International student who needs financial aid? PLEASE HELP!!

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>hello everyone,</p>

<p>so here's my story: i did 7th to 10th in an American International School in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Went back to my home country of India to do 11th and 12th, which didn't quite go according to plan: my percent average for both junior and senior year was around 60% (keepp in mind that a fail there is 33% !!). I then repeated 11th and 12th in an american system in a small Caribbean country (Guyana).</p>

<p>Over these last two years, these have been my notable courses/ec's/achievements:</p>

<p>4.2 weighted gpa (from last year),
its a tiny school so class rank is not exactly relevant (theres like 8 kids in our GRADE lol)</p>

<p>AP Spanish
AP Music theory - got a 3
AP Physics - got a 4
AP Econ - got a 4 on the Macro exam
2120 on SATs</p>

<p>honor roll last year
ambassador's award for academic excellence
ap scholar</p>

<p>I'm currently taking AP Bio, AP Comp sci, AP Calc BC, and AP English (language and composition) - i intend to take the ap exams at the end of the year as well.</p>

<p>lead tenor in a local choir group - we've appeared on television and have won several competitions, we also sang at charity events
pianist for the girls' school choir
started a club to teach elementary kids guitar
started 'donations for kicks' - where we organized soccer matches to raise money to donate to orphanages in the city.
hosted a radio show on a local station
class rep both years
member of key club
captain of the school soccer team</p>

<p>now seeing as i'm an international student who needs a !@#$ton of financial aid (i'm talking like $40,000 or more per year), i wanted to apply early decision to either colgate or lafayette (they meet demonstrated need and they're my absolute favs).</p>

<p>i also came across this post on cc which reminded me of the grim reality of my situation: <a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/safety-schools-international-student-needing-financial-aid/"&gt;http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/safety-schools-international-student-needing-financial-aid/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>so yeah, given all this, which college would you suggest i apply early decision to? or are there any others you suggest where I could get acceptance and a sizable amount of financial aid? i know how important early decision is to internationals, but it especially so for me, so i really need to make it count!!</p>

2

<p>What does the college advisor at your school recommend? That person probably is the one who is in the best position to advise you. If that person has no ideas, contact the EducationUSA office in Georgetown. The counselors there will have ideas for you. <a href=“http://www.educationusa.info/georgetown”>http://www.educationusa.info/georgetown&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Since you need so much aid, unless you have a back up plan, don’t apply anywhere ED. The aid you are offered when admitted is only an estimate. You won’t get your real aid package until the spring.</p>

3

<p>if you read the link i attached at the bottom, in the ‘ask the dean’ post, the dean states that applying early decision would increase my chances of getting accepted; if colleges can’t meet 100% of my demonstrated need, ill manage!</p>

4

<p>You need “$40,000 or more” per year, but if a school doesn’t meet 100% of your need, you’ll “manage”? How does that begin to make sense?</p>

5

<p>i was really hoping you would focus on my candidacy and chances of getting accepted than my financial situation</p>

6

<p>You’ve asked for suggestions about where you could get significant financial aid, but then clarified that you don’t need it. Well, people who don’t need financial aid don’t get it, so it’s not a question that can be answered. Perhaps you were inquiring about merit aid? Please clarify.</p>

7

<p>i just want to know if i can get into colgate with substancial aid. thats it. as far as i know, my chances of this happening increase by applying ed, which i intend to do, despite the advice ive received on cc forums.</p>

<p>im still deferring to the knowledge of the DEAN; again here is the link to the student who literally asked the same question (regarding financial aid, not his choice of colleges): <a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/safety-schools-international-student-needing-financial-aid/”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/safety-schools-international-student-needing-financial-aid/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Ask Colgate’s financial aid office. </p>

9

<p>Most US schools take foreign students who can pay full tuition. </p>

10

<p>If you can’t pay, it doesn’t matter if applying ED helps you get accepted. If you don’t have the money, you can’t go. If you apply ED you can’t compare financial aid packages which, in your case, seems necessary. Can your family pay anything at all? I think you have to show you have the resources to pay for all 4 years before you’re allowed to come to the US to study. You can’t get federal loans here and I don’t think you can work either. How do you intend to finance your education? Do you have safeties lined up at home? Check the international forums and chat with your guidance counselor so you can form the best strategy for your situation. Good luck.</p>

11

<p>When you apply for your student visa, if the visa officer at the US consulate doesn’t think that you have enough money, you won’t get that visa.</p>

<p>Before you apply for ED, you need to know what your family can afford for all four years. Then if you are admitted, and the aid package looks good enough, you can say Yes, and if the aid package doesn’t look good enough, you can say No.</p>

