The OP is asking about safeties - that means guaranteed admit and guaranteed affordability. There are a tiny number of places that might work. The OP needs to start with the list I posted above. Other than those, thee are no true safeties for internationals.
Matches are another thing. Depending on the amount of aid the student needs, and the institution’s policies, the list could be quite large. If a place only offers one sizable international scholarship a year in the amount the OP needs, and the OP gets that money, then it doesn’t matter one bit that the institution doesn’t guarantee to meet need for anyone.
Unfortunately, quite a few schools that guarantee to meet demonstrated need for U.S. students, do not guarantee the same for internationals. I’ve found that the only way to be sure is to comb through the college’s website, and even then, the information is often ambiguous (deliberately, perhaps).
I haven’t gone through the entire USNWR list, but to cite a few examples:
Bowdoin
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Rice
WUSTL
When I have a chance I’ll research the rest and update my “guaranteed” list. My guess is that a good percentage have a different policy for internationals than they have for U.S. citizens. (I would also mention that some schools classify undocumented immigrants as domestic applicants, some as internationals.)
Of course, just because they don’t guarantee to cover all accepted students, doesn’t mean that they don’t fully cover some. Plus, some schools offer merit scholarships, instead of need-based aid. And in addition to inconsistent guarantees, the way demonstrated need is calculated for internationals is often opaque. Net price calculators usually do not apply.
I’m not faulting the schools for their policies; they have to set financial priorities; however, it only reinforces how difficult it is for international students to project their chances of being able to afford a U.S. education.
My conclusion is that international students who need significant aid have to be prepared to cast a wide net, because the policies and formulas used to determine aid are wildly variable. Alabama seems to one very bright light on this horizon.
As I read it, this could mean that Northwestern does not accept a greater number of international applicants with need than it can fully cover with financial aid. There is nothing in line H2(i) of the CDS that distinguishes international students from domestic. The caption reads, “On average, the percentage of need that was met of students who were awarded any need-based aid.” I don’t understand how the value could be “100%”, truthfully, if it were any less than 100% for any subset of students … unless a different percentage is reported separately in another section of the CDS. However, in the section for aid to internationals (H6), there is no separate line to report the average percentage of need that was met of international students who were awarded need-based aid.
Section H6 does report an average dollar amount of institutional aid awarded to internationals. For a number of the “full need” schools I’ve checked, the value is about the same as, or even a bit higher than, the “average financial aid package” reported in H2(j). Examples:
Average Aid Pkg (H2(j)) … Average International Aid Pkg (H6) … College
$53,433 … $59,674 … Williams
$45,071 … $47,393 … Brown
$42,462 … $47,796 … Kenyon
If a rich college really wants a high-need international applicant to enroll, it would seem to be in the school’s interest to meet all demonstrated need, since the student will be unable to secure a student visa if there is no evidence of ability to cover the costs. If some of the “full need” schools are admitting some internationals with deficient aid offers, and those students fail to matriculate, then the figure in line H2(i) still could wind up as “100%” for all students.
All of CDS section H2 refers to numbers for enrolled students, not admitted students.
Okay guys, I’ve went thoroughly thru your posts and I’ve decided that a bigger number (12) of applications would be better than just applying 6-7 with few safety choices.
I think that you just never know how are they going to decide…I’ve had friends who got into MIT & Harvard with a low SAT, but rejected by all other schools they’ve applied (and have been mentioned here).
So yeah, I’ll just try to lower the application fees, ask for possible waivers…but if I don’t manage to do it, this is definitely a great investment if I get in, so no reason to be radical about money here.
I have read through the above and I am still a bit confused about the difference between US colleges that are “needs blind” and those that “meet full financial need” for international students. I found this list of schools that do both for international students:
Amherst College
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Yale University
Soka University of America
Minerva Schools at KGI
Does this mean that all other US universities are “needs aware” for international students? Can somebody clarify this? Thanks!
