STUPID Q: how does it all work?

Paying for College
1

<p>This is going to sound really stupid. But how does all of this work? FA, scholarships, grants, loans? FA effecting chances? EFC? Some colleges taking away grants, some not? Effects of living in-state/out-of-state? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?</p>

<p>I searched around CC looking for an introductory thread, and found none.. maybe this is just general/conventional knowledge that every applicant is expected to know.. But my counselor is, shall I say.. a bit lacking in her knowledge of FA. (rather lacking awareness.. most kids at our school (a private international school in Germany) don't need FA at all) She thought Questbridge was a fraud scheme trying to recruit students into low-prestige schools.</p>

<p>Anyway, so can somebody please give me a summary of how this all works, and the process that I need to go through to apply? I tried to learn the process from reading the threads, but couldn't even get through all the abbreviations:P</p>

<p>And when people say "colleges A is need-blind" should I be checking if that means the college is need-blind to internationals as well?</p>

<p>Thanks
xoxo</p>

2

<p>Are you an int’l student (non citizen)? </p>

<p>If so, then there are some issues that will be different for you.</p>

<p>You won’t be able to file FAFSA, so you won’t have a EFC. </p>

<p>Most schools don’t give aid to int’ls. Some schools do give need based aid to int’ls, and I think those all (or mostly all) use CSS Profile. Your family will have to supply info about their income and assets and then the school will determine your “family contribution”. It won’t matter that your family may think that it can only pay X amount…the school may think differently.</p>

<p>The schools that give int’ls the most need-based aid are the hardest to get accepted to.</p>

<p>Are you a senior? What are your stats? </p>

<p>“need blind” doesn’t mean anything in regards to getting aid. It just means that the school won’t consider need. Most schools are need blind. However, being “need blind” does NOT mean that the school gives aid. What you need are schools that are "need blind AND meet 100% of determined need (including int’ls).</p>

3

<p>Yes, I’m an international, no US citizenship and a senior. Here’re my stats:</p>

<p>Female
International, South Korean</p>

<p>Residence: Germany
School: Independent english speaking international school administering International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (no AP classes offered)</p>

<p>GPA:7.00 in International Baccalaureate scale
Rank:8/126 (Valedictorian-6th all applying to Oxbridge)
SAT: (current superscore 2190)
2011 Mar RC: 720 M: 720 W: 650
2011 Oct RC: 690 M: 670 W: 750
2011 Dec (registered)
SATII: 2011 Nov Literature, Physics (taken, didn’t do too well, at least 750 on Lit but screwed up physics. didn’t cancel scores but canceled recipients)
TOEFL: 118/120 (iBT)</p>

<p>Classes:
IB English A1 Higher Level
IB Physics Higher Level
IB History (Europe Option) Higher Level
IB Visual Art Standard Level
IB Math Standard Level
IB German Ab Initio
Theory of Knowledge
*maximum higher level courses allowed by the IBO is 4, normally 3 recommended due to time constraints</p>

<p>ECs:
(ECs at current international school in germany, 2nd semester 10th grade - now)
-Editor-in-Chief of school paper
-Correspondent for independently funded student magazine
-Delegate to The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) 2011
-Advisory Panel member IMO to THIMUN 2012
-Ambassador to Royal Russell Model United Nations 2011
-Student Library Advisory
-Varsity Tennis
-Student/player at local tennis&badminton club
(ECs at prior public school in south korea, 9th grade - 1st semester 10th grade)
-Lee Min Jong Art Studio
-Chungdahm Institute Masters Program</p>

<p>Essays:
CommonApp Writing: fiction style prose of a significant event, clear & straightforward, took great care not to brag/explain too much/dictate/have an epiphany/judge, incessantly revised, critiqued, approved of by counselor and family and even my little sister who usually likes to criticize every word i say, i too am very satisfied with the final draft
CommonApp EC writing: clean piece about joining the school paper my first week at school and finally landing the editor-in-chief position, befriending the supervising teacher, and staying for whole saturdays eating pizza and finishing final edits before publishing 16-page issues
Stanford (applying REA) supplement: amount of care and time put into all answers and essays almost equal to the one CommonApp essay</p>

