<p>Hello!
I'm an International Student from Ukraine. I have a 2160 SAT score and my Grade average is Ukrainian 9.5/12. I am currently taking a gap year teaching English, and working on my appication.
I'm applying to a bunch of colleges, but I would like to know if you have any ideas of a safety school that could also offer some financial aid.</p>
<p>Thank you for attention,
Misha</p>
<p>If there were safety schools that offered financial aid to int’ls, then all the gazillion int’ls would flood those schools with apps…and then guess what would happen??? The schools would have to reject most of the apps and would soon not be a safety. </p>
<p>Your safety school is likely in your own country. </p>
<p>How much FA do you need? How much will your parents pay each year? If your parents will pay a good amount, then maybe applying to a school that has a relatively low cost might work. There might be some that have COA’s around twenty thousand. An int’l would have to show funding to get the visa to come for school.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already done so, read through everything at [EducationUSA</a> | Study Abroad, Student Visa, University Fairs, College Applications and Study in the U.S. / America](<a href=“http://www.educationUSA.state.gov%5DEducationUSA”>http://www.educationUSA.state.gov) then make an appointment with the counselors at the advising center closest to where you are. There are several in Ukraine: [EducationUSA</a> | Find an Advising Center](<a href=“http://www.educationusa.info/Ukraine]EducationUSA”>http://www.educationusa.info/Ukraine) The counselors there will have useful ideas for you. You also should read through some of the threads in the [International</a> Students - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/]International”>International Students - College Confidential Forums) Look for posts by b@r!um. She has good ideas about finding places that could offer you financial aid.</p>
<p>If you know exactly how much your family can afford to pay, you can subtract $12,000 from that figure (for housing, meals, books, etc.) to get a figure for tuition and fees, and then run any of the college-matching search engines to find colleges and universities that might be affordable. Those would be the closest thing to potential “safeties” for you. In truth, except for the small number of colleges and universities that offer guaranteed merit-based scholarships that are open to international students, there are no “safeties” here for international applicants. At best you have matches. For most internationals, there are only reaches.</p>
<p>If you know exactly how much your family can afford to pay, you can subtract $12,000 from that figure (for housing, meals, books, etc</p>
<p>Int’ls have to subtract more than that usually. In addition to tuition, they have to demonstrate that they can pay for room, board, books, fees, personal expenses, insurance, and travel (including int’l travel)…these costs are usually listed on the webpage dealing with int’l students and can be $17k or more. Insurance alone can be about 1500. Int’l travel can be $2K…Personal expenses $3-4k…books 1500…fees 1500. R&B can be $10-15k all by itself.</p>
<p>Domestic students can “economize” on these costs, or work part time and earn as they go along, but int’ls have to show that they have the money with the expectation that the dollars will get spent.</p>
<p>^^^ Use those figures, not mine. I low-balled the housing costs and completely forgot the international travel costs. Blame it on the decaf I drank this morning instead of “real” coffee.</p>