Hello all!
First post here!
I am a parent looking for scholarships or financial aid for my daughter.
I am an E-2 visa holder Status. I have Social Security Number, been working in the US for less than a year so I haven’t filled tax return yet. I am Mexican.
My daughter is under my E-2 visa, she does not have Social Security Number and she is Mexican.
Her GPA is 3.2 and her ACT score is 25 points.
She already applied for several universities and 4 of them already accepted her. One offered scholarship.
Is she elegible for FAFSA?
Are there any other scholarships or financial aid programs for “non-resident” students?
The student needs to be a US Citizen or permanent resident(green card holder) to be eligible to file fafsa. Need based aid for non-fafsa eligible students depends on the schools and your state of residence though having been in the US for less than a year, state aid isn’t likely.
When did you move here? For residency purposes, you need to check the soecific school websites, but 12 months (minimum) before college begins is the bare minimum. But because you don’t have permanent resident status, you might not be granted instate residency regardless.
Only permanent residents (green card holders) and citizens can comolete the FAFSA for financial aid purposes. Your daughter’s status would be the one that matters.
No, your D is not eligible for FAFSA. That is for citizen and green card holders only…with few exceptions (refugees).
I don’t think you really have a SSN. I think you have a tax-filing number. That is not the same as a SSN. You’re a visa holder, you wouldn’t have a SSN.
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My daughter is under my E-2 visa, she does not have Social Security Number and she is Mexican.
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What state are you in? You need to check your state’s rules about getting instate rates.
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My daughter is under my E-2 visa, she does not have Social Security Number and she is Mexican.
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In some states she will have to had gone to school in the US for a few years to get instate rates.
It is very likely that colleges won’t be affordable for her. Can she go to college in Mexico?
Her visa will need to change once she graduates if she wants to go to college here. She will have to get an education visa…and she will have to show that she has all costs covered.
You said that she has received some scholarship money from certain schools. What are the remaining costs for THOSE schools once you subtract the scholarship?
How much can you pay towards her college costs each year? Likely, you will have to pay for her costs after that scholarship deduction if she attends one of those schools.
Which schools gave her merit and how much did each award her?.
Kids in her situation often can’t afford to go to college here unless their parents pay. She may have to go to college in Mexico which will likely be more reasonably priced. I recently helped a similar student who did qualify for a Free Tuition scholarship, but his parents are struggling to pay for room, board, books, fees, and personal expenses…which come to about $17k per year after the full tuition award.
I am not an expert on visa status. But below are the E2 requirements. It sounds like you have to have substantial capital to be considered for this visa. it does not sound like you have permanent resident status with an E2 visa.
But the bigger question…if you have substantial capital to qualify for this, can you also fund your daughter’s college costs here, should she be accepted?
I’m going to guess that she will be viewed as an international student…but hopefully someone more versed with these things will chime in.
The best scholarships come from the universities themselves but those university monies are based on state and government monies so the university would have to access private scholarships. The state and federal scholarships are only open to US citizens and the private scholarships are mostly for US citizens, so she might get small scholarships but not enough to cover full fees as an OOS resident. She is not eligible to fill out the FAFSA application because that application is for US citizens and permanent residents.
Her GPA at 3.2 and her ACT at 25 are not competitive for merit aid. She would need anything close to a 4.0 and above with ACT scores above 32 to even be considered for merit aid at most universities.
You’re in the same boat as the international students who need funding. There just isn’t that much to go around.
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Her GPA at 3.2 and her ACT at 25 are not competitive for merit aid. She would need anything close to a 4.0 and above with ACT scores above 32 to even be considered for merit aid at most universities.
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True…there are some privates that will offer “tuition discounting” scholarship awards to many of their accepted students, but these awards just reduce the costs by a small amount.
Are there any colleges that your D can commute to? That could save some costs. Where all did she apply?
If there are no colleges in the US that will be affordable (much will depend on how much YOU will pay each year), and if you don’t want her to go to college in Mexico, then have her commute to a local CC for two years and then save money towards those last 2 years. And, maybe then you’ll have green cards. Are you getting green cards? .
Last year or the year before, another E2 parent wrote about this issue. I am sorry I cannot recall the username. The daughter did find an affordable place, but it took a while for the family.
As others have written, the best money comes from the colleges and universities themselves. You need to sit down with your daughter, and determine how much your family can afford to pay. Then, you can run the college-matching search engines to identify places that might be in your budget. Remember that the search engines only include tuition and fees, not housing/books/meals,etc. So subtract about $12,000 from whatever it is you can afford to pay to get a number to use with the searches.
Your daughter can study here with her E2, but she won’t be able to work, and she can only hold the E2 until she’s 21, so she may want to consider converting to an F1 visa.
If your family finds that they best way for your daughter to get her education is to commute, please let her know that more US students do that than “go away” for college.
You might not be aware but the federal govt only gives grants to low income students and only up to 5,750 per year for the lowest income citizens/permanent residents. In addition they can qualify for a student loan. The rest of any money usually comes from the college itself. That’s why it is a good idea to do your college search keeping in mind a) which colleges will give aid, many don’t and b) which colleges you are in the top of the applicant pool which will make you a good candidate for scholarship. Sometimes you can find outside scholarships. For a non US student that will be difficult or impossible.
@OrozcoC - Does your daughter think that her ACT score is primarily due to low English skills? If she were to take a gap year to work on her English, does she think she can raise the ACT score? Her chance of admission with aid would be better with a better ACT score. Look through the list of guaranteed merit-aid colleges and universities, and see if any of them could work for her provided her ACT score goes up. Some of them do offer those scholarships to international students.