I understand, thanks for the advice.
Hey Pedro, how’s it going? I also got a little disappointed when I found out that there are not outside scholarships for internationals. The best solution is to apply to schools tgat meet full need to all their applicants, and to schools that offer full ride scholarships.
Try this thread for more information: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1881717-dear-international-students-seeking-financial-aid-you-can-do-it.html
What $30,000 outside scholarship have you heard of for international students wishing to study here?
As noted,mad an international student you have other constraints as well.
- Yes, some colleges are need aware for international students, and your ability to pay WILL be considered when your application for admission is considered.
- A lot of colleges give limited need based aid to international students.
- Some colleges don't give any aid at all to international students.
- The most generous colleges for international students are also amongst the most competitive for admissions.
- In terms of admissions, your application will be reviewed alongside of others from your region. If you are from a place like India, or other parts of Asia, your fellow international applicants will be a mighty strong bunch.
I don’t think it was an international student but the student scored 1600 on the new SAT and got like $200.000 on scholarships (he applied to like 100 scholarships and succeded in like 15).
I’m not from Asia, i’m from Portugal (EU).
Don’t forget, that many schools offer their own scholarships and the deadlines for those scholarships can be earlier than Jan. You need to check each schools website.
I’m aware of that, in terms of colleges scholarships i already did my research based on the colleges that i’m planning to apply. I was just curious about external scholarships available.
One thing you are forgetting…if you get need based aid from the college…and you then get an outside scholarship for someplace…your need based college aid WILL be reduced. But really…that is a secondary issue here. Most students do NOT get $200,000 in outside scholarships as international students (and I’m guessing thst is over four years…right?).
So,what that a student got $200,000 in scholarships! That student is NOT you. And as you noted, that student was not an international student. Outside scholarships to international students are not common…unless YOUR country happens to award them for college study in the U.S.
Like I said earlier…apply for admission…and apply for aid. You need BOTH to attend college her, or so it seems from your posts.
There are only FIVE colleges here that are both need blind for admissions and meet full need. They are amongst THE most competitive for admissions.
So, you in all other 3000 colleges or so…you will find that either they are need aware for admissions…or don’t meet full need for all accepted international students…or both.
There is nothing you can do but apply…and wait and see.
Oh, i didn’t know that, makes sense. He claims it was over a year (he scored 2400 on the old SAT).
I’ve checked and the only scholarships that my country award for studying in US are not for undergraduates.
Oh please. You can win tons of scholarships…but you won’t receive all of,them…because that would exceed the cost of attending college.
My own kid got $60,000 a year in scholarships when you added up ALL of his schools. By that didn’t matter at all. Fact is…he was only able to use the one from the college he attended…and his outside scholarships for that year. But his total,awards did NOT exceed the cost of attendance.
@CourtneyThurston could you perhaps explain to this poster how these scholarships actually work in application?
I think that’s what he did, he added all the scholarships that he received.
So do you understand the process?
You apply in the Fall for admission and by deadline dates, and mark “yes” for financial aid IF you need financial aid. If you don’t mark it, you run the risk of never being offered it in the future.
The admissions office reviews your academics and makes a decision by the spring determination date.
The financial aid office reviews your financial documentation and later tells you if they can offer you any funding.
If you apply to a need-aware school, they can reject you if they don’t have the money to fund you. If you choose to apply to a public university, you need to know they typically do not fund non-residents.
If you are accepted, the admissions office tells you that you have been accepted via your portal.
The financial aid office sends a separate letter, shortly afterwards, indicating what they are offering. You don’t get to decide: “I need 90% aid”. They decide what they think you should pay.
International students don’t get offered much. Since you can’t use FAFSA, you will be limited to individual college funding. The best money comes from the college. Outside scholarships are typically very limited and won’t cover tuition and fees.
“@CourtneyThurston could you perhaps explain to this poster how these scholarships actually work in application?”
Yes. What it sounds like the student in the story did is add up the amount of all scholarships he received – even from the schools he didn’t end up attending. This is an extremely common, extremely obnoxious practice among students looking to brag about their scholarship “success” – when really they just applied to a lot of schools and added the financial aid packages together.
But even if that wasn’t what he was doing, that kind of success is very rare (I say that as someone who did have that kind of success.) You typically need an exceptional backstory (difficult family circumstances, etc), substantial financial need, national level or higher academic achievement, and huge numbers of community service hours to win outside scholarships. And, you’ll need to be a domestic student – VERY few outside scholarships are open to international students. If you don’t have all of this going for you (you don’t), you will find it very hard to win large amounts in outside scholarship money, especially renewable awards. I won 15 (I think) outside scholarships and I was left with (I think) only 4 renewable ones this year. Luckily, my renewable awards are very large. But this is rare.
The way scholarship money gets applied depends on your school, but the general process is this: dollar-for-dollar, every $ of outside scholarship money you win reduces aid your school gives you by that same $ amount. So you essentially must replace every dollar of the institutional aid before you’ll actually start making a net difference in the affordability of the school. Some/many schools will allow you to stack outside merit awards on top of THEIR merit awards, however – but NOT their financial aid, like grants, which will get reduced per the above description.
There is also a huge misconception out there that if you win a stupid amount in scholarship money, you get to pocket the overage. Not true. Scholarship money can be applied in the U.S. up to the Cost of Attendance – so that includes direct expenses like tuition, room and board, and fees, as well as the school’s estimate for personal expenses (shampoo etc), travel to and from the school, etc. If you have scholarship money all the way up to the total COA (again, VERY RARE), you can pocket the indirect expense money which will be returned to you as a refund (and by “pocket” I mean you get to use that money to pay for those personal expenses, travel, etc). But the rest of the money above and beyond the COA goes back to the scholarship organizations, who may or may not make you decline the scholarship on the basis of not needing it. So, if you win $1 million in outside scholarships (I have never heard of anyone truly doing this, just an example) and your school’s direct expenses are $30k per year and the COA is $50k per year, you will receive a $20k refund. NOT $970k.
Also worth re-emphasizing that most scholarships are one-time/non-renewable, and for small amounts.
And even the ones that are renewable often like to market themselves otherwise (through implication). Coke likes to mention how their scholarship is $20k – but it’s $5k per year for four years, ZERO EXCEPTIONS. You cannot take the 20k at one time, or any amount above 5k per year. This is true of all other scholarships I have encountered, too.
So the dollar amount available to you per year will be very different from the scholarship amount available to you on paper. You can’t just say “Oh I won $250k in scholarships and my degree costs $200k, therefore I’m covered” because what is available to you PER YEAR may be less than the $50k you need (very common after freshman year).
@“aunt bea”
Now i understand, thanks a lot.
I see, i was really confused about how this process of scholarships/financial aid works but i think i got it covered now. I am going to research what are the opportunities, regarding merit/need-based scholarships, in the universities i want to apply to.