SUNY Buffalo University

<p>I am an international student and my family can pay about $8000. Should I apply to SUNY Buffalo whose cost of attendence is about $35,000?
I know I will not get need based aid and merit based also will not be significant. Can external scholarships contribute significantly?
Are there other low cost of attendence schools which accept Common App?</p>

<p>You can certainly apply to SUNY Buffalo, and hope that you get one of the full scholarships which will be determined by the courses you have taken, your grades in them and your test scores. Do check and see if international students are eligible for the merit awards. I don’t remember whether internationals are eligible for financial aid, but I don’t expect the SUNYs to be funding non state residents or internationals wit their aid. Possible, but not probable as they do not meet full need even for in staters. They do tend to meet full in state need for tuition and fees, but not for living expenses. </p>

<p>External scholarships are very difficult to get and not likely. Those who get large external scholarships are the top students. You can look on FastWeb to see what you qualify for. THe chances of getting any external awards just by applying to Buffalo or any college is about zilch. Hardly any. You have to find them all yourself in a separate search. </p>

<p>Are you living in the US? Are you living in NY state? If you’ve been here 3 years, I believe, you can get state tuiton rates. for NY. Some other states might have such provisions too.</p>

<p>Otherwise look for school where your stats, test scores, put you in the highest 5% or more, and apply to them and hope you get merit money. If you have very high test scores, you can also look at schools that do give out fin aid to internationals. The first thing to check when looking at possibilities is whether the school even gives fin aid and/or merit money to internationals, and if the awards are enough for you to be able to swing it. If a school gives out only one $25K award, and you need more than that, it’s a waste of time for you to apply to that school. Also look at the Common Data and see what % of kids are getting merit awards at what average amounts, and you should be in the upper half of that % to get a shot a that money. You can put a list together that way.</p>