<p>Hi, Im a high schooler from korea, now living in canada and im just wondering how much your need status influences your chances in admission. I've heard Columbia is only need-blind toward Americans, but not for international students. I'm not a Canadian either.</p>
<p>I'm in the IB programme here and I think I can put together a pretty strong application but my family isn't that rich and we'll go almost bankrupt after paying all the tuitions (I have a bro too). My parents say they'll pay for everything but i doubt it. And whether I will get the financial aid is another problem because we're sort of in between poor and not-so-poor. I know they'll accept if I'm strong enough, but how much does your need status work against you in admissions? Is it worth it to say I dont need it?</p>
<p>Please tell me what you think. Thanks!</p>
<p>if you can afford it, pay for it, if you can't chances drop substantially, i'd say it's nearly twice as difficult to get in with FA as an international than it is without, although chances are getting better as columbia's FA program grows. Basically they take a set number of top students (60-70) every year and give them a LOT of aid, the average aid package for international students is like 30-35G a year. So that unfortunately means if you're in the middle either decide if you can pay or take a big risk. because of the limited numbers, i'd put getting in with aid to columbia to be tougher than getting in with aid to hyp, but not by much, no basis for this judgement other than observing kids in my high school, friends at columbia and friends from other high schools.</p>
<p>I'm an international applicant too and my counselor said that if you're applying for aid you can consider yourself denied. Even though I need aid, I applied anyway, you never know if someone will actually want you so badly that they'll give aid to you. You should take into consideration that NYC is really expensive, so if your parents are already stressed about paying full tuition, then paying for additional costs might be a nightmare. Regardless of your financial decision, I wish you good luck :D</p>
<p>Do you guys have any numbers to prove this? Probably not, right? It will be a bit tougher, but if they want you, they want you. We're getting a lot of money for financial aid and they took me over some rich international school kids that I knew, so there you go. And I was by no means a super applicant, so if you cannot afford it, don't sell your house, ^^... Apply for financial aid.</p>
<p>^Even Stanford awards FinAid only to 35 incoming int'ls every year. Imagine that. There are probably hundreds, even thousands of int'l worldwide competing for a few dozen spots.</p>
<p>well it would make sense for American schools to help Americans, other countries use foreigners as cash-cows so that they even bother offering financial aid is quite extraordinary. Although u.s unis tend to be pretty well endowed. Where do most international applicants come from anyway? i doubt many will come from nations that are absolutely impoverished in the first place. I'm hopefully coming from Sydney.</p>
<p>umm...not to be rude or anything...but the essay that you, Mickeydean, wrote was proofread right?...because these sentences quite frankly do not make sense. Too much improper use of grammar as well as confusion everywhere. Though I do bid everyone the same luck as I had.</p>
<p>^ and he prides himself on that gibberish LOL</p>