International student looking for aid

Hello everyone. I really need your help. I’m the student from Russia and I want to enter to college in the USA, but I don’t have enough money . I try to find one college which will give me financial aid or scholarship. Please if you know some - text me.

@kislikkkk16

College in the United States is very expensive.

Have you taken the SAT or ACT yet? Why is your GPA?

Really…to get enough aid to attend college here, you need to be a tippy top applicant.

How much money can your family pay each year?

@thumper1
I have written to Whitman college and they give up to $40,000 per year for financial aid, and, have written Williams college as well, (which covers almost everything for studying for one year), but, as I’m not a citizen of the United States, I don’t know how hard or easy to get this financial aid will be.

About the exams. I need to pass TOEFL and SAT or ACT, but I still have not decided which exam is easier to pass, the SAT exam or the ACT exam.
I would be very happy with any advice! Thanks

What do you mean “you have written” these schools?

Also, where did you get these numbers of what they will give you?

Without an acceptance from these colleges…you won’t get a dime. Amherst admits about 10% of its applicants. You will need a tippy top SAT or ACT score, and GPA, and letters of reference. Keep in mind…LOTS of students who are top students apply to Amherst and do not get accepted.

Whitman is slightly less competitive. BUT IIRC, Whitman is need aware for admissions for international students…which means your financial need will be considered when your application for admission is reviewed.

Also…Whitman costs almost $65000 a year…so if you get $40,000 (and I’m not sure where you are getting that info…so please explain)…where is the other $25,000 going to come from?

@thumper1
I mean that I sent email to this school and they answered me.
Yes, 65.000 that’s very very expensive price. I thought maybe they will give full financial aid and unfortunately no.
so, I try to find not so expensive college. But there are so much of them.
But which exams are easy SAT or ACT?

What year are you in high school?

Are you also considering affordable options in your country…you should be.

Re: SAT vs ACT…some kids do better in one vs the other. But regardless…as an international student you will need to do VERY well regardless of which test you decide to take.

@happymomof1 I need to bookmark your response. Is there that place…in Russia…where this international student can get some help?

@thumper1
I finished my school in the summer of the 2016 year and enter to the most famous university of Russia - Moscow State University, but after year I understood that I didn’t like it and want to study in the USA. Because Russian education honestly is not good at all.
I want to enter in the 2019 year. I think I need some time for as you say, the top exams score.
Okay, the SAT is more popular with Russian students. I will start preparing for it.
thank you for your explanation.

So…you graduated HS in 2016…and went to college for at least a year?

This means you will be an international student applying as a transfer student, not a first time incoming freshman. That could have an impact on both admissions and aid at some schools. And you will be required to submit your information from the Russian university when you apply here. Not optional…required.

You will also need to be very fluent in English…or studying here will be challenging.

The SAT is really designed to be taken by High School students…not students who have already completed some college. But I guess if you haven’t taken it already…you need to.

I didn’t finish this year in university. so I will be applying as the first year student.
maybe you had heard about international students who get the financial help in college?

If you attended college you’ll be considered a transfer at most colleges. That means you can’t app as a freshman. But send your transcripts and see what they say.

As austinmshauri says, you cannot apply as a first year student if you have already studied at a university in Russia. Even if for less than a year. You will be considered a transfer student. The big problem is that there is very, very, very little financial aid for international transfer students.

By the way, don’t try to “omit” the information that you have already studied at university. Schools will want to know what you did since graduating from high school. And if they find out you lied on your application, pretending to be a first-year student, they may expel you even after your acceptance. Lying or misleading schools on your application is considered a serious transgression.

In terms of which is “easier” ACT or SAT… I have heard on this subforum, that many international students think the ACT is a little easier. To see for yourself, use Google to find free sample tests online.

If you graduated from high school in 2016, and attended college for less than a full year, what have you been doing in the remaining time?

At some colleges…not very many…if you only have one semester of college, you won’t be considered a transfer student. You would need to contact each college to ask.

I have to ask…what made you look into Whitman and Amherst? There are 3000 colleges in this country? Why those two?

In addition…I’ll say this again…I have no idea who told you an amount of aid you would receive at those colleges without an official application for aid or admission being submitted. That is pretty unusual.

And really…the only accurate financial aid award you will receive will be the one you get with your acceptance. These other numbers are based on what? What you put in an email? Sorry…don’t rely on that as an acccurate prediction of your actual aid award.

And like I said…you have to get accepted first…and right now…you don’t even know whether that will be a realistic expectation…or not…because you haven’t taken a SAT or ACT test.

@katliamom @austinmshauri
In Russia, if you have not ended your study year. it means, if you study not all year and pass 1 exam out of 2 it means if you want to go to another college you should enter for
 1 year (course) again. and what you studied in last college is nowhere mentioned.
so thats means, can i enter to the United States college as a new student?

No, if you attended college at all, you have to report it. If you didn’t meet what we call satisfactory academic progress (pass a certain percentage of your courses), getting an acceptance could be a challenge.

@kislikkkk16

Are you saying you only completed half of the courses you started taking at your Russian university?

@thumper1 Firstly, this is a message from admission to Whitman college :
“Many international students demonstrate some financial need, and the average scholarship each year for those who demonstrate financial need is around $40,000. The above scholarships may cover tuition, room & board, health insurance, and fees; students are required to pay for travel expenses as well as US taxes and visa fees”

And this is a message from Williams college:
"We meet 100% of demonstrated need for all of our admitted students, including international students. Our financial aid is entirely need-based, which means that it is not linked to academic performance or test scores. "

So all my knowledge about financial aid is taken from emails of colleges.

Yes, I know that there are a lot of colleges, but I already email in 10 another and they don’t provide any scholarship so I need to continue to search.

@thumper1 yes i completed only half out of a year of my courses in Russian. I stopped to study there in February of 2018.
sorry, I was mistake, i finished my school in the 2017 year.

I think your chances to get a huge scholarship as an international student who walked away from a top university in Russia will be slim.

–Getting a lot of aid as an international is very difficult and extremely difficult – you will be competing with students from all over the globe many of whom have significant accomplishments and immaculate academic records.
–I believe you could be regarded as a transfer student in the US. That will make getting any type of aid even more difficult as transfer students rarely get merit aid. You need to be upfront with any college you apply to about your academic history.
–I’m not sure how your SAT and SAT II exams will be regarded – these are tests meant for HS students and you graduated HS years ago and attended college.
–You should strongly consider finishing your education in Russia.

Ok…let’s clarify something.

You are completely misunderstanding the emails you got back from these two colleges.

Those answers from Whitman and Amherst are very generic answers…and NOT what they would be giving YOU.

To get aid at these colleges, you would need to submit the CSS Profile…and include all of the financial information it requests. In addition the schools might have other required submissions.

Amherst does meet full need…based on its calculations using the info on the Profile. But that doesn’t mean you will get FULLY funded college. That would depend on your parents…both parents…incomes and assets. In other words, if the school determines you have only $40,000 a year in need…you would only get $40,000…and you would need to pay the balance.

Whitman has an AVERAGE of $40,000 a year in aid. That does NOT mean your aid will be $40,000…at all. Like Amherst, they will use information from the CSS Profile to determine your financial need.

The other colleges likely didn’t give you much info because…they don’t have your financial aid application forms. Most schools are not going to give more than a very general response to your question.

@thumper1
wow, i understand that now. that’s means that Whitman could give me like 2000$ or 1500$ of year. i thought 40.000$ they could give to one person not for every student. sorry to hear that . and i already made my CSS profile.
and sorry i was mentioned not Amherst college that was Williams college. So the best what i can do now its try to pass the exams as good as possible.