What are the requirements for applying for a student visa?

You need to apply through the college you will be going to. Check out the admissions page on their web page, for starters, searching for 'international students'. You can go to uscis.gov or the US state department web page for visa details but the college applies for you.

You first would need to apply to your chosen university, you can find all of the admission requirements, fees, procedures and application forms to apply as an international student on the schools website (just Google it). Once you have applied and been accepted, the university will issue you what is known an the Form I-20 and with the I-20 you then have to pay the SEVIS fee and with the SEVIS fee receipt and your I-20, you can then schedule an interview at the American Embassy in Mexico. Which means you must go back home to attend the interview as student visas are not issued in the United States; it must be done at an Embassy or Consulate abroad.

Unless you are fabulously wealthy you'll find it impossible to pay tuition at the Foreign Student Rate. The good news is that the United States does not hold your illegal alien status against you until you reach your 18th birthday. If you leave before reaching 18 and 1/2 there will be no ban on returning legally. If you wait until you are between 18 and 1/2 and 19 you'll face a ban of 3 to 5 years. If you are still here on your 19th birthday you'll be banned for 10 years.

I don't know about any kind of ban. From what I read if worst comes to worst they make you leave the country for 1 year before applying for permanent citizenship or changing status in certain ways. I'm no expert however. I did search online and found the following you might want to check out: http://www.visalaw.com/02mar4/12mar402.html I have friends who worked off the books while they put themselves through college on a student visa. It's very hard but can be done. If you can afford it then I'd recommend getting an immigration lawyer now to advise you. Also start preparing now for what you plan to do after you have a degree. You can read about work visas here: http://www.istudentcity.com/immigration/imm_permission_h1b.asp These were just two sites I found by doing a quick search on yahoo. There are numerous others.