<p>Hiii guys, I’m new to this thread. I wanted to know about the Financial Aid process. I’m applying to Cornell, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Princeton, Rice, CMU, USC, SL. I need about 40-50% of funding. My ECs are very good but my SATs are 2120 ( 760 M, 730 CR, 630W) I will be retaking these in December and SAT 2s in November. You think applying for Financial Aid will hinder my chances at these Ivies? I’d really appreciate any advice or suggestion. Thanks x</p>
<p>@TanArch31- Princeton is the only one which offers need blind fin aid. I am unclear what is the FA policy of Brown(might wanna check out from their website). Applying for aid does affect your chances (other than Princeton) as others have need aware policy. When you apply they take into consideration whether have you applied for aid or no. Need blind policy means that they don’t care abt ur financial status when thinking abt ur decision…
And from the unis’ you mentioned only Cornell, Columbia, UPenn, Brown and Princeton are ivies…</p>
<p>Based on what perfect pixie mentioned in one of the earlier posts, Cornell will admit and not give any aid. The only aid you can get at cornell is if you can get one of the tata scholarships. UPenn does give some international scholarships since pixie got one from them.</p>
<p>Phr34k thanks for the advise I know that only Cornell, Columbia, etc are Ivies. I just meant it the rhetoric sense 
but coming back to fin aid, are you applying for it? My parents’ annual income is more than $100,000, do I still qualify ? </p>
<p>Texaspg, thanks for the response. Is there anyway to get in touch with pixie? Would like to know more. Does she still visit this site? Thanks</p>
<p>Pixie is at Harvard now but doesn’t look like she posted anything on CC since 8/13.</p>
<p>I can’t dream of going without any aid. And with that income it’ll very hard to get full aid…</p>
<p>@texaspg- is there anyway I can contact her? Somewhere I read that she got 79% and still made it to Harvard… My scores are somewhat same and I need advise. Any idea how can I reach her?</p>
<p>phr34k
you can try sending her a PM. Select her CC name by going on any post submitted by her, and as soon as you do that, you will get options and sending PM is one of them.</p>
<p>i did but as texaspg said she hasn’t been online since like a month so…</p>
<p>BTW where are all you guys applying??</p>
<p>I haven’t “phreaked” as such… And I am an Indian from India and not residing in some other country…</p>
<p>And yes I am the SATAN!!! <evil laugh=“”> MWAHAHHAAHHAAAHHAAHHHHHAAAHHHAA</evil></p>
<p>@iamgh2- For engineering?</p>
<p>Guys, Cornell FA is not applicable fir our batch. Check on the website. Iamgh2 I think you should try applying to the generous and reachable collges as back up as well. Like Amhearst, Rutgers, Drexel. I know they’re not the best but definitely very generous. And Columbia is one of the only 6 need blind ( for internationals as well ) colleges as well. It’s surely worth a shot right?
I know it’ll be crazy tough, my school counselor has already told me that I’m just kidding myself by expecting any sort of FA. But the deal is that even though my parents are ready to pay, it’s just toooooo much of money and I still don’t know if I am worth that hard earned money.
Anyway best of luck. Let’s keep each other posted? Take care.</p>
<p>The more generous*
( hate typing with small keys, sorry for the errors )</p>
<p>Guys, another engineering aspirant here! And that too CS, lol.
@iamgh2- I kno we ppl are in abundance, right? I did go through the last years thread and with hindsight, I realize that a crusade between CS-seeking indians seems imminent this time, unlike the last year!! I mean there are just too many people. But, hey, I feel the same that any other kind of eng. wouldnt be a no-no for me.
But do you think Columbia is even considerable for eng. to have a shot at?
And I m dfntly wh wrts lk ths! ;)</p>
<p>@Tanarch31- What made you think that Amherst is not the best? It is one of the best colleges in US. And to make things clear you’re talking about UMass Amherst or Amherst College? Because I am talking about the latter.</p>
<p>And Columbia is not one of the unis which offer need blind aid for int students… MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and Amherst are the only ones that give need blind aid. So basically if you’re in you can afford it…</p>
<p>@iamgh2- Those avg colleges beat our colleges ass any day. Apart from IIT’s and BITS I guess…</p>
<p>
You keep saying need blind aid… what do you mean by that? </p>
<p>Being need-blind doesn’t have anything to do with aid. Need-blind is an admissions term, where they do not consider your ability to pay in admission decision. Then there are colleges that promise to meet full-need once admitted.</p>
<p>Being need-blind and meeting full-need are two separate things. Most colleges are one or the other - there are only six colleges that are both, especially for internationals.</p>
<p>If you really mean need-blind aid, it is usually called a merit scholarship, not aid. Many top schools (Ivy Leagues, MIT, Stanford, etc.) do not offer merit scholarships.</p>
<p>@brutallyhonest- all those colleges I mentioned are need blind and give aid. MIT does give financial aid to anyone who applies for it and this isn’t based on merit. FA in these 8 schools depends on ur financial situation and that’s it. Among the ivies Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton are need blind and offer financial aid to anyone who applies for one whatever his merit be.</p>
<p>Being need blind means that the university isn’t bothered about whether you’ve applied for aid or not. You apply for aid after you’ve been accepted. Schools like U Chicago and Stanford are “need aware”. That means adcoms will consider whether you’ve applied for aid or not. They offer aid without any condition only to those who have been accepted. </p>
<p>@iamgh2- average colleges do give aid and if you’re good then you might even get close to full aid…</p>
<p>Phr34k
It may not be officially, but an admissions officer from CU visited my school a week back and she said that Columbia is need blind and I have many of my friends studying there almost all of them applied for FA and 100% of their needs were met.
Also, CU has a reputation of being verryyy generous with it’s aids and it’s any day a better college for Sciences than Amherst.</p>
<p>@TanArch31- Maybe… But anyways they have very low acceptance rate… `8-9%…
It all depends what kind of an environment you want. If you want small college town, very small classes and more intense discussion in the class hands down Amherst is for you. But if large city attracts you then a university(in this case Columbia). BTW both of them are equally reputed i.e, there’s no better one…</p>
<p>@iamgh2- if you’re looking for engineering then i would prefer Cornell. its one of the best schools for engineering in the world and certainly the best among the ivies…</p>
<p>Phr34k I agree. Cornell is my dream <3</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s off-topic, but I need some advice. I am currently in XIth grade, and next year, going to be the first one in my school (among other friends of mine) to apply to US/UK. But I haven’t made it clear to any teacher/counselor in the school that I am going to. So how would it matter if I told them? And who exactly should I talk to?</p>