<p>These are other schools that interest me which are need-aware for internationals:</p>
<p>U Chicago
Stanford
Cornell
U Penn
Vanderbilt
Duke
UVA
Washington U in St. Luis
Northwestern
Williams
Middlebury
Bowdoin
Swarthmore
Bates
Colgate
Carleton
Pomona
Claremont McKenna
Harvey Mudd
Boston C
U Notre Dame
Vassar
Wesleyan</p>
<p>I want to know which of these need-aware schools are the most generous (in admissions, but also when it comes to meeting my financial need). I will probably need a full-ride as well, though I could live with getting 60% of my need met (then I would need to take out some loans, but it would still work out OK I guess). I would very much appreciate if people with credibility could respond to this. The figures and facts I have read on CollegeBoard are very nebulous. For instance, Cornell only gives out financial aid to 20% of their international undergraduates, but those who recieve aid get quite a lot (I think it was above 30k $) according to CollegeBoard.</p>
<p>The acceptance rate for international students who need aid is abysmally poor. Cited from Michelle Hernandez’s “A is for Admissions”, dartmouth accepts only a few international applicants from the hundreds they receive that need financial aid. Since the federal government doesn’t help pay for international applicants, you must beat out the hundreds of others for aid (as an example, 1-2 are chosen from china per year out of 200 applicants)</p>
<p>The data from Collegeboard is as good as any other data that’s freely available online. (The Institute of International Education maintains much more nuanced statistics but they are very picky about who they grant access to that data.)</p>
<p>Peterson’s used to report the number of international applicants, admits and enrollees for most colleges, but they have recently removed that data from their college profiles. It was quite interesting to see how much the number of international applicants was correlated with the number of financial aid recipients, especially at small liberal arts colleges. </p>
<p>Some colleges had ridiculously low international admission rates. For example, Berea’s international admission rate was 4% compared to a domestic admission rate around 30%, with a total admission rate in the 20s. In contrast, Haverford (with practically no financial aid for internationals) had an international admission rate of 80% but very few of the admitted international students enrolled. (Why pay $50,000 for a small college with no name recognition if you could go to UCLA instead?) </p>
<p>When I was in your shoes, I was crunching statistics to figure out the “best” admission strategy. I ended up focusing on colleges with the most number of international financial aid recipients and a low applicant-to-financial aid ratio. And then there was one college with many applicants and little financial aid, and I had absolutely no hope of getting in. I applied anyway because I had a $50 traveler’s check lying around and their admission fee happened to be $50. I ended up getting rejected from most of the high-odds colleges but I got into this long-shot school. </p>
<p>Long story short, applying for financial aid is a crapshot. Don’t try too hard to outsmart the system.</p>
<p>Cornell is need blind
Without knowing your SAT scores, I am not sure if you are qualified for admission. If you are not qualified for admission, it will be waiting time to discuss for financial aid.</p>
<p>Cornell is not need-blind for international students. I am studying to improve my SAT I score for the moment and will retake in October. I don’t understand the rest of what you said lk65ty5rt4.</p>
<p>My questions are pretty general and therefore, if I am qualified or not shouldn’t really affect the answers to my questions.</p>
<p>Last time I checked, Cornell was need-blind in admissions but did not guarantee to meet the financial need of admitted international students. Other colleges would straight out reject applicants who they cannot fund. Is that the source of the misunderstanding between the two of you?</p>
<p>^ You might be right but Wikipedia does not prove your point. All they say is that Cornell is not both need-blind and full-need for all applicants, which is consistent with both of our assertions. </p>
<p>I honestly don’t know Cornell’s current policy and they don’t seem to state it on their website either. I seem to recall a statement on a previous website a few years ago saying that they admitted international students regardless of financial need, but only had a very limited amount of aid to distribute among the admitted international students. I might be misremembering that or the policy might have changed in the meantime or maybe they are still need-blind.</p>
<p>You are absolutely correct, I must be blind (get it?)! I was so certain that if a college calls itself need-blind, it is also full-need, but I was naive to view it like that. Thanks! If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go search for more information on wether these colleges are need-blind or not.</p>
<p>In general, colleges are need aware for international students so they know if they require aid or not. In general, the ivies separate their international students into two piles of applications: those who can pay and those who cannot. The acceptance rates vary for each college, but the general gist is that the needy students have the lowest acceptance rate of any other class of students (for example domestic needy is one category). OP, you should look into Cooper union for one option, I’m not sure on their international policy, but all accepted students have free tuition.</p>
<p>You need to be a US resident to apply to Cooper Union.</p>
<p>Of the schools on the OP’s list, Chicago, Cornell, Northwestern, Harvey Mudd and BC have very little money for financial aid for internationals. Harvey Mudd in particular enrolls 1-2 internationals on fin aid per year. Chicago enrolls ~20.</p>
<p>As for BC, this is what its website has to say on the subject:</p>