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SAMIYE YAMAN: I remember when I was five, I remember that it
was my childhood dream to come and visit the United States.
But by the time when I grew up I decided that it shouldn't
just stay as a dream.
And I decided that I want to study here.
I want to be a doctor.
And when I was little, my father was a teacher and most
of the students come to the United States and like twice a
year my father always visited here.
It was a big chance for me.
And I was little and I came and visited here and it was a
huge opportunity.
I don't remember lots of things, but I remember how
much I was impressed and how much I was
like happy to be here.
It was a huge decision because it's easy when you say I want
to visit United States for three weeks.
But it's a huge decision to say I want to study there like
four years.
It's not like a short amount of time.
My teachers at my school, my counselor, and especially
Fulbright Commission, they were always there to help us.
We just randomly call them and ask like small little
questions and they were always willing to answer them.
So we were lucky we had the Fulbright Commission, we had
our school counselor, and our parents, they
always supported us.
When I was applying, I looked where the
colleges are located.
I'm coming from a really, really small place, but I
still wanted to like stay in a city.
But not a city like New York that I'm going to be lost. But
at the same time I didn't want to like stay in a little
suburb or like an isolated place.
And also it was real important for me to look for the
financial aid and like what is the tuition and how much do we
need to pay.
What is the chance that I'm going to get a scholarship.
And they were all important for me.
Well I think they shouldn't worry about it that much.
If the people at the visa office, if they feel like
you're worried about it, it will make like everything
complicated.
But when I went there, I was like
relaxed, I was like smiling.
I had friends with me.
They were applying too.
So it wasn't that much bad.
They were really, really helpful.
And the questions that they asked were easy questions like
why do you want to go there and that kind of thing.