Internationals and Financial Aid

I’m an international applicant who applied RD, and I can’t stop thinking whether I made a mistake or not when applying for FA, knowing that Brown is need-aware when it comes to international applicants. Basically, would withdrawing my FA application now give me a boost in the admissions process? The idea of having student loans up to my head is not a tempting one, but…

FWIW, I come from two countries that are not represented in the Brown student body, and although my A-level grades are good, my test scores are on the lowish side.

How can you go to Brown without financial aid? Where would these loans come from? My understanding, from reading other comments on this website from more knowledgable people than me, is that you need to prove you have enough money to pay for college before you are even allowed into the country. What’s worse – being denied because you need financial aid, or getting accepted but being unable to attend because you can’t pay for it? Same result both ways.

Thanks for your reply.

Our government offers quite generous study loans for every citizen. Once you graduate, 40% of the total sum you borrowed is turned into a scholarship, while you have to pay off the rest at an interest rate of around 2%. Most people from my country who are studying abroad finance their education this way, so there wouldn’t be any problem practicality-wise if I were to do so as well.

I was just wondering whether anyone knows how much applying for FA and being an international impedes my chances. Are those internationals who do in a tougher applicant pool?