<p>Letters of Rec:
Counselor: She says she focused on my improvement of grades (just about the only thing keeping my GPA from ranking round 1st or 2nd is the ****ty grades i got at my korean public school, where i never paid attention in class and just read books in the back of the classroom cause all the classes were so boring you wouldn’t believe. anyway it’s all my fault and my loss, counselor did point out “extraordinary” leap after moving to germany) also included a page-length excerpt from a letter my MUN advisor wrote

  1. Theory of Knowledge and German teacher in junior year: he said i should read his letter sometime in the future since life’s gonna be tough and no one’s gonna ever say things as nice and praising as what he’d written in his letter, and i’m going to need the encouragement cause i’m not getting any more after school’s out. (he’s brilliant but very sarcastic)
  2. English A1 HL teacher junior year and senior (except for language2 IB courses are two-years): absolutely brilliant teacher, smartest person I’ve met so far, has that British humour that’s really dry and forgiving, though has very, VERY high standards. so this letter worries me a bit, but i did perform in her class and did extra work, she knows i read more than average and i always answered questions like ‘what did James Joyce write that was experimental in line with the works of Virginia Woolf.’ also hoping a bit of harshness will be healthy for the application as a whole(?)</p>

<p>(taken from another thread I posted in the chances forum)</p>

<p>I just wikipediaed and “need blind international” and got this:
[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Need-blind admission - Wikipedia”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)
of the 6 schools i’m applying only to Amherst:P</p>

<p>what exactly is the CCS profile, and how do I use it? I’m really not getting this information from my counselor</p>

4

<p>also, if a school is not offering FA to internationals, but I apply for scholarship programs and get grants, does the amount I get from said scholarships/grants pay for part of my tuition? Or is getting scholarships completely out of the question for non-US citizens? are there restrictions on applying for scholarship programs based on nationality?</p>

5

<p>CSS Profile is a central financial aid application that some schools use. You can find information on the College Board website. Your stats are excellent and it’s likely you could garner merit aid at many schools but you haven’t mentioned how much your family is willing to contribute per year for your education or which schools you’re applying to.</p>

<p>If you click on the first thread for this forum (the permanent one marked IMPORTANT) you’ll see several links to International threads including this one:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/151609-international-student-aid-19.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/151609-international-student-aid-19.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This will give you more information on colleges that offer scholarships for international students. Note that the threads have been in existence for around 5 years now so make sure to double check any info that isn’t current.</p>

<p>Here’s a list of the frequently used abbreviations on CC, borrowed from the “abbreviations thread”:</p>

<p>

</p>

6

<p>avtrox,</p>

<p>If you are attending a US-style international school, your guidance counselor should be able to tell you which colleges and universities here have admitted students like you in recent years and whether or not they received financial aid. Usually the staff at that kind of school have years of college admissions records, and often they have very close contacts at one or more institution here. Granted, your counselor might be a dud, but you should start there.</p>

<p>If you are attending an international school that doesn’t follow the US academic program, and rarely sends students to college in the US, then your best help is to be had at the closest office of [EducationUSA</a> | Study Abroad, Student Visa, University Fairs, College Applications and Study in the U.S. / America](<a href=“http://www.educationusa.info/]EducationUSA”>http://www.educationusa.info/). Read through the whole website, and then contact the closest advising center. There are several in Germany [EducationUSA</a> - Find an Advising Center](<a href=“Germany | EducationUSA”>Germany | EducationUSA)</p>

<p>Who exactly is paying your tuition and fees at your current school? Your parents? The company or agency that moved your family to Germany? Find out how much they can chip in toward your education. Some companies and agencies do continue to help pay tuition and fees when an employee’s child goes to college. If your parents have been paying the full cost of your current schooling, can they pay at least that much each year when you go to college? Do they they really just want to send you back home to Korea where your education could be a lot cheaper? </p>

<p>Do you have any notion of how much money the colleges here will expect your family to pay? Some will use the CSS Profile to calculate this figure, others will use their own financial aid forms, some will require both.</p>

<p>There are scads of threads on financial aid for international students in [International</a> Students - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/]International”>International Students - College Confidential Forums) Scroll down through that forum, and look for them. One poster who knows quite a bit about this topic is b@r!um. She graduated from secondary school in Germany, and she may have useful ideas for you.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>

