Re: Music Schools in the USA?
Already dropped most of my two cents in the visitor message, I do know that most big universities as well as smaller ones offer music majors, but I have no idea whether they're well-known or good or bad or anything.
I'm not going to look through it for you, but the University of Maryland, at least, has a department dedicated to helping out international students.
http://www.international.umd.edu/ies/ Most other schools will probably have something similar. You should probably check different schools' websites, talk to their admissions departments, see what they say. In the same vein, some schools are really big on recruiting international students, like UMD. Some are not.
I don't know that anyone would pay for plane tickets. Finding a job before you got here would probably be a pain in the ass, but I do know that some colleges will help you get one. Either with them (Maryland employs students in the libraries, recreation services, office jobs, stuff like that), or with businesses in the area (even if that means flipping burgers).
If you're broke you'll need to look into scholarships. I somehow doubt you can get any federal or state aid, since you aren't a US citizen, so you'll have to look around for scholarships offered to, say, music students, or international students or whatever.
Check what the different schools offer, too. Some scholarships are based on how good you are at something (academics, sports, music, whatever), some are based on need, some are granted depending on what job you want, some are meant for people who are, say, the children of cancer survivors or veterans or whatever and some are for cancer survivors or veterans or whatever themselves.
Good luck. I'm sure that if you get into a school over here you'll make a great missionary spreading the gospel of cricket and AFL. Just don't call it AFL, because no one cares about the Arena Football League.
