I think you need to view the net price calculators with a grain of salt. They are not really based on parent income earned in other countries but citizens of other countries. Your tax system is different than the U.S. most likely…
Look at the SUNY schools. A $40,000 a year budget would cover costs at those schools.
I would also suggest he look at the University of Pittsburgh. His stats are excellent, and he should apply on the very early side…he might get decent merit aid there.
University of Alabama would be more than affordable…and he would get merit aid there too, I believe.
You say you can cover $40,000 a year…but what will the schools compute as your family contribution?
That’s a good point, but if the parents are U.S. citizens then they are (or should be) filing U.S. tax returns. We didn’t apply for financial aid, but other American expat families that we knew found the NPCs to be reasonably accurate, though income gained through expat packages, foreign taxes and currency exchange rates can complicate the picture.
Overall the colleges’ financial aid departments were helpful in providing guidance to American expat families seeking clarification, especially for high achieving applicants. I’m sure the experience varies by school, but we also found that the high school college counselors didn’t have a good grip on the realities of financing a U.S. education and misled many families to believe that financial aid would be available, when, in fact it wouldn’t have been offered despite the student’s accomplishments. The difference between need-based and merit aid is not widely understood.
For families that are not American citizens, the NPCs are not reliable.
Thank you for the responses. @momrath , yes we parents are US citizens too, and we have been filing US tax return as well as Indian. I am running the NPC’s for several colleges and getting into the process. And you are right, I do not completely understand the difference between need-based and merit-aid and several other things We are figuring out our finances based on all this new information. How do you do chance? Thank you for all the support!
@oldfort thank you for the reassurance, we as a family have a soft spot for Cornell, his dad is an alum and we love Ithaca, despite the harsh winters and if he did get into Cornell we will somehow make it work. His school counselor said he needs more EC’s so we weren’t feeling quite confident.
@MYOS1634 I thought the LAC’s were super expensive and were not even considering them, however the NPC says otherwise. For eg: Harvey Mudd estimated his total aid to be $55K. I am sure I entered all finances accurately, how are they calculating the estimated grants/aid. Is it based on our income?
The plan is for him to go to school in US and continue living in US. We parents are not sure when/whether we will be going back; but we have a huge family and friends network in US, so I am thinking we can manage the holidays/visits
Need based aid is based on the student’s and parents’ financial situation (income and assets).
Merit scholarships are based on the students academic and sometimes other achievements.
Some scholarships are both merit and need based.
Some net price calculators calculate only need based aid. Some others ask for student academic information and include estimates of merit scholarships (typically at colleges where they are awarded mostly or solely based on stats like GPA, rank, test scores, and/or National Merit status).
Remember that some colleges have much better financial aid than others, so use the net price calculator on each college under consideration.
It is best to compare with the net price after subtracting grants (but not loans or work-study) from the list price. If Harvey Mudd offered $55,000 in grants off of its list price of $75,000, then its net price is $20,000, which you can compare with the net prices of other colleges.
If your child does well on the IB tests, they can get college credit. My DD went to SUNY Binghamton for Math (partially because it was generous with IB credits and because it is affordable for Out of State Students) and she graduated a year and a half early because of IB credits (plus a couple summer classes). She then did a Master’s in secondary Math education as she wants to be a HS Math Teacher.
SUNY Binghamton:
“Students in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program may receive up to 32 credits. To receive the full 32 credits, the following conditions must be met:
The IB Diploma must be completed with a score of 30 or more points; and
The student must complete at least three Higher Level exams with a score of 5 or higher.
Diploma holders who meet these conditions receive credit for their individual exam scores plus additional liberal arts elective credit to total 32 credits.”
As far as college applicaitons, the whole point of the IB program is that it was created as a rigorous, standardized program that expats/ambassador’s kids could take anywhere in the world and colleges would know what it is.
Her extra curriculars were things she did for the CAS requirements (community service, volleyball, etc) and other math tutoring activities she did.
I think that colleges know that students living abroad aren’t as EC crazy.
Junior year spring break, we went back to the US and did a tour of schools. She did not get to go back for any admitted students days. Some colleges have orientations during the summer and may not tell you but they always have a secret international orientation right before college so you don’t have to worry much about that.
Re: GPA
My daughter went to one school 9-10 grades with 0-100 grading. Then she went to another and did an IB Diploma for 11-12 grades which is 0-7. Never knew what her 4.0 scale GPA was…colleges figure it out. The only time there was an issue was for our State Flagship which auto-awards scholarships based on GPAs , but a quick email sorted that out. So send your transcript and the college will figure it out.