7

<p>*if a school is not offering FA to internationals, but I apply for scholarship programs and get grants, does the amount I get from said scholarships/grants pay for part of my tuition? Or is getting scholarships completely out of the question for non-US citizens? are there restrictions on applying for scholarship programs based on nationality? *</p>

<p>There aren’t many private scholarships offered in the US for int’ls. Perhaps your home country would have some sources.</p>

<p>Private scholarship often are only for freshman year and for small amounts, so not enough to pay the $200k+ that it costs to go to college here.</p>

<p>However, some colleges will offer good-sized merit scholarships to int’ls…however, these scholarships do not cover all costs. Your family would still have to pay a decent amount.
Also, the schools that do offer large merit scholarships to int’ls aren’t usually the top schools. They’re usually mid-tiers and below.</p>

<p>How much will your family pay?</p>

<p>Keep in mind that at schools that give need-based aid to int’ls, they might determine that your family should pay more than it can afford to pay.</p>

8

<p>thank you for your replies; i applied REA to Stanford NOT requesting financial aid and am planning to apply to the following schools:</p>

<p>with FA request:
Amhest (need blind to int’ls)
Williams
UMich (legacy through my dad, graduate masters in economics)
Vassar
Tufts
NYU</p>

<p>without FA request:
Brown
UPenn</p>

<p>my dad’s willing to pay up to 30,000 a year max including living expenses. (so he doesn’t want to pay 30,000 for tuition then an extra 15,000+ for boarding) i know that 2/3 of my tuition at my current international school is paid by my dad’s company (federal bank) and that my dad makes round $145,000 a year (if i estimated the Euros-Dolloars ratio correctly). my mom is a lawyer, but she’s currently on leave and hasn’t made anything for the last two years, and she’s not sure if she is returning to the firm (she’s the founder) or if she’s just going to retire (she’s 46 right now, but she has problems with her eyesight and has had surgeries). she’d get a retirement sum but that wouldn’t be contributed to my college tuition, of course. i know that my parents are putting a lot into pensions, and i have two younger sisters and my parents also pay for a large part of my paternal grandparents’ needs. my grandmother recently had an accident and the medical costs haven’t been all too pleasant for my parents either…</p>

<p>and yes me going back to Korea would be a lot cheaper, since the federal bank covers all costs for employee’s kids going to top colleges in Korea. but really i don’t want that education. if i can get an education from any of the schools i’m applying to at a reasonable cost, it’d be worth the money, and my parents agree. (if you haven’t heard of how horrendous and mundane Korean education can be i don’t want to bore you…) So the goal for me is getting FA/scholarships that would cover about a third to half of my tuition, depending on the total sum… like NYU i hear costs 60,000 a year so i’m guessing that would be very different </p>

<p>more info:
definitely willing to work during college for aid
planning to go for PhD or the AFI after undergrad</p>

<p>how will i include all the above info in a CCS profile?
is it explained on the links you gave me? </p>

<p>thanks for all your responses, this is really clearing some things out for me</p>

9

<p>i applied REA to Stanford NOT requesting financial aid and am planning to apply to the following schools:</p>

<p>So, would your parents pay full freight for Stanford?</p>

<p>I think your concern should be that schools may not think you QUALIFY for the aid you need. Between income and assets, you may not qualify.</p>

<p>I don’t think UMich gives anything to int’ls, so your family would have to pay the full $50k per year. </p>

<p>my dad’s willing to pay up to 30,000 a year max including living expenses. (so he doesn’t want to pay 30,000 for tuition then an extra 15,000+ for boarding) and that my dad makes round $145,000 a year (if i estimated the Euros-Dolloars ratio correctly). my mom is a lawyer, but she’s currently on leave and hasn’t made anything for the last two years, and she’s not sure if she is returning to the firm (she’s the founder) or if she’s just going to retire (she’s 46 right now, but she has problems with her eyesight and has had surgeries). she’d get a retirement sum but that wouldn’t be contributed to my college tuition, of course. i know that my parents are putting a lot into pensions,</p>

<p>It doesn’t sound like you’ve applied to any safety schools…such as ones that would give an int’l enough merit for stats. </p>

<p>Keep in mind that int’ls have to show that they have funds for all costs…including personal expenses. </p>

<p>*i know that 2/3 of my tuition at my current international school is paid by my dad’s company (federal bank) *</p>

