International student Financial Aid: Share your experience, show me your money!

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Ok, here's the issue every international student is facing: how do you know what your chances are for FA when applying to universities? Colleges usually publish their statistics on their OVERALL financial aid situation each year, but no separate data for INTERNATIONAL applicants is offered. Plus all those need/blind, need/sensitive, need/blind-but-no-full demonstrated-need-guaranteed, or alleged need/blind admission policies that make FA an integrated part of international application.</p>

<p>Anyway, as an international student aiming at top U.S. schools this year, I'd like to know more about the FA situations for international applicants. Everybody (international only) who ever received FA is welcomed to post their types of FA, award amounts and whatnot. </p>

<p>The format could be something like this:</p>

<p>University name/class:
Intended major:
Types of FA/breakdown:
Expected Family Contribution:</p>

<p>SATI/SAT II/ACT score:
GPA:
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
AP (place score in parenthesis):
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load:
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service:
Summer Activities:
Essays:
Teacher Recommendation:
Counselor Rec:
Additional Rec:
Interview:
Country (if international applicant):
School Type:
Ethnicity:
Gender:
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):</p>

<p>For example:
University name/class: Johns Hopkins University
Intended major: Undecided
Types of FA/breakdown: Loan, 20K/year, Scholarship, 15K/year
Expected Family Contribution: 10K/year</p>

<p>SAT I/SAT II/ACT score: SAT I 2350, SAT II Math 800 Chemistry 800 Physics 800, ACT 32
GPA: 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Physics B (5), AP Biology (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Cal BC, AP Government, AP Econ, Linear Algebra, World History......
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Math Contest 2nd place in China?
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): VP of Math Team, bowling team captain, etc.
Job/Work Experience: none
Volunteer/Community service: 150 hrs+
Summer Activities: summer research experience at university
Essays: Good, 9/10
Teacher Recommendation: Awesome, 10/10
Counselor Rec: 10/10
Additional Rec: none
Interview: didn't have one
Country (if international applicant): Hongkong, China
School Type: Private, Catholic, mid-sized, international
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Gen</p>

<p>Probably this is going to be a long thread...
Thank you every international buddy!</p>

2

<p>Oops, forgot this…everybody please put TOEFL scores there as well!!!
Share as much info as you can for every int’l kid here at CC! Thanks!</p>

3

<p>is international student eligible for student loan? as far as ive heard its not</p>

4

<p>International students “are” eligible for in-college loans only if they have a “co-signer”. Co-signer is a person who is a permanent resident of United States and, by default, will be responsible for the payment of your loans…</p>

5

<p>University name/class: Smith College
Intended major: Computer Science
Types of FA/breakdown: 2.5k in loans (I think it increases every year), 2k in work study (it’s just for spending money, though. We don’t use it to pay tuition or anything), 55k-ish grant (to be honest I forgot). It’s all per year.
Expected Family Contribution: Let’s leave it at less than 5k.</p>

<p>SATI/SAT II/ACT score: 1980
TOEFL: I think 111
GPA: 9.9/10
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/18 or 19 (I can’t believe I already forgot how many classmates I had.)
AP (place score in parenthesis): No APs at my school.
IB (place score in parenthesis): No IB either.
Senior Year Course Load: Irrelevant, as everyone else takes the same course load.
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Guitar, piano, learning Japanese (all self-taught, no money for lessons).
Volunteer/Community service: A lot.
Summer Activities: A summer school in 2011.
Essays: I don’t know if it could be considered good, but I guess it did reveal a lot about me.
Teacher Recommendation: Didn’t see them, I’m guessing they were good.
Counselor Rec: Probably very good? I don’t know.
Country (if international applicant): Mexico
School Type: Private catholic…
Ethnicity: Latino
Gender: Female
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I don’t think I had any, but I think there’s only 1 other student from Mexico at my school. Does that count?
I’m not including awards, I had a few, but I don’t think they’re very important.</p>

6

<p>“Types of FA/breakdown: 2.5k in loans (I think it increases every year), 2k in work study (it’s just for spending money, though. We don’t use it to pay tuition or anything), 55k-ish grant (to be honest I forgot). It’s all per year.
Expected Family Contribution: Let’s leave it at less than 5k.”
–Wow Guitar500, that’s quite impressive!! Great job!!!</p>

7

<p>I think the info here would be very useful for all internationals. Let try to keep it alive!</p>

8

<p>You’re right, Gloogle, the info here would be INCREDIBLY useful for ALL internationals! Folks passing by, please follow Guitar500’s great example and start posting!!!</p>

<p>Let’s make this thread LAST FOR EVER and for all the international students to come!!!</p>

<p>THANK YOU!!!</p>

9

<p>Really a helpful thread but sadly its dying… Need more Internationals posting here…!</p>

