When I said "marvelousmouse's last post" I meant her 4:34PM post, not her later 5:29 post that she posted while I was writing

No, I sadly don't have the funds to pay for college I'm planning on getting a full tuition scholarship,and yes I know it sounds a little bit crazy, but high school is part of the goal.

Ok. So. What full ride scholarships are you aiming for? Because the ones I can think of, you don't qualify for (I think). Unless you're a star athlete?

I'm not calling your sanity into question. For all I know you've got an amazing skill that schools will fight over. I'm just saying that I have known a lot of people with stellar grades and near perfect test scores and they don't get full ride scholarships. Good grades are very often not enough. And without fed aid to cover the gaps, that probably will leave you SOL.

If you really want a full ride and you aren't a genius at something, I'd stay at your home school. I do know people who got really good scholarships because of their local accomplishments and connections. You won't have that if you go to 12th grade in the US. And you don't have a year to figure it out, because so much is decided by January of senior year if not earlier.

A full tuition scholarship to college is not that easy to obtain. There are thousands of students competing for these scholarships and unless you have top grades and excellent scores on national exams AND come from an excellent high school (they vary tremendously by district and college admittance officials know which the top school districts are) it's not likely that you will get one.

>>And the thing is that her mother invited me to go with them to study for 1 year in high school<<

I am just afraid you girlfriend's mother may planted unrealistic hope/ideas that you could just come to the US (legally) and attend high school. Yes, MANY immigrant students attend high school in the USA. But they are either exchange students . . . OR members of immigrant <i>families</i> living here. They are not children coming to the US alone.

If the consulate can't help you, we certainly can't (and I am only hoping you are not a troll . . . for some reason we have had a slew of threads in the last few months from 'high school students' seeking help getting into US schools -- just seems odd that Fodors is considered a resource for this sort of thing :? )

OP and all: there is an official US Government webpage on exactly this issue, and it links to other sources:
https://travel.state.gov/content/vis...c-schools.html

Yes, I already know the difficulty of getting a scholarship and I'm really preparing for that,and no, I'm not a troll, there was a thread of a similar topic when I searched on google, so I decided to post here.

Great link elbegewa. That site states >><blue>The law does not allow a student in F-1 status to attend public secondary school without paying tuition. The student must pay the full, unsubsidized per capita (for each student) cost of education in all cases.</blue><<

And >><blue>The full, unsubsidized per capita (for each student) cost of education is the cost of providing education to each student in the school district where the public school is located. <B>Costs normally range between $3,000 and $10,000</B>. The student secondary school cost reimbursement requirement is mandatory and school systems cannot waive the reimbursement requirement.</blue><<

So unless you have a boatload of $$$ it looks unlikely . . .

Right. That was exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned his parents. If they can't pay that, he can't go. Money doesn't make the world go round but it certainly simplifies matters.

Someone can't just "invite" someone to come live in the US. This woman isn't even related to you, that's the problem.

Foreigners who come to the US and attend high school are either exchange students or living legally with a relative or guardian. Someone can't just invite someone to come move to the US and go to school for free.

"there was a thread of a similar topic when I searched on google, so I decided to post here."

Did you read the part of the answer to that thread that said this is NOT the place to post?
(All of the recent posts have had that mentioned.)

"the school needs to get you entered into the Servis database to begin the federal visa process, and then to send the I20 form to her or you."

ALL public schools are NOT on the Servis list (which you can find online). If that particular public school where they live is not, you are out of luck.

If this pipe-dream that you envision were actually anything close to the reality of the situation, don't you think every teenager who had a friend/relative/as-significant-an-other-as-you-can-have-in-high-school would be flooding up/over here to the US to study? Of course, as a teenager, you may be convinced that you are different from the rest of the people in the world and your situation is unique.

If I were to have the freedom to pick any place in the world to go to high school, the US would NOT be one of my picks. There is far better education available in quite a few countries.

These almost exactly the same scenario requests from high school students (country varies) must be a scam of some sort. I wouldn't bother to encourage them. They can easily get information from their school and directly from US schools that would be appropriate and accurate.