Safety Schools for an International Student and other questions

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My current list:
U Chicago
Harvard
Princeton
Yale</p>

<p>I know you all will begin to groan and shake your head when you see HYP, but understand, that from an international student's viewpoint applying to those colleges makes the most sense. They are need-blind, for everybody. </p>

<p>I believe I have as good a chance as anybody to get into those schools, which is still very, very low. I don't actually know that much about HYP, and my first choice is Chicago, a school I am absolutely in love with. However, the University is not need blind, and I'm scared of telling that that I would need more than 20k a year to attend. Of course, I could string the extra 35k easily enough year by year from my family and scholarship programs (I do have connections). But do you think asking for something like 40k would seriously hurt my chances?</p>

<p>Second, how good are Georgetown and Duke in accepting international students who need aid. Again, I don't need 50k a year (although it would make things much simpler for my family and myself) but I would need at least 20k. All they state on their websites is that there is minimal aid available for international students. Does this mean almost non-existent?</p>

<p>And does anybody have a list of lower tier colleges that do often give out quality grants to international students? I don't want my plan C to be community college. </p>

2

<p>Oh, and for anybody that would like to know, I want to study International Relations and Political Science.
Other info:</p>

<p>UW GPA: 3.81
Weighted: 4.31</p>

<p>SAT: 2320</p>

<p>APs (all taken this year):
English Lit-5
Macro and Micro Economics: 5s
European History: 5
World History: 5</p>

<p>Sat II’s
World History: 800
Spanish with Listening: 800 (non-native speaker)
US History: 800 ( Predicted Score)</p>

<p>I also have a few interesting Extracurriculars and a nice background.</p>

3

<p>check out these lists for some possible colleges that give FA to int’l students:</p>

<p><a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

<p><a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

<p><a href=“VERY LOW COST OOS COA universities......less than $25k COA for everything! - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>VERY LOW COST OOS COA universities......less than $25k COA for everything! - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

4

<p>You dont get to ask for a particular amount. Instead, you have to provide all your family’s financial info, and then the school determines what aid (if any), you should get.</p>

5

<p>Duke recently received a multimillion dollar donation for international financial aid. If you are an extremely competitive applicant you may receive a ‘full-ride’ courtesy of the Karsh scholarship. </p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>And they are also ridiculously hard to get into. You need to work both parts of the equation:

  • likelihood of money
  • likelihood of admission</p>

<p>Without fulfilling both, you have ZERO.</p>

7

<p>These are the schools that are need-blind and full-need for ALL students:</p>

<p>Amherst
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Dartmouth</p>

<p>No other school in the US is need-blind and full-need for internationals. Cornell and Georgetown are need-blind for internationals, but they do not promise to meet need, so even if you get in, you would probably not be able to afford to go (unless you are Indian and win the TATA scholarship at Cornell). Georgetown offers aid to internationals only on a case-by-case basis. Duke promises to meet need. Unfortunately, I do not have much information on how much Duke spends on internationals. I do not understand why they do not supply this information. Duke does, however, have special international scholarships.</p>

<p>It is a TERRIBLE to idea to pick schools based on their need-blind status. Like, Tufts for instance is not need-blind but it is a school that values international diversity so it really does make an effort to recruit internationals with financial aid. I cannot say the same for the California Institute of Technology. </p>

<p>Any international who can afford to pay upwards of half the cost of attendance will be essentially treated in a need-blind fashion at most schools that promise to meet need for internationals. The reason for this is that even though colleges have a limited budget for internationals, giving around $20k isn’t much of an issue for them, but giving $50k or more is. Asking for $40k in aid will definitely put you in a seriously competitive pool, especially at Chicago. Colleges like Duke don’t say they have “minimal aid” available for internationals, just that the aid is limited. Applicants that they like who need a full ride to be able to attend will definitely be fully funded, including health insurance, stipend, etc etc. To put things into perspective: Chicago offered around $2m in aid to international students last year. Of course not all internationals who got that aid chose to enroll, but these schools do have money to give around. It’s not like they are poor or anything, but they aren’t rich enough to give out $26m in aid every year like Harvard.</p>

<p>There are no safety schools for internationals who need aid, except for merit aid options. What on earth are “lower tier” schools? Big universities, outside of about 25 or so schools (from Harvard to Brandeis–which are all top schools, by the way. Don’t mistake Brandeis for a safety just because it is ranked “lower”–it’s not, especially not for an intl who needs aid), typically do not have any money for internationals. You could look into liberal arts colleges, which are incredibly generous. Mount Holyoke (a school of around ~2200 students), for instance, spends the fifth highest amount of international aid dollars ($16m) amongst ALL colleges (only Harvard, Yale, MIT and Princeton spend more; Stanford spends only a measly $6m… Middlebury, a small LAC in Vermont (~2400 students) spends more than Stanford). However, these schools are certainly NOT lower tier, and admission with aid to nearly every LAC (your full need met, I mean) is incredibly competitive (<10% everywhere). </p>

<p>Yes, admission for internationals with aid is highly selective. But that does not mean it’s impossible. You just need to select your schools carefully and apply to as many schools as possible (just a simple case of probability). You also need to have safeties (either merit aid options or schools outside of America – my safety was USydney). Look into HKU. It costs about $25k per year.</p>

8

<p>^^ also excuse all the awkward sentences and typos. Forgot to proofread.</p>

9

<p>@International95 First of all thank you for your post, it was wonderful. But I still have a few questions:</p>

<p>So Duke is need blind and promises to meet need but Georgetown and Cornell aren’t? Wouldn’t that put Duke in the list that you previously mentioned?</p>

<p>And if I can afford to pay 30k through whatever money my parents can string together and a couple of scholarship programs that I am involved in, would that take me out of the extremely competitive pool of international students asking for a lot of money?</p>

<p>Lastly, what’s your story? What schools did you apply to and how many? I would just like to know. I’m a little lost right now and could use a but of guidance, and again, thank you for the post.</p>

10

<p>Duke is not need blind for international applicants.</p>

11

<p>^ You’re right. However, Duke does meet the full need of admitted students regardless of nationality.</p>

12

<p>^ Yes, but the amount of international aid is finite. If they can’t fund full need for their prospective international pool, tweaks will be made on who ends up being admitted.</p>

13

<p>The dilemma w giving FA to int’l students is that US schools have no way of verifying the family’s overseas income. For domestic applicants, the schools can at least refer to IRS tax reporting documentation.</p>

14

<p>^^
that is a huge problem. In a number of countries, it is easy to have unreported black market income, additional homes that couldnt be tracked, etc. US colleges dont have the resources to really research much of this. …so it is easier to not give intl need-based aid, or just give merit, or be very need-aware for intls.</p>

15

<p>Competition for admission and aid amongst international students is very strong. The more aid you request, the more competitive it gets. Generally, being able to pay half the cost of attendance puts you in a relatively strong position. </p>

<p>I applied to slightly over 20 American schools, and was admitted to five. They were all LACs mostly.</p>

16

<p>Short answer: there are no safety schools for international students who need a lot of aid. </p>

<p>Have a look at the following list, though:
<a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Many of these schools are small, selective liberal arts colleges that are not too well known to many international students. For admission and aid, that is a GOOD thing. </p>

17

<p>^^ That.</p>

<p>I highly recommend you look into how much colleges spend on internationals every year before choosing where to apply though. Pomona admits few internationals with aid, for instance, so your odds are lower than at say, Franklin & Marshall, which spends $5m every year. </p>