Hi!
An admissions agent/consultant reached out to me today (because I signed up for a boarding school fair) asking about my list of schools. As an international requiring full FA, I applied to a lot of the top schools (aka GLADCHEMMS), because their financial aid budget is large and they do offer financial aid to international students. The agent told me that the top schools never accept anyone from my country that wasn’t a Full Pay student, and there was no chance I’d get accepted.
I browsed through CC and saw a lot of profiles with International Students requiring financial aid, but I never saw their results or what school they possibly could have gotten in.
Is being an international student requiring financial aid impossible? And is there a chance for me to get in? I haven’t seen an international on here needing full FA that got in a good school w good FA
There are very few slots for international students who need aid. Schools are likely going to choose students from countries that aren’t already represented in large numbers on campus. Or work with governments that may partially fund the some of the expense. Even if you had full tuition and board you would still need transportation multiple times a year, spending money, a place to stay during short breaks, perhaps different clothes or supplies. It is very hard for a school to make a domestic FA student feel equal on campus let alone an international student and they know this.
You can apply but your odds are very very low. They may admit ONE student from your country or your region of the world and they will likely choose someone who brings them something in exchange (hope of winning an athletic or scientific prize, for instance.)
Add other countries’ boarding schools that might have some financial aid or may be within budget.
You can also try to contact Beausoleil or Le Rosey to see if they might have a budget for international scholarship students.
Most of the high need foreign students I have known were associated with a program in their own country or region or had been identified by a social service organization. (An example of the latter would be an organization working with refugees.) Typically, these students are not from the same countries that send lots of full pay students to the same school.
Many schools have restrictions on many of their scholarships that requirethey be givento US students, maybe even from a certain state. They have representations they need to make in completing visa paperwork. Secondarily, it can be hard for these students to get placements in US colleges.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t try on your own, but know it may be very difficult. Take a look at United World College. That could be another option.
There are a handful of full tuition scholarships for internationals. I know that Andover and Lawrenceville have a few. But its not easy to get.
You can also think of it this way: if your country has decent secondary schools, why can’t you attend one of them? And why should that specific school give you money to attend?
I second UWCs. 
From an international family who just went through the Boarding school process recently except for a handful of schools (e.g., Andover is need blind) almost all expect international students to fully pay especially from over represented countries. A lot of the schools were quite upfront to us. That even though they like our DD profile and she meets all the Admissions requirements they would say there is no aid available to us or only certain % subsidy is available. We had to negotiate with % assistance back and forth with some schools. We ended up with a school that had ‘institutional requirements’ which eventually gave us enough aid that we’re comfortable with - substantial but still nowhere near 100%. There’s also the additional costs of airfare (super expensive now!), transpo costs to go to/from the school (a lot of schools are in rural settings in the middle of nowhere!), winter clothes and they all add up. We also attribute our being waitlisted to asking for FA.
A few have already mentioned UWC - I also second this. You need to apply to your UWC National Committee. Check quickly the timelines - I know some committees have already shortlisted candidates. You may request for UWC USA campus but I understand the final campus assignment will come from the school. Also, they will assess capacity to pay so not all are 100% Full FA.
Or a handful of boarding schools have a partnership with UWC Davies Scholarship programme. But the schools who offer this were again upfront that this is only for the very under represented countries (think Africa or war torn areas) to attend Boarding school. We are based in an ‘affluent’ country but our background is under represented but they still said we do not qualify based on our residency. This is also only partial amount so the school need to supplement.
But there is still no harm in trying. Do your research. If you feel you have what it takes then go for it! You never know. You just need to understand that even at Full FA it will still require some amount to go through this whole experience.
Someone mentioned this but it is important to understand this cycle will repeat in college, with variations. And in terminal graduate school. And in professional schools. I think it really only changes in doctoral programs. American universities are awash in full pay foreign students, both excellent students and…not. There is not a lot of money them either.
I have been homeschooling my son and helped him apply as an international student to GLADCHEMMS. We didn’t have the help of an admissions agent, and nobody in the country where we are from, is aware of the private schools in the US. We did our research by ourselves, and we did not know that full FA was a very difficult prospect for an international student. Since the FA budget is large for these schools, we assumed that he would have a better chance with FA at a GLADCHEMMS school than other schools which might be as good for education, but might not have as much endowment.
We did discuss the FA factor with the admissions officers during the interviews, but only a couple of schools expressed that aid could be a concern, others didn’t seem to convey that that would a major factor in admissions, but they did say that in the end if they cannot afford the aid they may not admit, but that the chance of that happening would be very low. They even named the extra scholarships that they had, which they could use if they really wanted to admit a child.
After the applications I did see many threads in CC stating it for a fact that full FA would be almost impossible for international students, and this made us panic and we applied to a whole lot more schools than GLADCHEMMS. My son was waitlisted in almost all GLADCHEMMS school in the end, but he did get into a few others that we applied to later, as well as a GLADCHEMMS school. All schools offered us aid, but the most generous, almost full aid was offered by the GLADCHEMMS school upfront, with absolutely no negotiation. They offered us more aid than what we stated as we could comfortably afford, in our PPS statement, which gave us enough window to account for costs of airfare and school attire. This is not a need blind school.
I was responding to your statement
I haven’t seen an international on here needing full FA that got in a good school w good FA
The school has been very generous with making us feel at home, connecting us ahead with a parent and student and other international students.
As for the money required for admissions process, many schools did waive their application fee for us so we were able to apply to more schools. Applying with an open mind would be the best bet, there is no harm in trying, and in the end the experience would have helped my son be better prepared for the college application process. We also had our backup plan as UWC in 11th grade, in case he did not get into the high schools before that. In our son’s case, submitting his candidate profile in gateway early, and taking the interviews with the schools helped, since after that when I approached the schools about application fee, they were willing to waive it off. (maybe they would have waived it off anyway, but this was the order in which we did it…)
All the best for your applications
@Scarlett_Aries , thanks for sharing that!! Encouraging! My kid had international friends who had full FA, but they were from countries less represented at BS.
I think the OP is applying from a country that sends lots of FP student to US BS, so that’s a different situation.
But you give hope.
Thank you for sharing your story. I am glad your child was able to find the right place. And congratulations on bringing them this far in their homeschooling journey. May I ask if your teen had an exceptional talent in a special area? That has sometimes been the case although not always. I think the board sees many, many disappointing talented teens every admission cycle who often miss more realistic local options by focusing on American boarding schools.
UWC China has just open their registration. It may sound complicated but is not, just follow direction.
thank you so much for this post- it really helped