<p>But these expenses I mentioned previously are real cash that has been spent.</p>
<p>"Little known fact: LACs don’t receive many applications from full-pay international applicants. (International students who can shell out $60K a year for a college education seem to prefer universities with name recognition.) "</p>
<p>My D attends a top LAC which has plenty of international full pay students. No shortage! </p>
<p>It’s unclear whether you actually don’t have the money, or don’t want to spend it. </p>
<p>Bottom line, colleges will tell you how much money they will give you; you do not tell colleges how much money you want. Period. End of story. Armed with this financial information, you can make the informed decision of whether to attend or not.</p>
<p>Apply for financial aid. Present your income, assets, and expenses as they really are. The college will decide how much to give you. If running the NPCs you see you’d qualify for 25,000 or so, then it means your estimation you need 20,000 is not exagerated and you’d likely get something (even if it’s not $25,000).
As a recruited athlete, you’ll be on the priority pile at many schools. Since most LACs are need aware, an international applicant who needs $20,000 per year is preferable to an international applicant who needs $55,000 a year. If that applicant is a recruited athlete, the risks are very low for you that applying for FA will hurt your case. In addition, since you can be recruited somewhere, if ED comes through, you can be recruited elsewhere. Start looking into LAC teams (Patriot league and D3) that may be interested in what you have to offer.</p>