<p>College board fee waivers for testing and/or application fees, NACAC fee waivers and CSS profile waivers are not available to international students.</p>
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<p>IF Op needs fee waivers, s/he must apply to schools that waives the fee for all applicants or applicants that apply on line or s/he must directly request them from the school.</p>
<p>Look into QuestBridge! It’s a great program and you get free fee waivers, along with other benefits for low income students.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that </p>
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<p>Regarding the potential adverse impact of requesting a fee waiver, I’ll refer to the following post from December 2010:</p>
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<p>'Nuff said. :)</p>
<p>(See [this</a> thread](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1056513-should-i-apply-application-fee-waivers.html]this”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1056513-should-i-apply-application-fee-waivers.html) for more detail.)</p>
<p>The OP might also want to check [this</a> listing](<a href=“http://www.porcelina.net/freeapps/international.html][b]this”>Free College Applications) of schools that have at one time offered application fee waivers to international applicants. (Contact each school directly to find out if the waiver is still offered.)</p>
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<p>I believe the OP was asking about application fee waivers only.</p>
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<p>This was posted by the OP…and since he mentioned the CB (College Board)…I figured he was inquiring about Profile fee waivers as well. </p>
<p>Regardless…not available from CB.</p>
<p>How is what I said any different.</p>
<ol>
<li>Most schools are not need blind to international student</li>
<li>The college board and the NACAC do not offer fee waivers to international students.
4.If the fee is not paid the school will not move forward with the application process
5.IF the school does not have the money or feel that its money could be better utilized differently, they are not going to accept the student</li>
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<p>At the end of the day, all op can do is request a waiver directly from the school and the school will say yes or no</p>
<p>The question isn’t that complicated - “Should I apply for a fee waiver?” The answer is, if you can’t apply to the college without one, you should ask for one. Period. </p>
<p>If you aren’t going to be able to go without financial aid, then the point is moot about trying to hide that fact up front. And I rarely hear about students who aren’t screened because their fee waiver caused delays. More often it is missing information and other incomplete materials. Missing teacher recommendations and counselor information are the most common errors - and often because they weren’t sent in the first place.</p>
<p>By the time the applications are completed, the school and the financial aid application will be completed. Although I doubt - except in the case of Questbridge applicants - that the advance readers have any knowledge (or care) who needs FA and who does not. Normally those decisions come to play once the pile is whittled down to finalists.</p>
<p>What can be confusing - especially in the case of international students (but not limited to them) is the idea that lack of acceptance was predicated on financial need. Sometimes. Sometimes not. Depends on who is in the applicant pool that year and what the school needs and is willing to fund.</p>
<p>Certainly, schools ask for fees in part to prevent students from sending out hundreds of applications. It forces students to be more selective. So fee waivers should be requested only in the case of dire need. And I mean - when it is a hardship to pay it, not just inconvenient or a “stretch.” It helps to have some “skin” in the game when you’re applying to show you are serious, FA candidate or not.</p>
<p>If you need a fee waiver, ask for one. But if you have any options for paying it, I’d choose the latter.</p>
<p>I’m curious, however, how it is a high school counselor can say - definitively - what a college does or does not do as it relates to an international student. Better to leave that answer for someone on the inside - and even then not all colleges act in a homogeneous manner.</p>
<p>keep in mind that there are 3 types of international students:</p>
<p>Students who are not US citizens/Permanent resident or eligible non-citizens who attend HS in the US.</p>
<p>Students who are US citizens/Permanent resident or eligible non-citizens who not attend HS in the US. while schools are need blind to them in the admissions process, their applications are read regionally with international students from that region of the country.</p>
<p>Students who are not US citizens/Permanent resident or eligible non-citizens who not attend HS in the US.</p>
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<p>In some parts of the country, especially NYC/California/Texas there is not a lack of international students attending US public and private high schools (including many undocumented student, which are also in the international pool of applicants). </p>
<p>Why would you think that HS GCs would not know what is needed for international students if they service international students as part of their caseload? </p>
<p>While you are absolutely right, that all schools do not act in a homogeneous manner, do you not think that the GC would not have the good sense to pick up a phone and ask about a situation concerning a particular student? </p>
<p>Do you not think that part of their job would be developing relationships with their regional admissions counselors who they see year over year at open houses, conferences and are in constant contact with to pick up a phone or shoot an e-mail to ask how they would best service a particular student? </p>
<p>IF your child’s school has international students, are you telling me that your school’s GC does not know how to guide them through the college process?</p>
<p>I agree with ExieMITAlum. If you need the fee waivers, get them. If you don’t , then don’t. If you are going to need close to a full package, whether you need a fee waiver or not might pretty much be a moot point. You are going to be in the group that needs a lot of aid. If you run your numbers through the calculators and it looks like you need half aid or less, or whatever cut off you arbitrarily make, or just cannot come up with the money, request the waivers. </p>
<p>When you apply for financial aid, you should have a mixed bag in applications, anyways, because you just don’t know what will pan out and what will not. It’s like playing the lottery. So it also is when you are applying to selective schools.</p>
<p>I agree that OP should also be looking at schools where he has a good chance of getting merit aid even if means going down a tier or two. Even if he is tossing his app toward the usual suspects, he needs to look at smaller schools off the grids where he may end up getting excellent aid.</p>
<p>also remember that the application fee waiver is just the tip of the iceberg. Op will have to pay to send official test scores to teach school and sending the profile, which has this year gone global.</p>
<p>I’m aware of that. I’ve been interviewing for MIT for 30+ years. What I’m trying to point out is that it isn’t necessarily a universal truth that a foreign student who applies for a fee waiver will be rejected, have delayed paperwork or put in a special “pile.”</p>
<p>Schools tend to find the funding for the students they want. Trust me on that one.</p>