Financial Aid for an International Student

Paying for College
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<p>TL;DR somewhere along the middle (with ** sign)</p>

<p>My old man is a pilot. His income is around $100 00 or more/year. I have a younger sister. I have no clue how much my mom and dad have in their bank accounts because no one wants to tell me. If I don't apply for financial aid, my dad refuses to pay.</p>

<p>WHICH SUCKS.
Because all my life he's been 'don't worry about money, just focus on your studies!'
I've just entered Gr. 11 and I have around a year left before the application to my dream school (Johns Hopkins) ends. But the closer I get to sending an application, the further it seems to be disappearing from my grasps because of money. If you didn't want to pay for it, you should've told me in the first place so I didn't have to waste money studying for SAT's... it's his choice, I get that, but I wish he would've told me sooner so I could've backed out.</p>

<p>Anywho
I think I'm a competitive to typical JHU student in terms of stats. SAT's scores are somewhere in the middle of what they accept. GPA too. I have good EC's and Volunteer work though, which may be in my favour. One involves going to East Africa for a volunteer trip (best decision I've ever made--my dream is to join Médecins Sans Frontières one day (DWB)), and this trip confirmed that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.</p>

<p>My boyfriend went to Johns Hopkins CTY when we were in elementary school and through his help I went to a Discover Hopkins summer camp which I also hope works in my favour.</p>

<p>-good leadership skills (part of 2 student councils, 5 clubs which are all very successful)
-sports (awards in kendo and snowboarding)
-music (RCM's, 7 different orchestras for the past 4 years, created a club relating to it, been on news articles too)
-good/average grades (SAT's in the 2100~2300 range (I don't want to say everything because my new scores are coming out in a bit)), good SAT II scores for 3 different subjects, trilingual not that it matters, 93~95% GPA, heaviest course load in my grade (I'm the only kid with 10 courses, when the standard is 6-8)) (time management is important T^T)
-The only thing that was offered to me but I did not take: AP Physics but I did take 5 AP's in total (AP Chem, AP Calc, AP Bio (not offered at school--shows on transcript i took it online), AP Psychology (again, not offered in school), AP Eng Lit, AP Eng Lang) in order to make up for the Physics</p>

<p>**I'm applying for ED next year. Do you think Johns Hopkins will still consider me as a competitive student even if I'm a middle class Asian lady (Canadian citizen for 10 years)? Or should I not even bother?</p>

<p>Also, who gives out more Financial Aid to International students based on my papa's salary? Johns Hopkins or UPenn or Cornell?</p>

<p>Thanks for your time.</p>

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<p>?? What are you saying here?</p>

<p>Are you saying that your dad is refusing to pay anything? …or are you saying that your dad has said, “apply for FA, and then I’ll pay the rest.” ? </p>

<p>Does your dad realize that with his income, and likely savings, he will be expected to pay a good bit? </p>

<p>Those three schools give about the same FA. Penn may be a little better. Cornell will match a peer school’s FA pkg. </p>

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<p>Huh? You’re saying that if you can’t go to JHU then you’re not going to go to college at all? That makes you sound very childish. Any college you apply to is going to want to see a good SAT score so studying for it is not a waste of money or time.</p>

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<p>@patsmom is right. </p>

<p>And maybe your dad was encouraging you to get the best stats possible so that you would earn a merit scholarship.</p>

<p>What’s so important about JHU? it’s great for grad school, but it’s not super-wonderful as an undergrad. I know that many premeds want to go to JHU, but it’s not necessary at all.</p>

<p>And if you’re premed, then getting into a US med school is very difficult for int’l students. </p>

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<p>You are an international student. You will be competing for admission with all of the other international students from your region. The acceptance rates at Penn and Cornell for international students is about 10%. </p>

<p>Your financial situation is such that it sounds like you will need significant financial aid to attend any school. Penn, Cornell, and JHU are not as generous as some of the other schools that meet full need. Your family income alone would generate a likely family contribution of at least $25,000…or so. More depending on assets. That doesn’t include any student contribution these schools might require.</p>

<p>Personally, I think applying ED in your situation is not a good idea. You need to first determine how much your family WILL pay for college. Those schools cost $60,000 a year. Simply put…on a $100,000 income, it will be challenging to pay $30,000 or so in college for you solely out of current earnings. Your family needs to also pay their living expenses…and it sounds like they also want to consider the future costs for your sibling.</p>

<p>You need to cast a broader net.</p>

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<p>Maybe I didn’t phrase something correctly.</p>

<p>@mom2collegekids: Yes, he’s saying he’ll pay only if I apply for Financial Aid, but of course, these schools are need-aware, which will make my already small chances, even smaller. (Darn you, international ‘status’ T^T)</p>

<p>@patsmom: thanks, calling me childish really brightens my day, I really needed that.
If you saw the title, I’m an international student. From Canada, if I wanted to be specific. I don’t need SAT’s to get into a Canadian university–I only need a transcript. So yeah, as a matter of fact, it IS a waste of money if I wasn’t going to go to a US school. How many kids in Canada do you see memorizing 100 words per day so they can go to a Canadian university? Not too many.
And I never said I wasn’t going to collage if JHU didn’t accept me. As much as I love lounging around, drawing and playing on my double bass, I’m still going to graduate from university, no matter where I have to go.
So again, technically it’s not ‘childish’ of me to back out from studying for the SAT’s. It’s called ‘saving money and using that 10 grand to pay for a Canadian university’. Sure, knowing an extra 3500 words and how to solve certain functions on a graph, and knowing the difference between ‘principal’ and ‘principle’ is important, but I could’ve done that on my own time, instead of spending ridiculous amounts trying to raise a 2050 to a 2100, and a 2150 to a 2250, and so on.</p>

<p>@thumper1: my dad will pay as much as he needs to as long as it’s reasonable. I have no clue how much my parents have right now (or how much they’re willing to take out of their bank accounts for me), but getting a $25 000 FA is better than him paying $65 000 on his own. As long as no one is out on the streets and we still have our house and car, my dad says it’s all good. I also have $10 000 from working, but that could only help for one year and then I’d have to work part time at JHU (which is also restricted to 20 hrs/week).
My list goes: JHU, Cornell, UPenn, NYU, UCLA, U of T, UBC, McGill.</p>

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<p>Not all those schools are need-aware.</p>

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<p>So…you are saying that your parents can pay $40,000 a year for you to attend college? Is that correct? </p>

<p>That implies some significant income and/or assets. Will you even be eligible for need based aid? Maybe not.</p>

<p>UPenn and Cornell don’t give merit aid. NYU is notoriously stingy with aid, and it’s expensive to attend and live in NYC. JHU merit awards are extremely competitive. UCLA…not likely to get merit or need based aid, in my opinion.</p>

<p>I know nothing about the canadian schools.</p>

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<p>UCLA does not offer financial aid for International students. Price tag $55K/year. </p>

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<p>If your dad is not going to disclose his financials then he is not going to want to fill in a FAFSA which is the ins and outs of a ducks arse, in financial terms, and if he is a commercial piot, he would earn more than a 100K, I would imagine. What is wrong with Canadian schools? Canadians get cheap college, no? I have a friends DD who is going to Canada from the US to a cheaper school because she was merely born there, not even resident. Your dad needs to understand that to apply for FA he needs to give you numbers and you need to be in actual financial need. I suspect he knows that already and this is his way of getting you to grapple with reality. </p>