<p>So that’s for K-12…do they help pay for college as well?</p>

10

<p>from my last post:
“the federal bank covers all costs for employee’s kids going to top colleges IN KOREA”</p>

<p>so how do i find out if i qualify or not? the CB calculator says it can’t calculate for internationals.</p>

<p>no i don’t think they will pay full for Stanford, even if I get in. it was a weird and hasty, uninformed decision… being REA and me not having figured out all this before applying (which was stupid, i know) and Stanford being my top choice… all my counselor was telling me was that it would hurt my chances greatly if i apply for FA. so i didn’t, even though Stanford does give some if not much aid to internationals. i just got scared i’d get rejected based on my FA request (thing is i’m probably going to get rejected without it anyway…). so now on the slim chances that i get in i’d have to have a serious sit-down with my parents and crunch the numbers to exact amount…</p>

<p>I was thinking of Vassar as my safety just now after reading some of the links posted in the responses here:P apparently they give decent FA for int’l and anyway it’s my safety school
Tufts and UMich I was also thinking of as safeties but now I know they don’t give FA to int’l</p>

11

<p>i thought i was slowly starting to get this but now it’s becoming even more confusing</p>

12

<p>I was thinking of Vassar as my safety just now after reading some of the links posted in the responses here:P apparently they give decent FA for int’l and anyway it’s my safety school</p>

<p>If you don’t know what Vassar might give you, then it’s not a safety school. </p>

<p>I think people sometimes misunderstand what it means when people say School X gives good FA. Those same schools do not give aid (or enough aid) to those who don’t qualify. </p>

<p>*going back to Korea would be a lot cheaper, since the federal bank covers all costs for employee’s kids going to top colleges in Korea. but really i don’t want that education. if i can get an education from any of the schools i’m applying to at a reasonable cost, it’d be worth the money, and my parents agree. (if you haven’t heard of how horrendous and mundane Korean education can be i don’t want to bore you…) So the goal for me is getting FA/scholarships that would cover about a third to half of my tuition, depending on the total sum… like NYU i hear costs 60,000 a year so i’m guessing that would be very different *</p>

<p>If this means that you won’t be applying to Korean schools or don’t want to go there, then you need to apply to a REAL safety…one where you know you’ll have your costs covered. NYU won’t give you the aid you need.</p>

13

<p>thank you for your reply…</p>

<p>god this is making me so insecure… i haven’t been preparing anything for Korean schools</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>Your need based financial aid will be calculated using your dad’s income in U.S. dollars. If this really IS his income, the only schools that will offer you need based aid will be schools like Stanford, Harvard, Yale…and the like. They have generous need based aid for students (although some are NOT need blind for admissions for international students). If you didn’t apply for need based aid when you applied to Stanford, I don’t know what to tell you…I believe you are required to apply as a first year student to even be considered for institutional aid in subsequent years.</p>

<p>With an income of $145,000, your family contribution estimate for MOST colleges will be in the $36,000 to $47,000 per year range (about 25% to 33% of your family’s gross income). Any family assets would likely be viewed in the calculations as well. Most of the schools you list consider things like primary home equity.</p>

<p>I would agree that you should broaden your search to include schools where you might garner some merit aid to add to the amount your family CAN contribute. Then see what happens.</p>

<p>How will you pay for Stanford if you get accepted?</p>

15

<p>i don’t really know. my parents’ answers are very elusive. it’s like they don’t like the fact that they can’t really pay for me to go to Stanford, but they don’t want to say it outright. their answers are “we’ll see,” “maybe,” and today it was “you know, if you get in and you really want to go, we can always get loans” and that just made me feel so bad about myself i didn’t know what to say.</p>

<p>seriously the only thing that my counselor told me was, “it will hurt your chance greatly.” all frowns and scares. it’s like she assumes, if kids go to our school we would all be able to pay for these schools. on average 60,000 a year, including board, subtract the amount of money my parents have to pay for my sisters, my grandmother’s medical bills, pensions, that’s more than half of my parents’ spendable money.
i just talked to my parents about changing my list, to aim for schools where i’d be likely to get scholarships. and their response was like they’re angry at me for “depriving” myself and angry at my indecisiveness.</p>

<p>how much can a student do to get scholarships/some kind of monetary support once at the school? </p>