^ Thanks. Do you know which specific Universities fall into each category? I had a good long read of the Wiki page on this but could not figure out which Unis fall into each category! Thanks.
^ that was what I referred to earlier as unclear. While it is clear that only 7 schools are need blind and meet full need for internationals (the first category in the Wiki article), If you read the second and third categories in
the article you linked, it is not explicit on which schools, for example, are need aware for international applicants but claim to meet full need for the international kids that they do admit.
@londondad, I don’t think there is a reliable list of schools that “meet full need” for internationals that they admit. Nor is there a reliable and consistent definition of what “full need” really means for international families. Net price calculators usually don’t apply, and the way international applicants’ need is determined can vary widely from school to school.
It’s pretty much a trial and error process. You have to comb through the individual websites to learn which claim to meet full need, and even then the information is – deliberately, I think – vague. (That’s how I came up with the list in post #3 of this thread, though I’m sure there are other schools that could be added to that list.)
First, I would say don’t get distracted by need blind vs need aware. There are, as you note, only a handful of schools that are need blind for internationals, and aside from Soka and Minerva which I don’t know much about, they are all insanely selective. Plus there are enough economic clues in any application, that admissions officers can usually figure out how much need will be needed. They look for economic balance along with other demographics.
Second, if you need a substantial amount of aid, be prepared to apply to a lot of schools. Look at schools that may not get a lot of international applications, e.g. those outside of major cities or not in the northeast or west coast or those with low international name recognition. Look at schools that may be interested in your demographic – racial, religious, geographic etc. Look at schools with cultures that align with your interests and extracurriculars. Look at schools with acceptance rates in the high range relative to your child’s grades and scores.
“need-blind for U.S. applicants …” (second category) implies not need-blind for non-U.S. applicants;
“not need-blind for U.S. applicants…” (third category) implies they are also not need-blind for non-U.S. applicants;
“… and meet full demonstrated need” (second and third categories) applies to all admitted U.S. and non-U.S. students, unless otherwise stated (but as far as I can tell it is not stated anywhere in the CDS).
I may be wrong about #3 in at least some cases.
If in doubt, do as momrath suggests. Comb through the individual websites.
I’d like to see examples of colleges in category 2 or 3 that claim to meet 100% in CDS section H2 but clearly state on a web page that they don’t meet 100% for admitted internationals. IMO that would be inconsistent, and apparently at odds with the high average dollar amounts one sees for many of these schools in CDS H6 for internationals.
@momrath and @tk21769 Thanks for the excellent explanations! You confirmed much of what I had assumed.
Also @momrath 's point about looking for schools that don’t get as many international applicants is a good one. To some extent, my kids have to compete with kids from other Greater London high schools, although more so with kids at other British curriculum schools than the American curriculum schools. While the latter kids seem to apply everywhere, the British school kids tend to keep to the Boston-DC corridor plus a few outliers (Duke, Stanford, SoCal). We have tried to apply to schools that are a bit off the beaten track. For example, we looked hard at Notre Dame, but my kids did not like the school enough to apply.
Several years ago b@r!um who often posts in the International Students Forum wrote about investigating 300 colleges an universities in her search for places where she might be considered for sufficient aid. So yes, you can expect to put a lot of work into this.
That’s a pretty risky list, and I wish you good luck! Since it’s a gamble, I usually recommend that international students apply to 20 schools–the limit in CommonApp. I urge you to investigate less competitive schools with later deadlines, like Bennington and maybe Sarah Lawrence/Earlham?
I applied to way too many schools, and investigated more than 300, definitely–even outside of the US.
I am international and from China (which is probably the worst region of being international), I received a package of scholarship 10k/yr + financial aids 47k/yr that basically covers the tuition at Dickinson with 107 toefl and 1490 superscore new sat (Dikinson says that they consider your merit even for need-based ).
I definitely recommend dickinson for your safety. It’s a less selectice LAC, great academics, love intl students.
Among this category there are also Colgate, Colorado, Grinnell, etc. Check other CC posts for more.
