<p>"Our admission program is need-blind, meaning, for all but some international applicants, financial status will not affect the admission decision."</p>
<p>I would need at least half-tuition. Does anyone know, from experience or other, how badly that would affect my chances of admission?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I hear that Stanford rarely accepts internationals that ask for aid. I wouldn't do it. However, if you're admitted, I imagine they would do everything you can to get you to come there so it might be easier to get some aid afterwards.</p>
<p>they offer a scholarship for indians....my MIT interviewer told me...i got rejected EA so dint bother to check it up fully</p>
<p>What a lot of misconceptions!</p>
<p>It's not true that Stanford "rarely admits internationals that ask for aid," except to the extent that Stanford "rarely" admits any applicant. Stanford has plenty of internationals with aid. However, what Stanford's policy means is that it has a fixed budget for aid to internationals, so it won't admit more international students requiring aid than its aid budget can handle. So international students with need are not only competing against everyone else in the application pool for admission, but also against one another for allocation of the aid dollars. An international student who needs 100% aid had better be really special, because admitting that student will mean rejecting three international students who only need 33% aid. That's different from the situation for U.S. students, where millionaires and those in poverty have the same admissions criteria. But the good news is, if Stanford DOES accept you, you know the aid will be there.</p>
<p>What won't happen is applying on a non-need basis, getting accepted, and then getting aid. Absent some massive change in circumstances after the application was submitted, that will just be seen as being deceptive and playing games, and is far more likely to produce a withdrawal of the acceptance than it is to produce meaningful aid.</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies.</p>
<p>I do have one question though: Let's say I apply for aid. If they want to take me but can give me no aid, will they accept me with an aid of $0 or will they reject me?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>They will reject you. But it's an absurd hypothetical. What being "need-aware" in admissions means is that they won't take you unless they are prepared to give you the aid you need.</p>
<p><em>shrug</em> i have a friend (intl) who got accepted with no aid, but was able to negotiate with the FA office and get a 25% scholarship.</p>
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<p>Last year only 3% of internationals applying for aid are accepted. This year will probably even harder (or easier depending on how many internationals apply) to gain aid. Applicants who do not need aid will be put into a less selective applicant pool.</p>
<p>indianrubber: so how did your friend negotiate with stanford? i'm quite curious to know since stanford is stingy with aid for internationals</p>
<p>Applicants who need aid are in disadvantage compared to the applicants that don't need aid but most importantly if you need aid to even come to study at Stanford or any other university, you better apply for aid.</p>
<p>Your friend probably did apply for FA, but based on the preliminary materials required by the FA office it was judged that he/she could well afford the cost of attendance without aid. In that case, of course one can negotiate for more aid by presenting other documentation re: special circumstances.</p>
<p>Stanford only has 40 full aid packages for internationals that it is not need-blind for, I believe. I would drop an email to the financial aid office asking whether or not they are need blind for you in your particular circumstance. It's a very legitimate question and I'm sure they'd give you a response. I would think that they would be need aware for you, however, in which case it is very risky to apply for aid. Apply only if you need it, it is very possible you do not get in because of your asking.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your answers (: </p>
<p>I ended up not applying - too risky. Hopefully I can make up for some of the fees with external scholarships.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>Yea, I think you made the right decision. I'm here and very few international students that I know get aid from Stanford. Many get aid from their home countries or external scholarships. I have heard (but not sure of so don't quote me) that 75% of all Stanford int'l students don't receive aid and remember, Stanford takes int'l students from Africa and Latin America, places which students that hail from them almost universally need some form of financial aid. So yeah.</p>
<p>When I stayed at Stanford over the summer we listened to several speakers discuss admissions.</p>
<p>One of the speakers was an international applicant who didn't apply for aid his first year and was accepted, but then was able to get aid for his next three years.
So you can finagle it.</p>