@thumper1
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If you don’t use aid, you will need to show that you have $55,000 USD in hand, or already approved loans, or you will not get a visa to study here.
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That wouldn’t be a problem for me. I can show $55,000 USD in savings. I plan to live with my savings during the first year, and start working afterwards.
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If you do get aid, wouldn’t your financial aid be calculated using that income? You would probably get a lot less financial aid than you actually need, right? What could happen is that even if you were admitted and even if you got enough aid, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford it without the income.
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You’re right. According to Stanford website, they seem to calculate financial aid based on family financial circumstances:
“Aid eligibility will be determined based on family financial circumstances.” from https://financialaid.stanford.edu/undergrad/how/international.html.
Based on that, I guess they will calculate financial aid based on my parents income, which are much lower than me. As mentioned above, I plan to live with my savings during the first year, and then start working again to cover most of my expenses. A private loan could be useful to me in case I’m struggling a bit.