<p>I am an International Student and my parents can fully afford to pay for my education in the US. Let us for now assume that I have the required admission credentials -Rigor, Rank, GPA, SAT, SAT2's, EC's and a 'passionate' essay. </p>
<p>I am keen to use 'ED' process to my full advantage. Is there a way I can indicate I can afford full pay but still apply for 'FA' with my ED application, with the intent of hoping for some grant/scholarship in subsequent years. </p>
<p>Will applying for FA be limiting in my admission in any way, as the (only) purpose of my "ED" is to gain admission to my dream school?</p>
<p>If the college reviews your financial aid application and determines that you don’t need any aid, you won’t get any. So don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Some places require you to apply for need-based aid even if you don’t need it, in order to be considered for merit-based aid. You need to research the aid policies at each of the places that you will apply to, and find out what is required.</p>
<p>Can your parents pay for all four years or just for one? There isn’t much “new” money available for later years for anyone, and even less for international students. Find a place that you know you can pay for all four years at.</p>
<p>My parents can afford to pay for the full four years. But I believe I can qualify for merit based scholarships if the schools offer them for international students. Hence the question.</p>
<p>However, I don’t want to jeopardize my admission to my dream school just because I applied for FA.</p>
<p>You will, indeed, need to check the web sites of colleges and universities that interest you to learn their individual policies about merit aid.</p>
<p>As happymom said, some institutions do require you to apply for need-based aid if you want to be a candidate for merit-based aid. In my family’s experience, this is a little unusual, but it does happen. In my family’s experience, the institutions that required you to apply for need-based aid if you wanted to be considered for merit-based aid were not very generous giving merit aid to students without financial need. That could be a sampling error, I suppose. Our sample was not very large.</p>
<p>Additionally, some institutions may require you to submit a separate application to be considered for merit aid, while others may not.</p>
<p>You really need to find out how the system works (and, specifically, how it works for internationals) at each college or university that interests you.</p>
<p>D1 applied last year ED. We are a full-pay family, but I was concerned about what would happen if our financial circumstances changed suddenly in future years. I had read on CC that some schools would only award FA to students who applied for FA their freshman year. So, I called the school’s financial aid office, and asked if we needed to apply for FA to ensure eligibility in future years. They said no.</p>
<p>I suggest that you call the school and ask if you need to apply for FA to be eligible in the future for merit aid. That’s going to be the most reliable source of knowledge. Call any other schools on your list and ask the same question. </p>
<p>Unless your ED school has need-blind admissions for international students, I agree that you shouldn’t apply for FA if you don’t have to. If the school’s admissions decisions are need-aware for internationals, you don’t want to be asking for money, even if you can afford full-pay.</p>
<p>It is still not clear how the ‘need blind’ system works.
Do the Schools care if FA is requested or not? Where exactly in the application do I mention that I capable of full pay for the four years?
How can I gain advantage of full pay when applying for an ED in a need-blind school?</p>
<p>You don’t seem to be parsing the implication of a system being “need blind.” The whole point of it being need blind is so that you <em>can’t</em> gain an advantage by being full pay.</p>
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They explicitly say they don’t care by saying that FA is not a factor. Hence, need blind.</p>
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You can’t. The whole reason the schools institute these policies is so that everyone has the same consideration, regardless of ability to pay.</p>
<p>The only exception is developmental admits, but that’s for students with millionaire+ parents.</p>
<p>Ok. I got it. The need-blind schools wont discriminate me as an International (Canadian) and I actually stand to gain if my credentials are good.</p>
<p>However, full pay status could help me to gain admission in a non-need blind school like Stanford. Am I right?</p>
<p>Right. For schools that are need-aware for international students (most) then you’ll stand an advantage. All you have to do is not tick the box saying “I plan to apply for FA.”</p>