International Student Blog

The 2007 InternationalStudent.com Travel Video contest winner has been announced! What do you think?

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As we approach one of the major US holidays, some would say a holiday that is bigger than Christmas for many Americans, I thought a posting explaining Thanksgiving and what its all about would help many international students understand the tradition and why it is celebrated.

Typically thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, and this year it falls on the 22nd November. The day marks the start of a long weekend for many Americans as Thursday and Friday are usually days off work, so many have a 4 day weekend.

General public perception is that the roots of thanksgiving lay back in 1621. After the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, their first year was a disaster and many of them died. However with the help of the local native Americans their crop in 1621 was a bountiful one. To celebrate this crop they held a feast with the native Americans to give thanks. These events are traditionally known as the roots of Thanksgiving, however the feast was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops.

Today, Thanksgiving is a time for families to get together with each other and have a large meal. Typical items on the menu will be roast turkey and pumpkin pie. It is also a time of major travel - and airports, freeways and trains will be booked full of people trying to get home in time for Thursday.

If you are a student experience Thanksgiving for the first time post a comment about your experiences!

Some great news that has just been released from the Annual Open Doors report is that International Student enrollments saw a 3% increase this past year to a new total of 582,984. This increase is the first significant increase in the number of international students since the 2001/ 2002 year - and shows that the USA is moving forward and rebounding after a few troublesome years.

Even better news is the report of a 10% increase in the number of new students that are enrolled compared with last year.

As for where the students are coming from, Asia is still the largest sender of students to the USA with a share of 59% of total enrollment (up 5%), and with an increase of 25% in the last year, the Middle East is one of the fastest growing sectors for sending to the USA.

For US Students Studying Abroad, this has seen an increase also up 8% to 223,534.

For more information about Studying in the USA, or Studying Abroad please see our website and be sure to check out the full details on the Open Doors Website.

Well, the 2007 Annual Travel Video Contest has now come to an end and all the entries have been submitted - and there are too many to choose from!

We have whittled the finalists down to a last few - but we need some help! Who do you think should win?

http://www.internationalstudent.com/contest/

Check out the finalists and then let us know….

internationalstudentcontest@gmail.com

Good luck to all!

The latest issue of the InternationalStudent.com newsletter has just been released and should be in your inbox right now. This month we have some great information about financial aid for the UK, plus International Student Loans - plus all the regular mailbag review, fun site of the month and more…

- Travel Contest - Closed
- Financial Aid for the UK
- From the Mailbag
- International Student Loans
- Fun Site of the Month
- Learn Spanish
- Student News
- Study in the USA
- Last Word

You can view the newsletter online at:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/newsletter/issue105.html

If you want to sign up to the newsletter or view the archives please visit:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/newsletter/

The competition deadline for the 2007 Annual Travel Video Contest is drawing even closer and there are only 7 days left to get your entry into us so that you can win one of our top 3 prizes:

- Grand Prize of $2,5000
- 2nd Prize of Panasonic HDC-DX1 3CCD high definition camcorder
- 3rd Prize of Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33K 8.1MP digital camera

We now also are accepting entries online, all you need to do is upload your file to any one of the following free storage sites and then email us the links - these sites include

• Megaupload.com
• Transferbigfiles.com
• Mediamax.com
• Box.net

or try the You Send It service which allows you to send large directly to an email addresses.

If you have any questions, or want to email us your videos either through YouSendIt or by uploading it to the free services above and email us the link - please use our competition email address:

internationalstudentcontest@gmail.com

Good Luck!!!

Just a short little message this time, but our International Student Facebook Group has just reached 200 members!

If you are an international student, or want to learn more about becoming an international student join Facebook if you are not a member and join our group, post a wall message, upload some pictures and videos - and generally join in the discussion and meet fellow international students!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2254670655

Although the USA is a huge draw for many students that want to study internationally, the UK is easily the number 2 destination for international students. Traditionally funding to study in the USA can be very hard to find, however with the International Student Loan Program and the International Financial Aid Center that we have now developed, we are making access to funding for students much easier.

The UK, however, does not have the same sort of funding channels for international students. There is no specific loan program yet for students looking to study in the UK - however scholarships are a great source, but finding them can be hard.

The new UK International Financial Aid Cetner for students studying in the UK has been launched that offers a international students a source to get help and advice for funding their education in the UK. The main highlight of this new section is the Universities that Award Financial Aid - this database provides you with access to schools in the UK that provide financial assistance, such as scholarships, to international students that are enrolled or plan to enroll.

Please check out the new International Financial Aid Center for Studying in the UK.

Due to the overwhelming response we have had from students about the 2007 InternationalStudent.com Annual Video Contest - we have decided to extend the deadline to give you all more time to get your videos shot, edited and sent into us. The new deadline is now the 1st November 2007.

We have also announced the full prize lineup for the competition:
1 - $2,500 Grand Prize
2 - Panasonic HDC-DX1 3CCD high definition camcorder
3 - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX33K 8.1MP digital camera

Don’t miss out on your chance to win a $2,500 grand prize and the other fantastic runner up prizes and enter the 2007 Contest now!!!

http://www.internationalstudent.com/contest/

The 104th issue of the InternationalStudent.com Newsletter has been released and will have been delivered to your inbox already (if you are signed up to receive it). The issue is packed full with some great information about our Annual Travel Contest and a brief introduction to our brand new website. The full contents includes:

- Annual Travel Contest
- Brand New Site
- From the Mailbag
- Fun Site of the Month
- Learn French
- Student News
- Study in the USA
- Last Word

You can view the email online at:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/newsletter/issue104.html

or you can sign up directly online to get the newsletter each month at:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/newsletter/