<p>The website says: "More than 80% of our international students receive institutional financial aid, with the average aid package covering about three quarters of the cost of attendance."
While I heartily wish for this to be true I am somewhat doubtful for several reasons.
1. Oberlin does not seem to have a reputation of being particularly rich compared to other liberal arts colleges.
2. Whoever made the website likes to play with the numbers. It says the number of their PhD graduates are #1, but mostly because the school itself is bigger. It's undeniable, but it's misleading. I'm worried that I might fall into the same trick.</p>
<p>Can anyone provide me with more evidence that most of the international students receive aid? Not the kind of "oh I know a foreign friend of mine who got aid" anecdotes, but more solid stats. Oberlin really seems the fit for me, but I don't want to risk ED if receiving aid is far from probable. So please someone defy my doubts.</p>
<p>I don't think the statistic about number of PhD's is misleading; it is an accurate statement and sheer number is also a significant point. Also, though Oberlin has more students than many other LAC's, that includes the conservatory students, who are less likely to go into PhD programs.<br>
As to the financial aid statistics, the questions are 1. whether they give full need-based aid to international students, and 2. whether you can establish need. You can ask the financial aid office about the first question, the second one will depend on you and your parents. You could also apply regular admissions and keep your options open.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about the 80% number but I do know that (after working at a panel today where somebody from Financial Aid was speaking) 1) financial aid for international students is very competitive and 2) the financial aid process for Canadians is the same as it is for US students with awards working very similarly (but the students are still classified as international students). </p>
<p>So knowing that, I wouldn't be surprised if statistical figures got skewed somewhat. But other than that I don't have any more information.</p>
<p>Institutional Financial Aid includes both need-based and merit-based amounts awarded by Oberlin.</p>
<p>The conservatory has a fair number of Dean's scholarships that are awarded based on audition results and what voices or instruments happen to be needed that year. However, even if nearly all of the International Students in the Conservatory are receiving aid, at least two-thirds of those in the College must be receiving aid to make the numbers work out.</p>
<p>While Oberlin does not have as large an endowment as many LACs, they do have a reputation of putting a large portion of their annual budget into financial aid. According to their 2007 financial statement at <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/control/Report07/financialstmtfy07.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.oberlin.edu/control/Report07/financialstmtfy07.pdf</a> they provided over $37 million in student aid on a budget of about $137 million. That is over a quarter of their entire budget spent on aid. You can generally trust these kinds of financial statements because they go through an independent audit and the penalties for filing a false statement are severe.</p>
<p>Fewer than 15% of International applicants are accepted in a typical year as compared with 31% of all applicants. I would not be surprised to find that International students qualify for merit scholarships at a higher rate because they have to qualify to higher admissions standards than the general population.</p>
<p>Therefore, I would take Oberlin at their word when they say that over 80% of International students receive Institutional aid of some kind but, as you point out, you have to realize all of the assumptions that go into calculating such statistics. While Oberlin's use of statistics of this sort are undoubtedly an effort to put their best foot forward, I would not go so far as to call it a "trick." After all, not very many colleges in the US provide more than a token amount of aid to International students. Oberlin is among the leaders in this regard.</p>
<p>Finally, if you are accepted ED and can document that the offered aid package is less than what you need to attend, they will release you from your commitment.</p>
<p>I did not mean to imply anything of the sort because I have never seen a breakdown of financial aid offered by College vs. Conservatory. I was trying to concoct a worst-case scenario for an applicant to the College given the fact that the Conservatory has a far higher percentage of International students than does the College. If Oberlin were playing fast and loose with the statistics, one way they could be doing so is by offering much better aid to International applicants in one division than the other and claiming that the average applied across the board. My conclusion was that, even if they were doing this in the Conservatory students' favor, the International students in the College would still be getting quite a bit of aid. I have no evidence that says they are favoring one division at all, I just wanted to see what the numbers might be like if they were.</p>
<p>Consider that International students receive nearly 15% of the school's total aid budget while representing less than 6% of the school's total population (14% of students in the Conservatory and 4% of students in the College.)</p>
<p>I'm an international student and have talked to several other international students about aid. Every international student I've talked to about it is on generous financial aid. That's anecdotal evidence, yes, but I know a lot of international people (we bond, since we get to campus three days before everyone else for orientation.)</p>
<p>As in double degree applicants? I would say that that significantly decreases your chances, since you have to get into both the college and the conservatory, which is no mean feat.</p>
<p>Depending on what demagogue meant by the question, it may be a little more complicated than that. Fanatic is certainly correct that it is more difficult to be admitted to both the college and conservatory than it is to be admitted to either separately, but the application need not be all or nothing. If one applies as a double degree student to both the college and conservatory, there are four possible outcomes. One could be offered admission to both, to neither, to the college only or to the conservatory only. The college and conservatory have separate admissions departments and, while I understand that they do communicate concerning the admission decision of double degree applicants, admissions decisions are mostly made separately with the college looking at the normal mix of academic records, test scores ECs, letters of recommendation and essays, and the conservatory mainly basing its decision on the audition. There may be cases where a student who is borderline for the college is offered admission to both because they are an excellent musician who fits a specific need that the conservatory has and the admissions departments realize that the student is more likely to matriculate if offered admission to both. Thus in very rare and specific cases, applying to the conservatory could be of some benefit .</p>
<p>If admitted to the conservatory only, the curriculum includes on average one course per semester in the college. If you do well enough in those electives, you may be able to transfer into the double degree program in your second year. In this case, you could have a second chance of getting into the college by virtue of acceptance at the conservatory.</p>
<p>If admitted to the college only, you may also apply for admission to the conservatory for your second year, but you will still have to go through the same auditions as everyone else. It occasionally happens that someone manages to get in this way, but it is less common than going in the other direction.</p>