10

<p>ds in Colgate.
tough for internationals to get in but once in, financial need met.
free to apply for internationals, so nothing to lose in applying here.</p>

11

<p>Now the end is near…
So here’s my experience:
Let’s just say my ethnicity seriously hurts my chance!!!
Plus I’m asking for 30k+ FA, as an international </p>

<p>stats:
GPA 4.0, unranked at school (religious private high school with 1000+kids)
TOEFL 114
SAT 2280
ACT 34
SAT II 2400 (math/phy/chem)
AP three 5s (Cal, PhyC mechanics, Chem) and a 3 (phyC EM), all did it junior year
Senior Course: AP Gov, AP Econ, AP Cal BC, AP Phy, AP Eng, Linear Algebra, World History, Computer application, bla bla bla
Some math contest awards
Been doing computational chemistry research at a university
VP of Mu Alpha Theta, NHS, some other random ECs
Good rec letters (not the best)
Great essay (i think it made a big difference) </p>

<p>I applied to some 35 schools so…</p>

<p>Results: </p>

<p>UBC (canada) 25k
Baylor 18k
UMN 6.25k
WPI 16k
SMU 28k
Cooper Union 24k
Macalester 35k
Vassar 0k (forgot to ask for FA on my app, but it’s def gonna be a rejection had i done that)
UT Dallas honors free-ride, which is like 36k a year</p>

<p>Rejected by pretty much everywhere else (top 50s, ivies), except waitlisted at Dartmouth :stuck_out_tongue: (yeah I was like what the heck? )</p>

<p>Really haven’t made up my mind yet as to where to go.</p>

<p>It’s been a really exhausting year–just to keep up with all those 35 schools I applied to sucked up a lot of my time. For almost a year I basically had no social life and locked myself in my room working on SAT/ACT/AP/TOEFL preps or improving my essay&common app answers or filling out forms. But let’s face it–we’re int’l and we’re asking for FA, so be prepared to get rejects after all your hard work.
Last piece of advice: NEVER FORGET TO APPLY TO SAFETIES! Apply to some Canadian schools if you have time</p>

<p>Good luck to everybody!!!</p>

12

<p>Thanks for updating your thread! Very interesting and useful.
Is the amount next to the college how much you got in scholarship or how much you’ll have to pay?</p>

13

<p>University name/class: New York University
Intended major: Undecided
Types of FA/breakdown: $43k grant
Expected Family Contribution: $0</p>

<p>SAT I: 1990 (600 CR 700 M 690 W) [Sent SAT+GCE A Level as official testing]
SAT IIs: 700 Maths lvl 2, 720 Physics
GCE A Level: A*AA (A level) AA (AS Level)
GPA: N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 9/175
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Most Rigorous
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): won business award + recognition from a major global company for having worked with them to fix a vulnerability in their servers</p>

<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Job/Work Experience: Tons … even started my own company
Volunteer/Community service: like 4-5 hours
Summer Activities: Sleeping?
Essays: 10/10 both
Teacher Recommendation: 10/10
Counselor Rec: 6/10
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: N/A
Country (if international applicant): Mauritius
School Type: Public Catholic High School
Ethnicity: Indian origin
Gender: Male
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Under represented country?</p>

14

<p>^ @MYOS listed are amounts of scholarship money</p>

15

<p>Thanks. Which is the cheapest? in this whole list, do you have favorites?</p>

16

<p>University name/class: New York University Shanghai
Intended major: Undecided
Types of FA/breakdown: $54k grant
Expected Family Contribution: $0</p>

<p>SAT I: 2180 (800 CR 720 M 660 W)
SAT IIs: 770 World Hist, 730 US Hist
GPA: 3.38
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 9/175
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load:
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None</p>

<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service:
Summer Activities:
Essays: Ok I guess
Teacher Recommendation: 8/10
Counselor Rec: 10/10
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Went well, but I almost got caught for not really knowing much about NYU then.
Country (if international applicant): somewhere in asia
School Type:
Ethnicity:
Gender: Male
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): nothing of note</p>

<p>Got like 57k from F&M, 20k (i think) merit aid at Fordham, and something similar at Colby-Sawyer. I honestly regret not applying to Dartmouth now after how they had two “bad” admission cycles in a row. Would be very elated with a waitlist there tbh, if only for pride.</p>

<p>I posted this in another thread, but again, I think it’s help so heck why not. Check the PDF list here: <a href=“http://collegerev.■■■■■■■■■■/international-student-aid.html”>http://collegerev.■■■■■■■■■■/international-student-aid.html&lt;/a&gt;. It’s from '09 but it gives you an idea just which colleges are particularly generous with international aid. Good luck to everyone!</p>