<p>i am aware that if I get into Stanford, because i didn’t request for FA throughout the whole 4 years i won’t be given anything by the school.</p>

<p>but that’s need-based aid, isn’t it? or is it ANY and ALL kinds of monetary support?</p>

<p>could I still apply for external scholarships, and would I still be eligible for working loans?</p>

16

<p>Stanford only gives need based financial aid. Ditto UPenn and Brown. You did not ask for financial aid as an applicant to increase your admission chances? Is that what you are saying? What good will an acceptance do at these schools if you can not pay the well in excess of $50,000 a year it costs to attend? As an international student, you will be required by ALL schools to show that you have the financing in place for college in order to get a visa to study here.</p>

<p>Your costs to attend college in the United States are going to be about $50k per year for the schools you have listed. </p>

<p>UMich does not give need based financial aid to international students.</p>

<p>NYU doesn’t give particularly good financial aid to anyone.</p>

<p>I don’t think you will find “external scholarships” that will fund these costs in total.</p>

<p>If your parents are able and willing to pay for you to attend college here, then you do not have any issues. If they cannot, you really need to discuss this with them. Go to EACH college website and printe out the costs of attending. Make sure you include the FULL year and the costs for tuition/room/board/personal expenses/books and travel. You need to have this information…and it sounds like your parents do too.</p>

17

<p>"I don’t think you will find “external scholarships” that will fund these costs in total.</p>

<p>If your parents are able and willing to pay for you to attend college here, then you do not have any issues. If they cannot, you really need to discuss this with them. Go to EACH college website and print out the costs of attending. Make sure you include the FULL year and the costs for tuition/room/board/personal expenses/books and travel." </p>

<p>You will need to figure out school by school what the total cost of attendance (including tuition, fees, room, board, books, travel, etc…), and look at the need-based and merit based aid for internationals. Compare those numbers with what your family can spend for you to attend college, what need based aid for which you will qualify, and what merit based aid for which you will qualify at each school. </p>

<p>“i just talked to my parents about changing my list, to aim for schools where i’d be likely to get scholarships. and their response was like they’re angry at me for “depriving” myself and angry at my indecisiveness.”</p>

<p>Put together the concrete COA information for the schools on your list including (adding) schools where you will qualify for guaranteed merit (many of these schools have a December 1 deadline so you should apply ASAP). </p>

<p>You parents may need to see the concrete numbers to see the situations. Particularly if they are coming for a background where the cost of college is covered through government funds.</p>

<p>Naive, unrelated question… is the college system in Korea substandard? I just saw a documentary about the high quality of post college education in Korea.</p>

<p>Al the best to you! :)</p>

18

<p>You cannot get a loan in the US without a US citizen or permanent resident who is willing to cosign.</p>

<p>Have you considered any European universities? They might be more affordable for you. Canadian universities also would be more affordable than their peer institutions in the US, and you would have a better work permit there in case you need to get a job while you are a student. Likewise, Australia is generous with work permits. Check those universities too.</p>

19

<p>More thoughts for you:</p>

<p>If you have USD 30,000 per year for your cost of attendance, and you really, truly, want to come to the US for college, there are some options that may be affordable for you. They might not be places anyone at your school has ever heard of, but you can still get a good education at each of them. Since the college matching search engines don’t search for estimated Cost of Attendance (COA), run them for colleges and universities where the tuition and fees are USD 15,000 or less. That would leave USD 15,000 (or more, depending on just exactly how low those tuition and fees actually are) for housing, food, books, transportation to Germany or Korea once each year, etc. Here’s what I found this morning with two of the search engines. You can refine the lists a bit more by selecting a major, state location, etc.</p>

<p>[College</a> Search - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/)
[College</a> MatchMaker: Results](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)
[College</a> Navigator - Search Results](<a href=“College Navigator - Search Results”>College Navigator - Search Results)</p>

<p>You also can run these search engines to help you identify institutions that do offer some financial aid and scholarships to international students. Don’t automatically ignore smaller or less famous places that only offer one or two big merit-based scholarships for international students each year. </p>

<p>If you aren’t afraid of attending a women’s college, take a long hard look at the list at [The</a> Women’s College Coalition](<a href=“http://womenscolleges.org/]The”>http://womenscolleges.org/) Your profile is dead on for the top institutions (Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley) which means that further down, there could be some merit-based money. Possibly even enough to get the COA into your price range.</p>

