If you are an international student graduated from a high school in the US is very hard to be accepted in US colleges.
Congratulations if you are in.
Which schools you applied, which accepted you, which scores do you have and which kind of financial aid or scholarship you received?
That really depends on how much you can pay.
The largest factor is what the family can afford. There will always be some college or university willing to take your kid and your money provided you can pay the full cost. Also, if the state of residence considers the applicant to be an in-state applicant and in-state resident for tuition and fees purposes at public colleges and universities, that will make a huge difference in both chances of admission, and affordability.
If money is an issue and the student is not an in-state resident, the student should expect his or her chances to be just about the same as for a true international applicant. The application process itself will be easier for this student than for a true international because the tests, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and ECs will be very similar to citizen and permanent resident applicants from that high school. Also, the parents are likely to have US tax returns which will make the financial aid application a bit less of a challenge for them to complete.
I’m not sure why it would be more difficult. My son is in an American high school and he is applying as an international. Haven’t seen any problems yet.
@airway1 the international applicant can’t receive federal financial aid or federal loans, just scholarships directly from college (normally less money). Like @happymomof1 wrote if your son can apply as domicile in his state, thats help a lot for public universities.
But normally if a College or University have 1600 spots for undergrad, more or less for internationals application have less than 200, half for men and half for women.
Normally the price for international students is more than us citizens and green card holders.
It may depend on how many years the student has been attending hs in that state. Some states allow the students to attend and pay instate rates if they have been there anywhere from a year to three years. There might be state funds available.
@“International Dad” true no international students can get federal aid. My son is on a F2 so he is considered out of state in Virginia. But the statement at the beginning sounds like international students have a hard time getting into US universities if studying in the US.
Also, My eldest although American can’t get any federal aid and also considered out of state in Virginia
@airway1 I probably did not express myself well, I mean, that if I’m not mistaken, their usually not going to be compared with their classmates, if not with international applicants from outside the country, that is, fewer options for scholarships and fewer places.
The purpose of this thread is try to confirm if this is the case or Wich universities are evaluating these “international students” with their classmates and not with international ones or wich universities or college are really better options for this kind of students.
@internationaldad from experience right now most schools for my son have him as International student because of his status. Some schools will not consider him for admissions without proof of ability to pay.
Also, some instate universities private and state have offered him scholarships covered by private sector funds. These are schools recruiting him heavily
@airway1 excellent, good luck to your son.
Must be a great student.
@International Dad, For international students there’s a HUGE difference between getting admitted without financial aid and getting admitted with financial aid, especially a substantial amount of aid. That said, getting financial aid, though difficult, is not impossible. You just have to do a lot of research and build a list of schools that indicate (through their financial data) a commitment to funding internationals.
The vast majority of US colleges are need-aware for international students. They have a rough budget that limits how much they will devote to international aid and admit accordingly. They also have a rough “quota” for the overall number of internationals that they admit based on the targeted percentage of international that they want to enroll. These figures are fairly stable from year to year, unless the school deliberately changes its policy.
If you carefully study the colleges Common Data Sets you can learn the total amount that the college spends on aid for internationals per year and the percentage of enrolled internationals that receive aid. These figures don’t assure that your child will receive aid, but they are a good basis of comparison from school to school.
This is just one extreme example comparing two midwestern liberal arts colleges.
Macalester
$11.3M Total $ spent on internationals
80% Percentage of international receiving aid
Carleton
$3.0M Total $ spent on internationals
32% Percentage of international receiving aid
I haven’t done thorough research on this topic, but I understand that some colleges are need-blind for international students that graduate from US high schools, even if they are not permanent residents. At least that’s the way I interpret this information from Pomona.
https://www.pomona.edu/financial-aid/applying-for-aid/international-aid
I would suggest you look for colleges that have similar policies.
@momrath thanks, is very good information.I have a list, but you help me a lot to have more options.
I have plenty of time, my daughter is in 9 grade, but I want to make my homework without stress.
Thanks again.
If you are an international student who graduated from a Texas high school with sufficient amount of time living in Texas, you may be able to be classified as a resident of Texas for tuition purposes:
https://admissions.utexas.edu/residency#fndtn-t143-requirements
At some schools, they may limit the number of internationals, but I believe most schools will consider her in the same group as others from her high school or region. If a US student is studying out of the country, the application might be compared to others from that country as far as courses and gpa and test scores, but they are still admitted as a citizen with all federal aid available (and school aid too).
In really depends on the school.
The ultra-rich high-prestige Ivies/equivalents do limit the International population to about 10-15% of the undergrad student body.
But schools like NEU would like as many full-pay internationals as they can get (they exclude the test scores of Internationals from the numbers they report to US News).
If your daughter is in a school that has a lot of international students, the guidance counselors will be a good source of information for you.
@happymomof1 thanks,
I think in her school they don’t have a lot of internationals students, it’s a public school, but it’s a good school, the 10th in state. I think the counselors are good because this school put many kids in top colleges every year.
My eldest son did not have good counselors in his school, i talked about financial aid and they knew nothing.
My son did not let me help him with his applications, neither with the selection of the universities, with saying that he did not even show me his essays, which I imagine were excellent because he received letters of congratulations from the universities for his writings and few scholarships.
He is studying in a public university as domiciled in the State, with good merit, fortunately is an university that he likes very much, works for him.
My daughter is more demanding and has a higher academic level, and she is happy with my help, that’s why I want to have more options to choose.
@“International Dad” You’ve plenty of time to help your daughter put together a balanced list. I would doubt that her high school counselors would be too knowledgable about International admissions and financial aid, as it’s very difficult to get accurate and meaningful data on the subject.
The CDSs tell us how many internationals are enrolled and how many receive aid, but in most cases we don’t know how many applied or were admitted. The individual data points in the CDSs will give a general indication of the colleges’ commitment to admitting and funding internationals, which is good for college-to-college comparisons, but admission with aid is still very difficult to predict.
Many colleges say that they support international admissions, but the figures tell another story. You really have to do your own research, and plan to cast a wide net.
A good place to start would be women’s colleges, especially Mt. Holyoke, Bryn Mawr and Smith. They have strong academics and are among the top in international admissions and aid.
@momrath thanks a lot for your help.
I’ll check those College, what, do you think about Wellesley is in my list.
Wellesley is a wonderful school, but more selective and not as supportive or generous toward international as the three I mentioned. I don’t know their policy toward graduates of US high schools.
Other small liberal arts colleges with comparatively high levels of spending on aid for internationals are Macalester, St. Olaf, Trinity (CT), Amherst, Grinnell, Middlebury, Dickinson, Colgate, Richmond, Wesleyan, Wiliams. These are all sound academically, though varying in level of selectivity.
What your daughter needs to do over the next three years (in addition to keeping her grades up) is to think about activities, interests and life experiences that would help her stand out in the international pool.