<p>Sorry OP, very few places would even accept you with those scores, let alone grant any significant merit aid.</p>
<p>OP, HonorsCentaur is half right. It is unlikely that you will get significant merit aid. But there are schools that would accept you (not the kinds of schools listed on cc but small, private schools) but you would have to pay out-of-pocket. Most American kids with those scores who go to college probably attend their community colleges. See, those scores say you are not quite ready for rigorous college work. Community colleges and some expensive private colleges are willing to work more with students who need additional skills-- but they do not generally offer them merit money.</p>
<p>The other issue is getting a visa. Consular officers require full support to be shown at the time of applying for the visa. Expectation that you are going to fund your education with working on or off campus will not be viewed favorably. So even if you get into a small college as suggested by 2collegewego, you have to be able to show that you have liquid resources in your home country to pay for the entire education, you cannot expect much aid and any work you do will cover only a small portion of your expenses. In other words, if you need a scholarship to fund your education in the US, most posters in the board are telling you that is a no go.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m wrong but it seems to me that int’ls getting educated in the US tend to fall into 3 categories…</p>
<p>1) those who can “full-pay” from affluent parents</p>
<p>2) those with lowish incomes who have stellar stats/hooks and get accepted to the fewish schools that meet 100% of need with super generous aid without loans (or minimal loans that an int’l can get). </p>
<p>3) those that can contribute a large amount of their costs, but only need a small amount from FA or scholarships.</p>
<p>It seems (to me) that the ones who can’t get educated here are the ones with average or lowish stats who need a lot of aid.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: I would actually say two categories, 1 and 3 in your list being about the same and can be combined. </p>
<p>1) Those who can obtain funds from parents or other non US college sources (e.g. their government or scholarships sponsors in their country) to pay for most if not all of the required expenses, with remaining expenses (if any) being small enough for an international to be able to get loans or earn though on campus work.</p>
<p>2) those with lowish incomes who have stellar stats/hooks and get accepted to the fewish schools that meet 100% of need with super generous aid without loans (or minimal loans that an int’l can get).</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>But even depending/expecting campus jobs to fill a gap is not often workable… first, because those jobs often go to work-study kids; secondly, because those jobs are lowish in pay and typically the earnings are for pocket money; thirdly, because the abroad int’l has to demonstate that it can meet COA in order to get his visa.</p>
<p>I often wonder if some of the int’l student websites wrongly encourage any and all int’l students to apply to US schools knowing that they won’t get the help they need, and then will turn to their advertisers who provide pricey private loans.</p>
<p>A lot of these int’l student websites are a scam, they will for a fee give advice or provide services like fill out forms and applications (which a knowledgeable student should be able to do on their own) or help them shortlist colleges based on their self proclaimed insider knowledge. And off course also direct them to their advertisers who provide pricey private loans</p>
<p>There’s another category of international kids: kids who live here, in the U.S. but are not citizens nor permanent residents. Maybe they’re here illegally or maybe they are in the process of getting their paperwork done but I suspect that community colleges in some parts of the country are full of ‘international kids’ who grew up a few miles from the school.</p>
<p>so any college that offer loan?</p>
<p>Colleges don’t generally offer loans. Loans are either federal (for US citizens or permanent residents only), or private loans from banks.</p>
<p>Natigeta… you’ve got to get a private loan for international students.</p>
<p>In which city is the loan available? that I can apply to colleges which are around.</p>
<p>Go to that international student dot com site. They have links for international student loans. The banks don’t have to be “near” where the college is.</p>
<p>Natigeta, you might want to read up on community colleges. Fees are very affordable and most will help you through any international student issues.</p>
<p>Pick any city you are interested in and look up some local community colleges. Give them a call and ask for international student assistance or the admissions counselor.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>If he does decide to do the CC route, then he should pick one in the state of the 4 year college that he’ll be going to. Then, it’s more likely his credits will all transfer. It would even be better if he could go to a cc in the same county/city of his future 4 year college. Less moving around that way. :)</p>
<p>However, I wonder if Natigeta’s relatives will co-sign loans for a cc. Sometimes the families of int’l students only consider ranked schools worthy of their time and money. While going to a cc is cheaper, it’s still can be costly for an int’l (tuition, room, board, books, etc). And cc’s often don’t have housing.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Agreed. There are plenty of good CCs that have informal relationships with very well ranked schools. For example, Santa Monica College is a well known feeder school for UCLA.</p>
<p>So it’s a good argument for Natigeta to bring up to his family. Doing well at one of the feeder schools will almost guarantee a spot at the ranked school and at a much lower cost than starting at the ranked school.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids</p>
<p>can you resolve my case, I’m also international, my scores are </p>
<p>SATI-- MATH-720, CR 530, WRITING 510
SATII–MATH LEVELII 770, PHYSICS 780, CHEMISTRY 740</p>
<p>my scores are low, but hopefully I have other “hooks”, several international physics olympiad awards and strong extracuriculars. I’m applying to one or two of those top tier need-blind, need-based colleges, but I doubt I will get in. I need two safeties.
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Financial aid isn’t awarded by stats or hooks, it’s awarded by determined need. The college determines your need, not the family. The college will require all kinds of financial documentation. From that info, they determine your “need”. But, even after they determine your need, that doesn’t mean that they’ll meet that need, or that they’ll meet that need without expecting you to obtain loans.</p>
<p>**The problem is that safeties and match schools don’t usually have the big endowments to be able to provide large amounts of FA for int’ls. ** Many/most safety schools depend on Federal money to provide aid, and Int’l students don’t qualify for Fed aid. </p>
<p>Some int’ls apply to LSU, UL Lafayette, or Christian Brothers for safeties because they are sometimes generous to int’ls.</p>
<p>How much can your family contribute each year?</p>
<p>Typically, internationals must…</p>
<p>Pay all their own costs (thru family payment or private loans)</p>
<p>Pay most of their costs, but need a little bit of help thru aid or scholarships</p>
<p>or…get accepted to an ivy/similar or an elite LAC that meet 100% of aid for int’ls</p>
<p>or…go to a less expensive CC for 2 years and then transfer (but you’ll still need to pay for your CC costs)</p>
<p>Which are you? how much can your family pay?</p>
<p>Please keep in mind, that most American colleges can’t meet need for American students, only some can. Even fewer schools can meet need of int’ls.</p>
<p>Remember that you must demonstrate that you have all your funding before the US will issue your education visa.</p>
<p>My family can contribute as much as 3000-4000 USD per year:) thus only full scholarship can save me. according to your categories I must get in one of elite schools, but I need to determine easiest of them to be sure to be admitted.</p>
<p>None of them are easy to get admitted. No one (not even Americans) can be assured admittance. These schools have to reject students with perfect stats. They can only accept a small fraction of their applicants - often only 1 in 6-8 applicants gets admitted. So, there isn’t a name of one that you can “be sure to be admitted.” These schools reject students with perfect stats.</p>