I’m an international student looking for good universities that offer financial aid.What are some of the very good universities that offer financial aid?
What is your major? If it’s eng’g, then that limits the number of schools that give lots of aid to int’ls.
How much aid do you need? how much will your family pay each year?
What are your stats?
most of the ivies are need blind for international students as well.
@mom2collegekids could you help me a bit as well?
Im an international student as well following the british curriculum. I got 8As and 1B ( urdu ) in O levels. In A levels i have physics chemistry maths biology and world history. My midyear report was 4As and 1 A ( History ). I dont know what GPA these stats make. For my EC’s I am part of the science and MUN societies at my school. I played a major role in the structural engineering department for the Asian Regional Space Settlement and Design competition. Our school qualified as runner ups and will be going to India( I am not going as I will be attending a MUN in turkey) I also have a Silver award in the commonwealth essay competition. I will be participating this year as well. I interned at an orphanage during the summers and will be looking for a business oriented internship this year. I also have a solid chance of being in the student council ( our school has a student council which only includes final year students ). I was also part of the publications team for my school’s flagship event and will be in the core management next year. I will be applying to Wharton Upenn as an undegrad as an ED applicant and will need 100% financial aid. So what, realistically, are my chances? Thanks.
Not true. Most are need aware for international students.
Need blind is an admissions term and means only that the school considered your ability to pay when they consider your application for admission.
This student is looking for schools that guarantee to meet full need.
What if you tick the financial aid box, that means you’re at a disadvantage? I’m asking this because children from my school get into ivy leagues every year on 100% financial aid.
Thanks by the way!
If you need aid, apply for aid. At most of the Ivies, if you don’t apply as an incoming freshman, you cannot apply for institutional aid in subsequent years.
Plus…what good will an acceptance do you if you can’t pay the bills?
Yoir Ivy accepted friends likely had a student contribution. Most of the Ivies have this.
Thanks for that , but i personally know 2 and their on 100% financial aid. What exactly is meant by a ’ student contribution’ ?
@thumper1 I can pay for my air fares and books. I do not have such ‘extreme’ financial constraints. I actually study at the most elite school of the country. However, in terms of dollars, I would be classified as belonging from a low income family.
Colleges won’t pay for,things like your shampoo, toothpaste, clothing, and in many cases transportation (which won’t be cheap from Pakistan). In addition during school breaks some actually charge students for lodging because the dorms are closed. These are all personal expenses which are included in the cost of attendance.
The Ivies have very generous need based financial,aid, but there is an expectation that students WILL contribute,themselves towards their college educations. The student contribution is usually a couple thousand dollars for freshman, and the expectation is that students will earn that money or take out loans to,cover it.
A U.S. citizen can take out the Direct Loan. You are not eligible for that. A U.S. student can work to earn that money. Your work hours will be limited because you will be here on a student visa to study…not work.
Don’t believe everything your friends tell you. There could be some details they are omitting. Concentrate only on your own financial situation.
Without a SAT score, it is impossible to even guess at your chances of admission to Penn or any of the other Ivies. Actually, even with those scores, these schools are not a guarantee of admission for even very strong students. Remember 90% are not admitted to these schools every year. In that 90% are some very strong applicants.
And your application will be considered in the international applicant pool from your region. It is speculated that acceptances from this population hover around 5%.
What I’m saying is…you need to think out of the box…why the Ivies? What makes you think these are SOOOOOO special. Why ED when there is such a strong need for financial aid? Why?
To the OP…sorry your thread was high jacked in response to ArsenalLover123.
LIKE I SAID, i can pay for the things you mentioned above. My main concern is the tuition fee. Ivy leagues offer the most generous aid to international students and offer high quality education at the same time. Early decision, because like you Americans, we also have certain target schools to which we want to apply early. Thank you, though, for taking out your time and sorry to the person who’s thread this was 
You need to be concerned about the tuition, fees, room, board, books, and supplies. Those will,be the essentials. Tuition is only one cost.
