<p>Hi -
I'm a would-be (undergraduate) international student, and I'm trying to decide whether there's any point in applying. I love the idea of Georgetown - its location, atmosphere, and focus on IR and politics all seem custom-made for me. However, I simply wouldn't be able to afford to pay anything approaching full tuition. I understand that Georgetown's financial aid program for international students is far from the best, but is there any chance of an international student being offered more than, say, 2/3 of tuition in FA (merit or need-based)? My family income is around $60000, with more assets than average (my dad's retired), and (major arrogance alert) my ECs and scores are pretty good, even by Georgetown's standards. I know that this isn't the most organised of threads: to be honest, I'm just trying to come up with some justification for keeping this fantastic college on my list. </p>
<p>Thanks for reading (and sorry again for the rant-ish nature of the post),
Jo</p>
<p>2/3 tuition; there’s just about no way if we’re going to be honest. I say still apply, but don’t be hopeful about financial aid, as an international you’re lucky to get much of anything without a fantastic hardship backstory.</p>
<p>I would say go on and apply. I happened to know quite a few international students getting accepted and given good finaid package (believe it or not, they don’t pay a penny for the tuition fee and room and board :D)</p>
<p>Huh - a split decision. Thanks to both of you for your thoughts. Anyone else want to chip in? I might be more inclined to give it a go, but the Georgetown application proceedure looks a bit Byzantine.</p>
<p>on the website it says that is it blind need for both international and americans, though it also says that they can only give aid to a “handfull” of int’l students.
by only telling them that you want to study political science or whatever wont give you a good shot, you probably want to show them other things you can possibly do on campus, like sport for example.</p>
<p>I’m an international. and I got aid. quite a bit actually. So if you want money you better take my words as Bible.
haha kidding.</p>
<p>GU offers a very interesting policy to international which you should take advantage of: need blind admission, need based financial aid. The good part: need blind admission. That means you can apply for as much aid as you want without diminishing your chance of getting in. I dont think you will find something this good from any other top colleges except for HYPM (in terms of international admission of course). The down side: need based FA is bull****. The truth is they offer around 7 aid package to internationals per year. (this is not rumors. I called in and asked) And these 7 include package from 10K to 50K and already takes into consideration that some may turn down and go to better schools in the end （which means it’s not like they give 15 students aid and in the end only 7 took it. 7, 10 at most, is what they offer in total.) And how they decide who should get aid and who should not is a mystery. They say they do not look at merits when deciding on FA but I wonder how else would you decide if both I and my friend show almost the same family contribution yet I got FA but he didnt. What all of these mean in a nutshell is that you can apply for aid, and if your grades really cut it, they will ADMIT you, but chances are they will not give you money or not enough money. </p>
<p>But the reason I said you should take advantage of this is that if you think GU really suits you, then by all means apply, and apply for aid, because it really wont hurt your chances, unlike other schools. If you like it so much, then get in first then take your chance with FA. If you get any, you are real lucky, if not, nothing to regret. So whether you should apply for aid or apply to the school at all is really a no-brainer. </p>
<p>And to cheer you up, this is my story. I did not get any aid at first. I really liked the school
but there really is no way I can afford it. Long story short, I called the FA office lots of time, asked a lot of ppl, wrote lots of emails and eventually I got quite a large sum. And the drama is I got the FA email on the last day of April, which is one day before I had to reject GU’s admission and go somewhere else.</p>
<p>So good luck buddy. and PM me if you have further questions. Where are you from anyway?</p>
<p>I’ve decided not to apply to Georgetown - I’d be completely gutted if I got in, but without sufficient FA (which sounds very likely). I know that shouldn’t stop me, but it probably will.</p>