Quick Question about financial aid for International Students

<p>Now I'm going to be applying to college soon since it is my senior year. I lived most of my life in the U.S but our family could not obtain a green card in time.So, my question is, I'm not going to be able to obtain a green card until after my first year of college. I'm going to apply to certain colleges (MIT, Caltech, Stanford, etc.) without financial aid for the first year as an international student. If I by any chance get accepted into one of these schools and manage to pay for the first year, can I still apply for financial aid the second year of college as a U.S permanent resident?</p>

<p>“can I still apply for financial aid the second year of college as a U.S permanent resident?” </p>

<p>MOST colleges require you to apply for FA when applying for admission as a freshman, in order to be eligible for FA in future years.
And if you have no guarantee of securing a green card by a certain date[ and most applicants have NO idea when their application will be accepted] then dont count on being able to apply for FA after your freshman year, even if a college will consider new applications.</p>

<p>You will need to check EACH college. MOST of the schools you have listed do NOT allow students to apply for institutional need based aid in subsequent years if they did not apply as incoming freshmen. </p>

<p>These schools that provide very generous need based aid want to know UP FRONT what their financial obligations will likely be for the four years a student is receiving need based aid. They cannot really work their business (and that is what it is) if they have students who scrape together enough for one year but then need to be fully funded after that.</p>

<p>I know you would need to have one full year of finances verifiable to gain a visa to study here…I wonder if some schools want to see that you have the necessary funds for longer than that?</p>

<p>mrwongburger -</p>

<p>Is the green card application in process, and if so how soon does your family expect to receive it? What is your current immigration status? It may make more sense to look for a gap year activity, and apply after you have received the green card. Talk with your immigration lawyer or whoever it is who is helping your family with the green card application, and find out what options you have in your current status.</p>