Also, this will be a fantastic opportunity for your kids to learn about another culture. You will realize how US centric our views are once you live outside the US. We are so geographically isolated that we can make different decisions vs. the countries surrounded by others.
@bopper did your daughter apply/receive any financial aid? I wonder if the NPC’s are calculating it wrong because of te foreign tax credit exemption on the tax returns. Good to learn that we do not need to break our heads trying to calculate his GPA, I have been doing that
@Smithfamily, After you’ve tried the NPCs, I’d encourage you to call or email the financial aid departments of the schools that your son is interested in. Many (though not all) will help you understand how your actual aid package might vary from the amount indicated by the NPC.
My observations are second hand as we didn’t pursue financial aid for our son’s undergraduate education, but for the most part expat families we know felt that colleges were responsive and helpful in answering questions. Although I have to add that my son’s experience in a different context – graduate school – was that Cornell’s bureaucracy was difficult to deal with. Big Red Tape it’s (mostly affectionately) called.
Just a note from a physicist, don’t worry too much about the school he attends for physics. The curriculum is pretty much the same at all universities in the US and if he is interested in graduate school, he will have the opportunity to prepare and compete for the kind of graduate program he wants at just about any school. For this reason, I suggest that you look into the schools which make it most affordable, including merit aid and need-based aid. This probably means a private university and the smaller [url="<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org"]AITU[/url] schools are generally interested in offering some merit aid. I say this because I know that my school, Illinois Tech routinely offers good merit aid.
Once in a physics program, he can access the REU programs that are only available to US Citizens and get summer research experience in addition to the research he can do on campus. The most important thing to make sure of if he is interested in a graduate degree is that the curriculum includes a full year of quantum mechanics and a full year of electrodynamics plus statistical physics. These are the important preparatory courses for graduate school in physics. Realize also, that if he chooses to go into a Ph.D. program he should not have any tuition costs (current tax reform proposals not being considered) and will be paid as a Teaching or Research Assistant.
Wouldn’t some schools with very small physics departments not be able to offer all of these courses frequently enough for every physics major to have the opportunity to take them all?
I was a chemistry major not physics however at the small College I attended when I wanted to take quantum and there was only one other student who wanted to take it the professor offered it in his office for just the two of us.
Not sure if it’s a suggestion you’d want to think about, but have you considered UK universities? They could end up cheaper per annum than the US if you don’t qualify for any financial aid - and you are looking at only 3 years tuition vs. 4 (unless your son can graduate early in the US.) Apart from Oxbridge, there are some schools with excellent reputations, such as Imperial College.
The UK admissions process also seems a lot simpler as there is a single common application (UCAS) used by all universities, although some may require additional test (especially Oxbridge). You can also find out what the “typical” grade requirements would be. Since there is much less emphasis on extra-curriculars and “rounded personalities” and “future leaders” compared with US, you would have a good idea as to whether your son would likely get in, based on his predicted IB grades.
To follow up on @xraymancs post, my ds is a sr physics/math double major at a non-physics powerhouse U. The school was extremely generous with merit scholarships and he has attended on full scholarship. (Vital for our kids bc we can’t afford our parental contribution.) He was accepted to numerous competitive REUs both his sophomore and junior summers and had the privilege of being able to select the 2 that best met his interests. (REUs are competitive, so the fact that he was accepted by many demonstrates that his U was not held against him.) As an UG he was able to engage in research on his U’s campus and has had fabulous professor mentors. I cannot say enough good things about the physics faculty and their support of him as an UG. He is a strong student and they have recognized that and really encouraged him.
He is in the process of applying to grad school now. He has been repeatedly told that LOR, coursework/texts used and GPA, UG research, and GRE scores are what matter, not the school.
“Trinity has the knack of attracting the majority of the UK IMO participants, with most students at the Easter camp going on to study maths as undergraduates at Trinity…As Trinity’s population of international students has increased, so has the number of Trinitarians who represent other delegations at the International Mathematical Olympiad. In addition to representatives of the majority of European countries, we have a large Australian contingent, something to which the joint UK and Australia pre-IMO camp may have contributed.” (i.e. pretty much as close as you can get to an automatic admit)
We are figuring out our finances based on all this new information. How do you do chance? Thank you for all the support!