<p>Does anyone know if there are any calculators that estimate financial aid for international students? My parents want to have an estimate of what they are expected contribute. Thanks!</p>
<p>thesmile…first you need to look at the schools to which you are applying to find out their policies for awarding aid to international students. This varies wildly. Some schools do not offer aid to international students at all. Some offer limited aid, and some offer the same aid as to any other applicant.</p>
<p>So…find out IF the school even offers aid to international students.</p>
<p>Then…if they do…use one of the online financial aid calculators using the Institutional Methodology (international students not eligible for federally funded need based aid)…and this will give you an ESTIMATE of what your family’s contribution might be. An ESTIMATE. For schools that do not meet full need, this will be the minimum of what you can expect your family to be paying annually.</p>
<p>There are only 6 schools in the US that are need blind to internationals and the vast majority of schools have no aid for internationals. At most schools your parents would pay full price.</p>
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<p>Two issues and they are different.</p>
<p>NEED BLIND is for admissions…this means that a school considers your ability to pay when deciding whether or not to admit you. MOST schools consider financial need for international students when considering their admissions.</p>
<p>MEETS FULL NEED…this talks about schools that guarantee to meet the full financial need of international students who GET admitted. Again…there are not a lot of colleges that guarantee to meet the full need for international students in the same way as for U.S. citizens.</p>
<p>SO…the best thing…find a school that is need blind for admissions AND meets full need for international students. There are not very many that do this…maybe that is the “6” Redroses refers to.</p>
<p>Most colleges in the US do not offer financial aid to foreign students. Those that do, use their own calculators many times for coming up with the definition of need and calculating the need. So make up a list of schools that interest you and look up what they do in terms of even offering anything towards need for internationals. CMU, for example, out and out states that they do not give financial aid to foreign students. There are lots of foreign students at CMU, but they are NOT getting any financial aid from the school. </p>
<p>Once you find some schools that do consider foreign students for fin aid, ask them specifically for their calculators and what info they need to come up with need, and what % of need they typically meet for foreign students and what % of foreign student with need are accepted. You can also investigate if schools have any merit awards and scholarships are offered to foreign students. With high stats, you might find schools willing to give you scholarship money.</p>