Hey, I am in the middle of the application process for college enrollment by Fall-2018, and I am really worried about getting FA, since my family income is less than 30.000$ per year. I am really hoping to get into good and affordable colleges. As such, I have some questions regarding FA.
First of all, should I start applying for FA right now? What is the procedure for international students? When renewing the FA during these years, do colleges take in account the inflation? Is in-campus work a good way to alleviate college costs?
I also appreciate any tips you can give me, thanks!
Most American colleges give no need based financial aid to international students. their websites will tell you if they do. Top colleges like Harvard, Yale etc. do give need based aid.
Many colleges that to not give need based aid to international do award merit based aid to international applicants.
What colleges are you applying to?
You need to apply for aid when you apply for admission. The information about requirements for that application is right on the college/university website.
Each year you will need to apply for aid again in order to renew your aid.
Need-based aid usually accounts for changes in cost of attendance and changes in the student’s family’s ability to pay. Sometimes merit-based aid increases as cost of attendance increases and sometimes it doesn’t. You need to ask each place about their specific policies.
International students in the US have very restricted work permission while studying (CPT) and after graduation (OPT).
You need to look on EACH college website and find out what they require for international student financial aid application materials…and you also need to look at the various DEADLINES. They won’t be the same from school to school.
DO NOT…and I mean DO NOT miss the deadlines for all submissions. In fact, submit earlier rather than later. You can submit the financial aid applications NOW. Get them done!!
Check each college website to see if they even offer aid to international students. Some do…some don’t and some offer very limited aid to international students.
And most of all…have an affordable option in your own country in case the finances don’t work out for you to come here.
Also…are your parents still insisting that you apply to ONLY one college? You have neither thread bout RPI. I don’t believe that School guarantees to meet full need for all accepted students.
http://catalog.rpi.edu/content.php?catoid=10&navoid=224
You might want to read this…it doesn’t look like RPI gives aid to international students…who aren’t RPI medal winners. Unless I’m reading it wrong.
@thumper1 Thanks for the tips. Also, I spoke with my parents about that, and as while as they don’t have to pay any aplication fees, they are fine by that. I started asking for fee waivers directly to some colleges, let’s see how that goes! About RPI… you’re right. Thx for pointing that out, I guess I can cross it off my list.
@TomSrOfBoston I am applying to Depauw, Earlham and Amherst (not definitive, still need to receive a fee waiver, hopefully). My college list is small, but I had to cross off a lot of colleges which wouldn’t have given me enough FA, like RPI
bump. I searched for Hendrix college and St Lawrence University FAs, and they’re very generous from what I gathered, could someone confirm if they’re likely to meet my needs?
Also, just for a deeper insight, my test scores are as it follows: 1440 SAT (700R/740M); 730 SAT-Chem; 740 SAT Math-1; 104 TOEFL. Thanks!
You need to apply and see. No one her can tell you the exact amounts of aid these schools will give you.
I don’t believe Hendrix me3ts full need for all.
@thumper1 thanks, I’ll have that in mind! Good thing its free to apply to it, so I’ll take the chance