<p>No one here - not you, not me, not the Dean - can accurately predict where you will be admitted EXCEPT if you are applying to colleges and universities that post right on their websites which grades and test scores flat-out guarantee admissions. Perhaps applying ED will give you a small boost, and if this particular institution is your dead-on favorite over all others, well then feel free to apply ED to that place.</p>

<p>But do file a bunch of RD and rolling applications just in case you aren’t admitted, or the aid package proves unaffordable and you have to turn an admissions offer down. Just know that except for institutions that guarantee a certain level of aid for a certain combination of GPA and test scores, you aren’t likely to know any other aid packages before you have to make a Yes/No decision about an ED offer.</p>

<p>Your grades are messy because you repeated not just one semester, or one year, but two full years. That is an extremely unusual circumstance, and that alone makes admission even more unpredictable.</p>

12

<p>^actually, students DO NOT need to show they have money for 4 years. They only need PLANS for that, and actual money for the first year, including grants, scholarships, and work study from the school that delivered the I20.
International students who are admitted ED get financial aid OR are deferred to the RD pool so for schools with good aid for internationals, it’s not too horrible. Of course, nothing guarantees OP will get sufficient aid but for internationals that’s the case at most schools.</p>

<p>OP: you’re rolling the dice. Apply to whichever school you like best, there’s no huge difference between either of them in terms of whether you’re more likely to get in at one or the other, more likely to get aid at one or the other.
Once you know where you decided to apply, do let us know and explain your rationale, as it’ll be useful to other students.</p>

<p>What are your RD schools? </p>

13

<p>True, the visa officer doesn’t need to know about all four years, just the first. But the OP and his/her parents need to know about all four years, so that they can make smart decisions about any aid offer the OP receives.</p>

14

<p>i just wanted to say thanks to all of you who wrote, i really appreciate it!! other than lafayette/colgate and i guess union college, ive looked at skidmore (they give some of the best financial aid packages for internationals, plus they seem to be less competitive than lafayette/colgate). looking at my diverse, and as happymomof1 said, ‘extremely unusual’, background, perhaps it would be smarter to apply ed to skidmore. </p>

<p>but the thing is that colgate is my first choice. just looking at the website, and their videos about international students, the programs, and their campus, i can tell that it’s where i should go. so thats the dilemma, based on my situation, i need to maximize my chances on acceptance + aid, and it seems that applying ed to skidmore, more than any other generous liberal arts college, would be my best bet.</p>

15

<p>how would you say that repeating two years would affect my application? looking at my stats from the last two years, do you think that just the fact that i went from bad grades in india, to greaat grades/ecs after repeating would drastically alter my chances on acceptance?</p>

<p>please people, stay deliberate in your responses like youve been so far, i seem to be getting far more relevant information here than from my counselor, as weird and unlikely as that may sound!!</p>

<p>keep the ball rolling, my future depends on itttttttt (:</p>

16

<p>

</p>

<p>You can get into Colgate, but there are no guarantees. </p>

<p>Regarding the substantial aid part of your question, the amount of aid you might receive depends entirely on your family’s financial situation. It is not a general one-size-fits-all situation. No one can remotely predict how much aid you may get without knowing your family’s specific income and assets.</p>

<p>Colgate is a need-only school, which means that the maximum amount of aid you will receive is determined by their financial calculation. Have you used their net price calculator to get your estimated family contribution? If not, do that before you ask the question again.</p>

<p>The EFC is most the likely the maximum amount you will receive. As an international you may get less as Colgate does NOT guarantee to meet full need for internationals. Your aid package may also include loans and campus jobs which may be complicated for a non-US citizen.</p>

<p>For the other colleges, you need to spend some quality time with their financial aid websites. Most spell out clearly what types of aid is available to international.</p>

17

<p>Well, the ED deadlines has passed. Which did you choose?
If Colgate is your favorite school, then you should have applied there, but since you were still wondering on Deadline Day I’m wondering what you decided.</p>

18

<p>uh no, actually ed deadlines for lafayette/colgate/skidmore are nov 15</p>

19

<p>@momrath‌
Colgate has raised up an additional 500 million last year for their endownment. Their aim is to eventually to be need blind to ALL applicants and to be able to meet the full need of all accepted. As of this time, they can only do this for US applicants. It is competitive for internationals. Maybe in 3 years time, they can do it for all applicants.</p>

20

<p>Quit begging for responses because the responses you’ve gotten are the most that people can tell you. </p>

<p>You want someone to guarantee, that based on your info presented here, that you’ll get in.<br>
NO one here can tell you that. </p>

<p>AND, you want people here to tell you if you’ll get financial aid from Colgate. WE can’t tell you that either!</p>

<p>Truth: international students who need financial aid are at a disadvantage. You are from India which means you are an over-represented minority, so that is also a disadvantage. </p>

<p>PLUS: you have all of these music activities that show a musical background but your AP Music Theory score is a 3. Not good.</p>