! Hoss, I am not commenting on how financially secure you are but my parents would have died from a heart attack had I been in the position of a Filipino nurse asking them to send me to school in the US for an MSN degree.
But don't be discouraged. There are quite a bit of us Filipino nurses who have indeed completed graduate school studies in the US. We were able to afford sending ourselves to school because we were able to avail of in-state tuition discounts since we were state residents in the public universities we applied to. In addition, we were eligibile for financial assistance and scholarships, and some of us worked our RN jobs at the same time we were in school so that we did not have to be financially ruined. My advice is to remain patient and take your time to weigh the benefits of your decisions. Five years will pass by. I worked in the Philippines for almost three years before I applied for a visa to work in the US. Maybe it's worth it to work in the Philippines and gain some experience while waiting for the retrogression to end...that's just a thought.
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