<p>According to some obscure diplomatic regulation, I may live in the US "in person", but on paper I live in the small town of Kungshamn, Sweden. It's a technicality, and I'm not sure how it works exactly, but that's how I qualify for EU fees despite not having lived in Europe for the past five years.</p>
<p>if youre actually good enough to go to schools like princeton or mit, they give full aid to internationals</p>
<p>I would research very carefully all the schools that meet your interests and needs and how they handle FA for internationals. I would not apply to any that do not offer at least 1/2 tuition to internationals. There are many. Schools in the MidWest, South, Texas are much less money than those on the coasts. If your grades, courseload, SATs are high enough go for schools that offer large merit packages like USC. RESEARCH is the key here. : ) Also, look into Canadian schools.</p>
<p>tyg, Williams is one of the most generous with needbased aid for internationals, plus being strong in your academic areas of interest. Since you've listed every other selective Northeast LAC you've probably eliminated it for some other reason, but I thought I'd mention it.</p>
<p>ec1234,
I know I'm "good enough", but so are 90% of applicants. I'm not going to delude myself.</p>
<p>overseas,
I'm definitely considering the midwest, but not the south; too much heat makes me physically ill (and I live in DC... :rolleyes:). As for Canada, one of the main reasons I want to stay in the US for college is the "college experience", including residential life, a sense of community, and so on. The Canadian universities seem, as a whole, large and impersonal, and that's something I can get for free back in Sweden. I'll look into some more of the Midwestern LACs, though. :)</p>
<p>momrath,
Williams is on my long list of colleges to consider, but hasn't yet made it to the short list (some concerns about drinking, isolation, etc). I'll probably visit later in the spring, so that'll be helpful in determining "fit".</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions. :) Clearly I still need to do a lot more research. I should probably talk to my GC as well, although I'm not sure how much help that'll be (last time I spoke to her she said that the only US colleges that don't give merit aid are the Ivies, which I already knew not to be true).</p>
<p>I think the major point is that to get merit aid, you will have to go to a college where your stats are in the top 5-10%. Even if you get into a school that "meets needs", there will almost certainly be a loan component. You will end up borrowing a tremendous amount of money when coupled with the already planned $13K/yr. Worth it for undergrad? Not in my opinion when you have European options.</p>
<p>I was planning to take out my own (Swedish) loans instead of the ones suggested by the college, not in addition to them. According to my research, most colleges allow this. Otherwise I'll just take out the loans suggested by the college and not use the gov't funding. I'm just trying to figure out if the grant portion of the need based finaid package will be sufficient.</p>
<p>I believe UChicago states that they are not "need blind" when it comes to admitting international students, which suggests there is not much support offered to internationals. It may be different for their merit awards, but there are not many of those to begin with.</p>
<p>I am not an expert on financial aid by any means, but generally speaking, you will have to look at schools "beneath" your academic qualifications in order to obtain a good merit aid award. Typically, many "lower tier" schools (for lack of a better word) do not meet 100% of need. Go to the library and get the US News college guide--it should be in the reference section. You will be able to get statistics on what percentage of need is met and, more importantly, what percentage of that need is met with grants and the percentage met with loans. </p>
<p>There really is no way to determine what you will receive in the way of need based aid in advance. You have to apply and hope for the best.<br>
Someone with more knowledge in this area might be able to comment on financial aid in general for international students. I would seriously check into the policies regarding fin aid for foreign students at each school you wish to apply to. I'm not really sure how one would actually obtain this information, though. </p>
<p>I see you are currently in DC--have you spoken to a guidance counselor at your school?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I see you are currently in DC--have you spoken to a guidance counselor at your school?
[/quote]
My GC is currently visiting colleges in the UK, but she'll be back later this week and I do plan to talk to her. Like I said, though, I'm not sure how much to trust her advice because last time I talked to her she said that all colleges except Ivies offer merit aid, which obviously is incorrect.</p>
<p>Right now, I think I'll have to look into each college's individual policy about meeting 100% of need. I'm not sure merit aid is the way to go considering how unhappy I am being one of the top students at my HS. The academics are rigorous (98% of students are in the IB Diploma program; the rest are in IB Certificate) but people here are pretty apathetic generally. It's not something I want to repeat in college.</p>
<p>I'm not completely averse to going to the UK if I can't find the academic environment/culture I'm looking for in the US, but if the need-based aid worked out it would be truly lovely. :o</p>
<p>Thanks again, as always. :)</p>
<p>Go to the Amherst site - there is a thread about Internationals and FA. You can PM the students and I know they will get in touch with you.</p>