<p>Hello CC Users, I'm an international student applying to US colleges and my question is when applying to "need-aware" school such as UChicago, do they take into consideration HOW much aid an applicant needs? I'm asking this because without a full ride or something similar I probably won't be Able to attend. is Seeing that I need a full scholarship is in most cases an app killer? Thanks</p>
<p>It’s a bit more complicated than that…</p>
<p>[Colleges</a> Where Need for Aid Can Hurt Admission Odds - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/03/23/colleges-where-need-for-aid-can-hurt-admission-odds]Colleges”>http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/03/23/colleges-where-need-for-aid-can-hurt-admission-odds)</p>
<p>Different schools have different strategies on being need-aware. In some cases, it can hurt your addmission chances (if you don’t have top stats).</p>
<p>It’s not necessarily an app-killer, but as an international student it means you aren’t going to slip in as a “maybe”. You’ll be a stark Yes or No. </p>
<p>Either they love you enough to admit you and take on the cost of funding your education, or they don’t. At Chicago, as at many schools, ALL international admissions are need-aware, so your application has to stand much taller than one from someone who has minimal or no need.</p>
<p>US universities are certainly excellent, but remember that we are not the only game on the globe. Many other countries provide more aid, more scholarships, and lower tuition to foreign students than we do. Hedge your bets with some applications to fine schools in other countries.</p>
<p>@DreamSchlDropout Which non-US colleges do you recommend. The thing i should be worried about the most is learning a new language altogether.</p>
<p>Are there universities in your country of citizenship or residency that you can attend?</p>
<p>What universities (in any country) are suitable does depend on such factors as what you want to study, what your post-graduation goals are, and what kind of cost limits you have.</p>
<p>"Seeing that I need a full scholarship is in most cases an app killer? "</p>
<p>At need-aware institutions, if they want you they will cough up the money. If they don’t, they won’t. But since you need a full scholarship, getting accepted to a place you can’t pay for doesn’t do you any good anyway.</p>
<p>Other than the very small number of institutions that guarantee admissions and full-ride scholarships for specific grade and exam scores, and also extend that policy to international applicants, there is no way for an international applicant with need to predict his/her chances here. Everything else is a reach.</p>
<p>So, go to the top of this forum. Read through the thread on guarantee merit scholarships. Check with those colleges/universities and find out if those scholarships are available to international applicants, and what the cut-off grade average and test scores are for students from your country. Maybe you will find something that works.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Of course there are, and my initial plan was to attend college in my home-country and I’ve already been admitted into several of my country’s schools.</p>
<p>So studying in the us was just another option . I’ll apply to around 5 US schools( to give each application the care it needs) and in case I get admitted into one, I’ll choose to attend that college. There are some excellent schools in my country. But my uncles who have attended both the best school in my country and Stanford and UC Santa Barbra respectively recommend going to US by far. So that’s all there is to it.</p>
<p>Yes, at a number of need aware schools, it can be an app killer. But the perjorative word here is “can”. There are international students who needed full rides going to UChicago. So it was clearly not an app killer for those students a college decides as the “A LIst” students. Those students most desired will tend to be accepted in many such situation with little or no consideration to need. </p>
<p>But if you aren’t “A List” and you need full freight, and there are 5 other applicants who need $10K a piece, it makes sense to accept them if the school is trying to stretch that $50K as far as it can be stretched when more acceptees are needed.</p>
<p>Regarding your question about other countries, here are a few that are tuition-free or very low tuition for bachelor’s level study, and have some programs taught in English.</p>
<p>Finland
[Study</a> programme database search | Studyinfinland.fi](<a href=“http://www.studyinfinland.fi/what_to_study/study_programmes_database]Study”>http://www.studyinfinland.fi/what_to_study/study_programmes_database)</p>
<p>Austria
[Study</a> in Austria in English - StudyinEurope.eu](<a href=“http://www.studyineurope.eu/study-in-austria/in-english]Study”>Study in Austria - Tuition fees, degrees, universities)</p>
<p>Norway
[Study</a> in Norway/What can I study?/Undergraduate studies/](<a href=“http://www.studyinnorway.no/sn/What-can-I-study/Undergraduate-studies]Study”>http://www.studyinnorway.no/sn/What-can-I-study/Undergraduate-studies)</p>
<p>These are just some representative examples, there are plenty of others. Most countries have lower tuition for foreign students than the U.S. does. If you are from a developing country, there may also be significant scholarships available in some countries.</p>
<p>I’d spend time on the international student part of this website. </p>
<p>My understanding is that most US colleges will not offer much aid, and many will not accept an international student unless that student can prove they can pay their own way (either through their own resources or their government’s). </p>
<p>There are exceptions, mainly a few scholarships at the richest schools or at colleges with few international students who are trying to attract them. Most international students in the US attend colleges on the east coast, Texas or the west coast, so some colleges in other areas (such as the smaller cities or rural areas in the midwest) try to attract international students with aid. However, those colleges may be far from airports with affordable flights, and an international student may miss not having anyone from their country nearby.</p>
<p>For grad school, there are more sources of funding for international students, including work as teaching assistantships or research assistantships. It may be more logical to go to undergrad at a less expensive college outside the US, and then save up for a grad program in the US. After all, is it really worth traveling around the world for large introductory freshman lectures?</p>
<p>The schools that are need aware for International students may be pretty good in meeting need IF they accept the student. THey don’t want to deal with students begging and insisting on money because they have that acceptance and they can’t get into the country even without aid. That is what happens often when students who can’t pay get accepted. So avoiding need aware schools is not the way to go. Some of those will be quite generous if they accept you. And if you need the money, you can’t go without it anyways.</p>
<p>Just a heads up… My kids are not international students. They are domestic students but we have substantial need (we have always qualified for some Pell Grant money). Over a number of admissions cycles, my kids applied to need-aware schools and I just want to say that, overwhelmingly, they were turned down by these schools when they should have been matches. They were accepted at need-aware safeties but the bar seemed particularly high at these schools if you have substantial need. At least one of the schools (which had been my kid’s first choice and to where my kid had applied ED), openly agreed to reconsider the admissions decision when kid received a major national scholarship that would have substantially decreased the amount of money the school would have had to use to meet full need. At that point, my kid decided not to have the admission reconsidered-- but I am putting it out there because it seemed to be a big factor.</p>
<p>And the need-aware schools to which they were accepted <em>did</em> do a good job of meeting need.</p>