<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I'm an international student just accepted to Stanford EA. I didn't apply for financial aids though for fear of being rejected. But for $50k a year, my dad would be pretty mad at me to pay that (my family income is around $60k and I told him "I'll take care of it myself!")</p>
<p>So.. as of now, I have to find a funding solution for myself. Your input is really appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>See if your country has a scholarship program for students to study abroad. That is pretty much the only funding source you will have (besides maybe a loan, which would be a pretty dumb idea). </p>
<p>Retrospectively, it was not a good idea not to apply for financial aid. What good does an admission offer do you when you cannot afford to go? You might try to ask Stanford to reconsider your application with financial aid in the regular admission round.</p>
<p>yes Follow Barium!..That was a good advice. However I have heard that asking for Fin Aid doesnt compromise your chances of getting admitted!!</p>
<p>It will compromise to some extent at Stanford, as Stanford is not yet need-blind for international students. Back at my home there are a number of scholarships and student loans for youth who go abroad, are any of these an option for you? Could your family just take out loans back in your country?</p>
<p>The issue with loans is that you do not want to be $200,000 in debt after college. You might spend the rest of your life repaying your student loans!!! (That loan with a 6.8% interest rate would take 30 years to repay if you made monthly payments of $1,300. Just an example.) </p>
<p>If you find a scholarship that would cover everything except $10,000 a year or something like that, a loan could be worth considering. But in the absence of a big external scholarship, it seems that asking Stanford to reconsider your application would be your best bet.</p>
<p>The scholarships here come with a 10-year agreement to work with the government/company and are competitive.</p>
<p>What do you mean asking Stanford to reconsider my app? They will drop my accepted status and reconsider my app in the regular round? Actually I can afford it, but it would be quite a burden for my family.</p>
<p>Do they have sth about requesting FA and if I don’t get the FA, I can still hold my place at Stanford paying full price?</p>
<p>Take a step back and look at what you are saying. Attending Stanford is not worth getting $200,000 in debt, depleting all of your family’s savings or committing 10 years of your life (unless you really want to work for the government!)</p>
<p>You can get as good of an education at public flagship universities at half the price - the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, for example, is a good school with cost of attendance less than $25,000 a year. If that is still too much, there are excellent universities with scholarships for their top applicants: Boston University and the University of Southern California have full-tuition scholarships, for example. If you have made it into Stanford, you might be a competitive applicant for some of them! </p>
<p>Yes, it would be nice to get a degree from a fancy-name university. But once you are in college, you will realize that the level of education at fancy universities is not all that much different from that of lower-ranked ones. I have watched quite a bit of lecture videos on MIT open courseware. The undergraduate-level courses are almost identical to the courses I have taken at my lower-ranked college. The real advantage of Stanford is at the graduate level. </p>
<p>You are losing quite a bit of options if you put yourself in a position where you cannot afford to go to graduate school or are required to work for the government after college.</p>
<p>
That does not work at this point. You would be saying “I can pay for Stanford, but could you give me financial aid anyway?” Why would they waste financial aid resources on somebody who does not appear to need it?</p>
<p>I disagree.
I say go with the loan, whatever trouble it might be, and go to Stanford.</p>
<p>Me? Our family will be in serious serious loan when I go to college, but hey, education is important</p>
<p>Yes, education is important. But not an education from Stanford. What makes Stanford so special?</p>
<p>Agree with b@r!um, it is not worth getting US$200,000 into debt for a Stanford education.</p>