<p>We all know that most of the Ivies (e.g. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton) and MIT are completely need-blind for international students - but what about need-aware schools?</p>
<p>From what you've heard, what are some other options for the financially-challenged who wish to apply to U.S. universities - as in schools that do not always come through with the ideal financial aid package but significantly reduce the ridiculous tuition fees?</p>
<p>First of all, Columbia is only need-blind towards Canadian and Mexican citizens, not for all internationals.</p>
<p>To address your question, some top LAC’s grant both need-blind and need-based aids to international students, namely Amherst and Middlebury (Williams is no longer under that category this year). If you would like an intimate and personal feeling at college, those are great options to look further into.</p>
<p>Other than the need-blind schools, Rice, at least in my opinion, is very financially friendly to internationals. It has the highest percentage of freshmen that receive merit-based aid last year(34%), and that’s not restricted to domestic applicants. Rice offers two international merit-based awards: the Allen International Scholarship and the Edgar Odell Lovett International Scholarship. The former covers full tuition over the course of 4 years while the latter covers half of the tuition, despite that Rice’s tuition isn’t that high to start with.</p>
<p>^what?! Rice’s tuition is high and continues to get higher.</p>
<p>[Rice</a> University | Tuition & Fees](<a href=“http://www.students.rice.edu/students/tuition_fees.asp?snid=356277266]Rice”>http://www.students.rice.edu/students/tuition_fees.asp?snid=356277266)</p>
<p>$33,120.00 - Tuition<br>
$7,880.00 - Room
$280.00 - Orientation Week
<p>Also, on the Rice forum, which I was a big reader of, they said they expect tuition to continue to increase even more. Don’t shoot the messenger, but people were angry + complaining on that forum of the expected tuition hike.
But yea, didn’t mean to like hate on mathematicism, but I’m just saying Rice ain’t cheap. </p>
<p>Also, I completely agree, if you want that personal, small class, united feel in college Lib Arts is the way to go. Schools like Vassar don’t even have a core curriculum even though it is lib. arts. so you can major in like hard sciences with that entire feel of a lib arts college…something to think about…i know that that idea interests me.</p>
<p>^ umm I brought Rice up because of the amount of merit-aid it grants each year, but because it’s cheap as a state school or something like that. Besides, despite of this ‘tuition hike’, Rice students are still enjoying the lowest price among students who go to an institution of similar quality. 40+k really isn’t big deal, go to WUSTL’s website and you’ll see that the annual cost for an international student is expected to exceed 59k there.</p>
<p>There are only 6 US schools that are need-blind to Internationals and neither Middlebury nor Columbia are on that list: Amherst, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Yale.</p>
<p>Several US schools treat Canadians as different from the international pool. The schools that are need-blind to Canadians are: University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University.</p>
<p>Since the OP asked about need-aware US colleges that give generous financial aid to international students, do check out:</p>
<p>Top 25 Financial Aid Colleges in US for International Students (Need-aware)
[Top</a> 25 Financial Aid Colleges in US for International Students (Need-aware) - Desperate Guide: Tuition-Free Colleges, Financial Aid, Scholarships Around the World](<a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware]Top”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware)</p>
<p>All the best!</p>