<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>
Since you can pay in full, you will not get any need-based aid. </p>
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Financial aid packages largely do not change from year to year. If you’re not awarded anything in the first year, it’s unlikely that you’ll get something in the second.</p>
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I’m not sure, I do want to know the answer too.</p>
<p>You might think that you are being clever here, but you are not. Many middle class international applicants contemplate paying for the first year in full, to maximize their admission chances, and then hope to qualify for financial aid later. Colleges guard themselves against this practice as much as possible.</p>
<p>It’s pretty standard procedure that you cannot apply for financial aid in subsequent years if you did not apply at the time of admission. Many colleges take this one or two steps further for international students: you may be ineligible for institutional financial aid in the future if you did not receive financial aid at the time of admission. Some colleges don’t even let international students reapply for aid: your initial financial aid award might stay with you for four years, regardless of how your circumstances change.</p>
<p>If you need financial aid, go apply and compete for financial aid. If you can pay in full, don’t risk your chances because you wouldn’t get need-based aid anyway.</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>If the scholarships are merit-based, you don’t need to apply for financial aid to qualify. </p>
<p>Which college are we talking about anyway? I am under the impression that the big scholarships are usually awarded to incoming students (to recruit them) rather than returning students. (Why give free money to someone who’s already here and happy to pay in full anyway?) There might be a few endowed scholarships for returning students, but they are usually not all that significant (e.g. $500 for the best junior Italian major). </p>
<p>If you are shooting for scholarships for incoming students, you should not apply ED. Same logic: the university does not need to recruit you if you guarantee to enrol anyway.</p>
<p>^Sorry,but Columbia does not award any merit aid,only need based aid.Also,if you don’t apply for financial aid in the first year you will generally not be awarded any financial aid in subsequent years.</p>
<p>Yup macmill is write
You won’t get any scholarship
However if your SAT and GPA is good you might search for private scholarships to international students and might get some sort of merit award. However chances are you might not get those since you can actually pay for 4 years.</p>