<p>Hallo everyone, i'm a chinese student from shanghai.
i am a rising senior and my family could maximum give $20,000 to support my college tuition. I prefer Liberal Art Colleges because they are likely to offer more Financial Aids to international students. No preference at location, but will be perfect if in suburb and rural areas.</p>
<p>My SAT reasoning scores:
CR 610
MA 760
WR 520..</p>
<p>TOEFL 86, but i'm going to take it next month again.</p>
<p>Activities:</p>
<p>One year exchange student in germany, take part in handball team.</p>
<p>play accordion in a band and several performances.</p>
<p>Delivering newpapers, selling shoes for my guestfamily</p>
<p>class moniter, international economic summit represent Vietnam</p>
<p>shanghai expo volunteer.</p>
<p>Is it possible to get FA or need-based aids which may meet my need ?</p>
<p>Maybe. First you need to check the policies of the colleges to which you plan to apply. Some offer aid to international students, and some don’t. And some offer limited aid to international students.</p>
<p>Need based aid is based on your parents’ income and assets in U.S. dollars as computed by the colleges. It is not based on what they are willing to pay but rather on what they are ABLE to pay as computed by the colleges.</p>
<p>The schools with the most generous need based aid to international students are also amongst the most competitive for admissions here. You will need to look carefully at your stats and try to make a realistic determination if you are even a realistic candidate for admissions to these highly competitive schools. Their generous financial aid does you no good if you don’t get accepted.</p>
<p>Re: merit aid. You need to check this too. This is awarded based on your academic merit entering school. Your application would need to be in the tippy top of the school’s applicant pool to get significant merit aid. And remember, some of those generous need based aid schools don’t give merit aid at all.</p>
<p>Garnering very significant aid for international students in not the easiest task.</p>
<p>Another thing you need to know is that many schools are need aware for international students. This means that your ability to pay will be considered when your admissions application is considered.</p>
<p>my family could maximum give $20,000 to support my college tuition.</p>
<p>Financial aid is not based on what your family says it can afford to pay. It’s based on what the college determines that your family can pay AFTER the school thoroughly looks at your family’s income and assets and savings. </p>
<p>So, schools may look at your family’s situation and determine that it can afford to pay a lot more than $20k per year. Then, you won’t get much/any money even if the school does give money to int’ls. </p>
<p>Also, not many schools give money to internationals and even fewer schools give large amounts. </p>
<p>However…
If your stats are high and your family has already budgeted $20k per year, then you should ALSO apply to some schools that will give you a merit scholarship for your stats. If the merit scholarship is high enough, then combined with your parents money, you could afford to go here. :)</p>
<p>There are some schools (not a big number of schools) that will give scholarships to int’ls, so you should include some on your list as financial safety schools or “back up schools.”</p>
<p>What are your stats? If you post them and they’re high enough, we can recommend some schools for you.</p>
<p>First, some of the more generous schools are NOT need blind for admissions for international students. This means that they consider your ability to pay when they consider your application for admission. So…you need to check this.</p>
<p>Second, with your low income, it sounds like your family needs very significant financial aid for you to attend college in the United States. IF you get accepted into a school that meets full need for international students, this will be a possibility for you. These schools are amongst the most highly competitive schools for admissions in the United States. The first hurdle you will need to scale is to get admitted. Some of these schools admit only 10% of the applicants and most applicants are very highly qualified to attend. </p>
<p>And you will have to demonstrate that your family has the money to support a year of your financial support (this can include financial aid awarded by your college and confirmed loans) in order to get a visa to study here.</p>
<p>Ooopps …sorry, I missed that you posted your stats in your first post. Sorry.</p>
<p>My SAT reasoning scores:
CR 610
MA 760
WR 520</p>
<p>If your parents only earn $20k per year, then how can they pay $20k per year for your college costs? Are you saying that your family can pay $80k for 4 years of college, but your family only earns $20k per year?</p>
<p>Your stats are not high enough for the few schools that give lots of aid for internationals.</p>
<p>You will have to rely on schools that will give you merit for your stats. Your M+CR SAT is 1370. There are some schools that will give an int’l merit for your stats. </p>
<p>You will have to broaden your list to include some non-LACs because I don’t think many/any LACs are going to give you enough that will leave you with only a $20k balance to pay. </p>
<p>You will have to identify some universities that will give you big merit for your stats. </p>
<p>Again, how will your family pay the $20k per year since their income is so low?</p>
<p>BTW…you need to take the SAT again in October to try to bring your scores up a bit. also take the ACT.</p>
<p>I got really good financial aid (I’m an international) at a liberal arts college - my parents didn’t pay that much at all.
My school gives good packages in general. It’s not impossible. It would really help if you had a strong application though (grades, ECs, etc). </p>
<p>There are a number of colleges that offer aid to kids who have test scores in the upper echelons of their spread. You need to find those. They are likely to be schools that are not well known. MomofTexas has a thread that gives you a method and advice. That is a good start. </p>
<p>The schools that give financial aid that meets need to international students tend to be very selective. It is not likely that your stats will get you into those schools. Also there is no guarantee that they will define need they way your family does. There are not too many truly needy families that can offer up $20K a year. </p>
<p>Many schools pay for the students they most want by giving merit aid. As I said above, you have to be a top student in their group to get that money. </p>
<p>The other way to go to college here in the US is if you have family that will let you live with them and you commute to a local school. For $20K a year, even with out of state charges, you can find something.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids…i graduated in 2008 with a BCom Banking. The overall degree class is a First Class and am also looking for a scolarship but u know some of us are truly disadvantaged.parents not employed, live deep in the rurals, etc…so we juss bank on Faith that one day we’ll get there.so am juss tryna search for full funding otherwise evrythn else is a non-starter.i intend doing Ms Finance and am also an international student from Zimbabwe.so i thought if u guys, who are well informed about these schools can assist,tht will actually be great.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the info guys, God bless u all!</p>
<p>cossie, you will need to do some research. Here in the U.S. funding for grad school is merit based…coming in the form of fellowships, assistantships, grants, loans, work study (in some cases). It is awarded based on your merit and the schools desire to have you as a student in their grad program. </p>
<p>You need to check to see which schools have funding available for grad students in your field. You can contact the department chairs at these schools an inquire. They will tell you about available funding in their departments and how to go about applying.</p>
<p>Also, check he financial aid websites to be sure that international students can receive this type of aid. Things like assistantships require a work component and I know there is a limit on the number of hours and types of work international students can do while here to study. You would NOT be eligible for work study as that is a federally funded program not for international students.</p>