MIT Financial Aid for International Students

<p>hello, im thinking to apply for MIT in 2011 but before that i need to know about financial aid they are offering . i knew that hey are going to give aids according to the need of family . I have calculated using the EFC calculator and got it zero but i dont know much about taxed income etc.. </p>

<p>assets . this is the main problem . what come under this category ? my father is just a professor who earns 15K $ per annum i guess . we dont even have own house but we have got some Agriculture land , I need to know how does this agriculture land relates to the finanical aid , do they count all the land cost etc.. my father is really worried about this .. please help and clarify about the "assets " etc.. regarding Financial Aid .</p>

<p>Unless your assets are in excess of $100,000 USD or more, you’ll still a very low EFC. Additionally, I think that farmlands have a certain amount of protection as an asset, just like an owned primary residence.</p>

<p>You can try calling the financial aid department. The vast majority of financial aid is based on income and liquid assets, like savings, stocks, or bonds. Farms and primary residences are largely shielded from being considered toward college costs.</p>

<p>my family assets are defentely less than 100K $ . thanks for the information . still do you think any common things that people generally neglect or over look and later regret regarding this Financial Aid ? please,</p>

<p>Not really. If you accidentally omit something, you can send it in without much fuss. MIT usually just needs tax returns from your country. The admissions office will tell you what you need to send in when they verify you.</p>

<p>If you do falsify or omit any records, they probably wont be able to find out. They aren’t playing truth police and there wont be any interrogations. Most of the process is based on the honor system, and there is usually little incentive to cheat.</p>

<p>thanks alot for the info . is there anyway that one could ‘almost definitely’ get into MIT ? maybe a International Olympiad ?</p>

<p>Nope. Check out the admissions website blogs. They have a lot of information you’ll find helpful.</p>

<p>yea thanks …BTW im following the blogs regularly : )</p>

<p>Whoa, I might have steered you wrong. The EFC Calculator is (I believe) only accurate for US citizens. International students do not use the FAFSA, though MIT is still very generous with aid.</p>

<p>no i think it can be used for international students too .
[MIT</a> - Student Financial Services](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/sfs/afford/financial_aid_calculator.html]MIT”>MIT Student Financial Services)</p>

<p>So I’m not international by citizenship, but for financial purposes I’m like an international student because my parents both work in Taiwan and we don’t have any assets in the US.</p>

<p>Yeah, for MIT you need to submit the FAFSA and the CSS profile every year, with your parents’ foreign tax return (in my case, the Taiwanese tax returns). In Taiwan, we have something very similar to a 1040 where they list out the income, the taxes…etc. and something that’s very similar to a W-2 where they list out just gross income by parent without the taxes. I usually just submit them both (via the documentation service through CSS (IDOC) that MIT uses). I also include another document that I’ve drafted up translating and explaining what the various fields are with the tax returns, since the forms are only printed in Chinese. I’ve done this 3 times now and I’ve never run into problems. As long as you clearly explain all the forms you have, I don’t think they’re that picky about your forms.</p>

<p>You’ll have to report land as an asset in the forms, but I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to estimate how much the land is worth. It’s just a field in the forms, and you’re probably almost covered completely if you get into MIT, based on your family income. (so I thought the no tuition if under 75,000 USD rule still applied, but apparently it only covered the 08-09 school year after some Googling?)</p>

<p>Chris, do your parents file US taxes? Just curious.</p>

<p>Picking up on the thread of ‘How to get into MIT’ – International olympiads aren’t a guarantee =) Take it from an IChO alum.</p>

<p>Anyway if you get into MIT, with that financial status, you’re pretty much guaranteed full aid. (plus work-study, meaning getting an oncampus job to pay some expenses, less than US$3k)</p>

<p>^ Nope, they don’t.</p>

<p>Good to see that you’re still around! : D hope you’re doing well at harvey mudd! : )</p>

<p>oasis, how did you get a citizenship? Were you born in the US? Or did you live with your parents for a while in the US, before they left to Taiwan?</p>

<p>^ I was born in the US but was brought back to Taiwan quite young.</p>

<p>(Mollie’s random fact of the day: ) Typically, for countries that have tax treaties with the United States, people pay taxes in the country where they earned the income. For example, most of the foreign nationals in my lab pay US taxes on US income and foreign taxes on foreign income (e.g. savings accounts, investment accounts).</p>

<p>at Fiona , Thanks for your reply .</p>

<p>" Picking up on the thread of ‘How to get into MIT’ – International olympiads aren’t a guarantee =) Take it from an IChO alum " </p>

<p>Really bad news …the icho alum you said thats you or your friend ? which medal he/she get ?</p>

<p>" Anyway if you get into MIT, with that financial status, you’re pretty much guaranteed full aid. (plus work-study, meaning getting an oncampus job to pay some expenses, less than US$3k) "</p>

<p>really great !! …thanks for that .</p>

<p>another thing is with certificates…they are the proof for everything i write in application … but where do they ( mit people) ask them ? how do they confirm something like ’ my 9 class high school athletic championship’ , or my class 10,11 marks etc…?</p>