<p>Now I'm going to be applying to college soon since it is my senior year. I lived most of my life in the U.S but our family could not obtain a green card in time.So, my question is, I'm not going to be able to obtain a green card until after my first year of college. I'm going to apply to certain colleges (MIT, Caltech, Stanford, etc.) without financial aid for the first year as an international student. If I by any chance get accepted into one of these schools and manage to pay for the first year, can I still apply for financial aid the second year of college as a U.S permanent resident?</p>
<p>You need to check each college’s financial aid policies individually.</p>
<p>Many colleges have a “if you did not apply for financial aid at the time of admission, you will never be considered for institutional financial aid in the future” policy. You could still apply for federal and state aid, though you may only qualify for loans and not grants.</p>
<p>If paying for your first year would be a hardship, I encourage you to apply for financial aid immediately. MIT, for example, is need-blind for international applicants, so there’s no reason not to apply for aid. If you don’t get into any of the extremely selective universities with financial aid initially, it might be better to take a gap year (which can also strengthen your application!) than to go into a lot of debt to pay for that year of college.</p>
<p>Four years ago I was in a similar situation. I got my green card at the end of my first year in college and I too struggled to decide how to approach the college admission process. At that time I had two priorities: 1. don’t go into too much debt and 2. don’t take time off. I ended up settling for a good-but-not-great liberal arts college that’s very generous to international students. </p>
<p>Retrospectively, I wish that I had taken a year off and applied as a domestic student to more selective universities later. I was underwhelmed with the academics at my undergraduate college and I have come to realize that there was absolutely no rush to get to college immediately. I think that I could have gained a lot personally from a gap year (how cool would it have been to volunteer abroad for a year?!?) and approached college with more of a sense of purpose. I am VERY glad though that I decided not to go into debt to pay for the first year at a more selective university out of pocket.</p>