Guys I am an international student. I won’t be applying for financial aid but during this pandemic, paying $1000 in app fees isn’t easy. Do you think asking for fee waivers will affect my admission chance if I don’t ask for fin aid?
How do you plan to pay your college costs which will be high…if you can’t afford the application fees, and are not applying for aid?
I have my finances figured out for next year. its just that right now things are a bit tight.
You can ask. I don’t think the fee waivers appear on the application
I mean yeah, I am not asking for aid which is what really matters to them anyway.
If you are really applying for no financial aid, you should have all 4 years of your finances figured out prior to applying.
If you can’t afford the application fees, it is my opinion that you can’t afford four years full pay of the costs to attend.
Keep in mind that most colleges won’t allow international students to apply for need based aid in subsequent years if the student does not apply for aid as an incoming freshman.
So plan to be full pay for all four years.
Agree with the above^. You must have your finances, for your full university years, figured out before you apply to the desired schools.
Doing well at a US university is EXPECTED and is the norm. You won’t receive additional funding, after the first year. The universities in the US don’t work that way. Please see this thread:
If you cannot afford the application fees, “right now, during the pandemic”, which are a drop in the bucket compared to the other fees, then you are going to be out of luck the following years as well.
Many schools are not need blind for international students. Many look at the international pool for money via full pay. You are already signaling that you have need when you can’t even pay the application fee. Requesting a fee waiver on the common and coalition apps lead you to questions as to what sort of financial hardship your family has that you should be granted this waiver. Having gotten a fee waiver on the SAT or ACT is one of the items listed. Just not wanting to pay for the fees, or being a bit tight on the cash right now is not one of the options. A catastrophe like death of a parent, a hurricane destroying your home, are examples of reasons why someone might need a fee waiver at the time , but have resources to pay for college later.
You can call and ask if there are fee waivers for a college. Research on internet if done schools offering any. Sometimes, schools will give, just for asking. My son got a fee waiver from Pitt after he toured the school. Sometimes showing some interest does being offers of fee waivers. But you can’t count on them.
Are your parents able and willing to pay $300,000 for your four year undergrad college education? If so, they should have the money to pay for your applications to these colleges.
Your stats aren’t exactly top notch. You will be lucky to get accepted to one of these colleges. As noted on your other thread, ECs don’t make up for less than stellar stats.
Harvard and Stanford accept less than 5% of international applicants.
What does the rest of your application list look like? And can your parents fully fund all four years?
I don’t think you will get fee waivers from the schools you named.
And why those schools??