<p>Lastly, don’t overlook colleges and universities associated with your religious denomination if you practice a religion. There are lots of not-so-famous, but still excellent institutions out there that are affiliated with specific denominations. In my area, many Korean immigrants attend Presbyterian churches. Here is the list of colleges and universities affiliated with the PCUSA General Assembly <a href=“http://www.presbyteriancolleges.org/memberschools.htm[/url]”>http://www.presbyteriancolleges.org/memberschools.htm&lt;/a&gt; You can google “Name-of-denomination-here colleges” and to find a list of whatever denomination you are looking for.</p>

20

<p>@thumper1</p>

<p>No, I didn’t ask for FA from Stanford while applying REA because I was afraid it will hurt my chances if I do. My couselor specifically advised me to not request FA. It’s not that my parent’s won’t pay. They will pay by getting loans and probably selling our house and moving to a much smaller one. I didn’t know they were planning to do this when I applied without asking FA to Stanford. I asked, will you be able to pay, and they said yes, they didn’t tell me they were thinking of loans. I don’t want them to sacrifice that for me, it’s not fair to them or my sisters and it’s quite ridiculous to sell our house for my collge tuition. So I guess the central issue is that I don’t agree with my parents on what they can pay or if they SHOULD pay.
“If your parents are able and willing to pay for you to attend college you do not have any issues”
Ah but I don’t agree with them on HOW they’re willing to pay!
So what I’m looking for are scholarships or anything else I can do to take the burden off them, going back to my original question, how does the aid system in US work… Thanks to the links posted in the responses I’ve got a rough picture of it now:P</p>

<p>@KatMT</p>

<p>“You will need to figure out school by school what the total cost of attendance (including tuition, fees, room, board, books, travel, etc…), and look at the need-based and merit based aid for internationals. Compare those numbers with what your family can spend for you to attend college, what need based aid for which you will qualify, and what merit based aid for which you will qualify at each school.”
Thanks for this advice, yes I think I will do this;) Estimating 60,000 a year, and subtract the 30,000 that my parents will actually be able to pay (without them getting bank loans and selling the house), I need to get need-based FA, merit-based FA or scholarships that cover 30,000. So (@thumper 1) I’m not looking for external scholarships that will cover the total costs…</p>

<p>“Naive, unrelated question… is the college system in Korea substandard? I just saw a documentary about the high quality of post college education in Korea.”
I’ll say that the college system in Korea is better than the high school system in Korea, and the high school system is horrible. Colleges in Korea are not insufficient or lacking in rigor or anything, and I believe Seoul National University, the #1 in Korea, is ranked (average between the world rankings) around #120, which is pretty good… but the atmostphere of schools in Korea is very different from those in Europe or the States (I’ve lived and gone to school in the States also). I understand that I will be sitting in lectures and getting information drilled into me in a lot of the US colleges too, I’m not expecting US colleges to be completely liberal/student oriented. But in Korea the general consensus on what a student should or should not do/study is discomforting. To me at least… Everything’s so passive and conservative and geared toward practical objectives, and for example, in history classes you just DON’T talk about things such as the Cold War cause it’s controversial, and students can never really express opinions if they disagree with the professor. Medical schools in Korea are superb, so are research facilities and government-funded science-centered institutions like KAIST(Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). But for me (interests are IR, film, literature and cultural and ethnic studies) Korean universities are not very appealing!</p>

<p>@happymomof1</p>

<p>“You cannot get a loan in the US without a US citizen or permanent resident who is willing to cosign”
We have family friends in the US (my dad graduated Ann Arbor and my godmother’s husband is American) so if I really need a loan it wouldn’t be a problem getting a cosigner</p>

<p>Yes I’ve considered European universities, and OMG YES universities in Germany are FREEEEEEE
But my German isn’t fluent enough, at least academically… and one of my possible majors is literature:P YES!!! I talked to my couselor just a few minutes ago (in the library after school right now) and I think I will apply to UBC and McGill in addition to my nine US schools:)
thanks for your other advice(s) too, though no I don’t want to attend a women’s college and I’m agnostic (just something funny: me, agnostic. dad, atheist. mom, Protestant. grandmother, Catholic. grandfather, Buddhist. LOL)</p>