<p>After reading many threads in this forum, I understand that for international students that need full aid have very low chance of admission</p>
<p>However, if I only need only about 20-30k aid for a school with a comprehensive fee of 60k, are my chances any different from a student who needs full aid.</p>
<p>Do the admission committees and the financial aid offices in most schools communicate with each other so that they know how much a student needs and whether he or she qualifies for the amount of aid requested?</p>
<p>If I need very little money should I just not apply for aid at all and seek other alternatives (if there are any alternatives at all)?</p>
<p>You are correct that many schools are need-aware for international students. However, saying that you don’t need aid when you actually need $20,000 or $30,000 a year is probably a mistake. What happens if you are accepted to a school that costs $60,000 a year and you can only afford to pay half of that? You won’t be able to come to the US or matriculate if you have a deficit like that, and it kind of defeats the advantage of claiming to be full-pay. (Needing half or close to half of the COA as aid is not ‘very little’ need).</p>
<p>There aren’t too many alternatives that will net you $20,000 or $30,000 a year to be honest. If you don’t have the money and you can’t get the money from some kind of grant or loan program in your home country, it is very unlikely that you will be able to get it from any source other than from a college’s own financial aid office of course.</p>
<p>Now of course if you can pay for the full costs of college yourself somehow then that’s definitely good for the majority of schools which are need-aware for international students. But if you can’t, you have to weigh the incremental benefit of saying that you’re full-pay (when you know you need a lot of money) with the inevitable heartbreak of having to turn down an offer because the money isn’t there.</p>
<p>What if two applicants of identical credentials apply to the same school, but one can pay half, while the other needs full aid? Will these two applicants be treated differently?</p>
<p>Should ask for as little as I can manage in order to increase my chance?</p>
<p>Do the admission committees know how much aid you need so that they will make decision base off your need? Or is the amount of aid requested known only to the financial aid offices?</p>
<p>I personally don’t know if applicants who can pay half are treated differently than those who need full aid. What I do know is that if the school doesn’t provide aid to international students then only being able to pay half is just as bad as not being able to pay anything. Many schools are concerned about yield management so they may be unwilling to admit someone who won’t be able to afford to attend. </p>
<p>I would also be concerned about those schools that don’t meet full need either and are also need-aware (which is most of them). There is a common phenomenon in U.S. colleges called “admit/deny” – where basically a school will admit someone but not provide them with enough financial aid to make the school affordable according to the ‘needs’ calculation. Yes, they are technically admitted but they can’t attend, which is basically the same as denial.</p>
<p>The Common Application which many schools use does ask if you are applying for financial aid or not, but to my knowledge it doesn’t ask about the amount of aid. As an international student though you may be submitting other paperwork like the international certification of finances which may complicate that since you have to show that you can afford to attend in order to get the visa.</p>
<p>[URL=<a href=“http://www.internationalstudent.com/schools_awarding_aid/]Here[/url”>Schools Awarding International Financial Aid]Here[/url</a>] is a website that talks about the schools that do meet full need and are need-blind for international students. There are only six of them in the entire country, which should be a sign that it’s a tough process. More common are schools that provide aid to internationals but are also need-aware, and many schools that don’t provide that much aid at all.</p>
<p>I really do recommend applying to schools that you can pay all of the costs to attend as well, if only as a back up in case you don’t get enough aid to get into a school. It’s hard for internationals to get a lot of aid even if they are admitted from most schools, and if you need half of a full-ride each year that’s pretty competitive for anyone, even domestic students.</p>