<p>is there any fee waivers for international students applying to grad schools generally ? if yes could you just name some of them (i'm interested the top ranked ones) and if not, do you think this is fair ? i'm really in need of money and my salary is so low, i will not be exaggerating if i say that a typical; application fee for int. students are in the order of my monthly salary ! i'm really depressed by that. is there any way out ?</p>
<p>Fulbrighters get their fees waived, I think. Otherwise, no, sorry. I'm sure there are many international students whose finances are in much better shape than those of their American counterparts, so it would generally be unfair to grant one group a waiver based on their origin.</p>
<p>i agree with you, kigali, to not assign waivers to a certain group, but what i see in the grad school websites at this moment is that all the waivers are reserved for the "GROUP of US citizens" !! this is what it is and not the other way around ! now, i see your point and i say this is UNFAIR too, like you said !</p>
<p>It's just that lot of programs have agreements with certain fellowship programs that are reserved for US citizens only (such as Pickering, for instance), and those fellowships cover their application fees, so they're essentially "waived" for the student. Fulbright scholars coming to the US aren't US citizens, and they get their fees waived, too. So it's not just for American citizens, but fee waivers are typically only provided to outside program fellows or to alumni of the school.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt that kigali, even the poorest student could be in a better position to send apps than an international student.
I live in South America, and my salary is 540USD. I really can't send 15 apps like many US students do.</p>
<p>I come from a very low income family and I am a domestic applicant, I did not qualify for any fee waivers at all and believe me I tried. It's hard to get these fee waivers, does not matter where you are from.</p>
<p>Ezequiel - that's not necessarily true at all. There are domestic students making < $540/month, and there are international students who come from very comfortable financial backgrounds.</p>
<p>I understand your situation and can appreciate how big of an impact the application fees would be on somebody in a third world country but I don't know that I agree that grad schools in the United States "owe" anybody a free application. And if they did, why would they owe people who haven't contributed by way of taxes to their budgets? There are a lot of considerations that go along with them accepting non US residents including a higher overall cost (internationals can't become state residents ensuring that their tuition will always cost the department more than a domestic student, some training grants will not support internationals). Also, after the state has spent a quarter million dollars educating a foreign scientist, they may well return to their home country.</p>
<p>kigali, what are minimum wages in the US? Here, the minimum salary is around 330USD, is hard when you want to send apps! </p>
<p>bevitt, I'm not saying that US universities "owe" something (they don't), but maybe they could take into account the exchange rate (1 USD = 3.50 $ is harsh), and maybe charge a little less. I mean, if the fees are there to persuade the less serious applicants not to apply (among other things), for someone in a "third world country", even half that, is hard, and no one who is not serious about grad school would send apps, believe me.
I understand that foreing students are more expensive, but hey, where would research in US be without foreigners?
The last thing you mention is a serious issue, and it's sometimes "fixed" by giving a scholarship that states that after the PhD is completed, the grad student is required to stay in that country for a fixed number of years doing research (I've seen this).</p>
<p>Ezequiel - it varies by state, but if you're working 20 hours a week at $6.50/hour, that's $520/month pre-taxes. Not exactly rolling in dough with that kind of money.</p>
<p>I understand that your situation is tough, but you're missing my point - MANY international students have MORE than enough money to cover application fees, tuition, room, board and so on. You can't charge every single international applicant less, because that's unfair to the domestic students who are barely scraping together enough to apply.</p>
<p>Oh, I know kagali. Actually, I'm just venting out, the fees really hurted my pockets!!!</p>