Need based aid is based on a calculation done by the schools. It is largely based on your parent income and assets.
And as I noted (this is good advice for both the OP and Arsenal)…many of these schools are need aware for admissions. This means your ability to pay will be considered when you apply.
In addition, in addition, most schools won’t allow international students to apply for need based aid in subsequent years if they don’t apply as incoming freshmen.
Now…to schools that might end up being affordable…if you have the SAT/ACT scores and GPA to really be a competitive applicant for the Ivies, you should look at University of Alabama where you would receive excellent merit aid.
You do understand that an excellent duration can be had at places other than the Ivy League schools, right?
In addition, you should have affordable schools in your own country on your application list.
Thank you for that. Could you tell me what 100 % financial aid covers? Tuition and boarding? Income and assets make me eligible for aid, that is not the issue. Thank you for making me aware of the fact that schools look at an international student’s ability to pay( If so many others can get in with aid, what’s the harm in applying and keeping your fingers crossed? 
. Unfortunately, affordable schools in my country are mostly state owned and not considered to be very good ( except for the medical colleges ) . Private schools will cost me around the same if i get aid at Penn or any other school but of course i will apply. Thank you for telling me about U of A, I’ll definitely keep that on my list.
one last question, what is a GOA?
Right…apply and keep,your fingers crossed…because without aid, you can’t attend anyway, right.
But please consider NOT applying ED. With regular decision, you will have the ability to compare multiple offers.
GOA…was corrected to GPA. That was a typo.
And all this applies to the OP to this thread as well.
The Alabama application comes online usually in July or August. It takes about five minutes to complete. There is a scholarship application that takes an additional five minutes. Any you will get your admissions decision within weeks of submitting the application.
When people talk about getting 100% financial aid, they can be talking about different things. Some will say that eve if the entire COA isn’t covered with free money. Some will call it that if their tuition, room and board is covered, but other costs (travel, personal expenses, books) are not.
For all students, getting into schools that provide excellent aid can be a crapshoot. For int’ls, it’s even worse, especially if they’re coming from countries with many applicants.
It’s not even just the countries…it’s th region. The area of the world that includes India and Pakistan, and other Asian countries has tons of applicants to U.S. universities. This is why the % of actual admitted students to elite schools from those regions likely hovers around 5%.
You also need to pay for health insurance at US colleges in most cases. They is an additional -$2,000 per year, and doesn’t usually show up on the net price calculator, and isn’t always shown on the tuition & fees pages either.
Intparent is correct. The cost of health insurance is usually not included in the cost of attendance.
This is an interesting thread because I just had a conversation, with the neighbor’s cleaning lady, about college costs for international students. She has a nephew who attends our local public university. Her nephew has two international roommates whom he has lived with for two years.
The international roommates don’t have ANY food in their shared refrigerator. The nephew is the only one with food in the fridge. The woman knew I had 3 kids in college and wanted to know if it was common for international students not to have money for food.
Apparently the two roommates are from India and had their tuition paid for, but not room and board nor health insurance. The nephew already lives in a very inexpensive apartment but still needed roommates to help split his costs. The families of the two international students have scrimped to pay the room, but didn’t have any money leftover after the health fee, to send for food.
The cleaning lady said that her nephew initially brought them to his family’s house for a holiday, and then they just tagged along anytime he said he was going to her house. The two students spend every break and holiday eating at her families’ events. They always ask for leftovers. She’s on a tight budget too but feels badly that the “kids” don’t have access to daily meals. Fortunately for the students, she makes really large meals that stretch, and they’ve learned to eat Mexican dishes like posole, champurrado, menudo, etc. So, she was asking me for advice on how to get those students some access to food.
So @thumper is giving you some really good advice. It’s not 100% financial aid. It’s what the colleges think you need, and they never seem to include the health insurance fees.
(My dd’s friends had meals included in their packages, and they didn’t like, or couldn’t eat, most of what food services had-even the vegan options)
I referred the students to a couple of really good food pantry’s-it’s not perfect, but it will work for the short term.