I’m an international student applying to several US school which meet full need or provide big scholarships (full tuition, full ride) to internationals. Nevertheless, some of this universities require a financial certifications form, besides CSS profile, which requires me to fill one full year of COA (that obviously, I cannot afford).
What can I do in that case? How do I fill it? Should I contact each institution which requires that document and tell them that I cannot afford a full year? If I happen to get accepted with the full cost covered mostly by the university, will I have any problem when I request the student visa?
Fill it in assuming you get a scholarship, provide documentation that you can afford the remaining cost of attendance, and attach a statement that you can only attend with financial aid.
Temporarily collect enough money to get the relevant bank statements, then return the money to where it came from.
The one thing you should NOT do is ignore the financial statement - your application may not get processed at all if it’s marked as incomplete in the system.