Financial Aid and Merit Awards

Parents Forum
1

<p>As the father of an international applicant I am just amazed by the generosity of American colleges and universities. My son applied to seven liberal arts colleges and has heard favourably from five so far, three of which have offered him merit awards. I, for one, am not entirely sure whether international applicants in general truly appreciate how magnanimous this really is regardless of the amount of the FA or MA they receive. Whilst I fully understand the enormity of the task undertaken to pay for a private education in the U.S. I believe we must embark on it with one eye open to the fact that this "charity" - for it is a chairty - is little found anywhere else in the world. </p>

<p>This is more so when the world is very slowly creeping out of recession and all insitutions have to allocate their funds wisely. And in my humble opinion it is only right and proper that domestic students should take priority over international ones when it comes to financial assistance.</p>

2

<p>A very gracious post. Congratulations to your son. On my part, as a many-generations American married to a first-generation immigrant, I’m glad that America allows opportunities for students from American families and students from families around the world to study together at various colleges. That is better education for all of the enrolled students, and helps raise the standards of classes at the colleges with an international draw of applicants. I’m especially gratified to hear about colleges that use their endowments to make possible college study for families who can’t pay full list price in the current generation. My son is already looking forward to making lots of alumni donations to whatever college he decides to enroll at, to pay that forward to the next generation.</p>