<p>I’d like to hear that too. Those reps are usually admissions reps…NOT financial aid reps.</p>
<p>OP: you asked, and people are giving you their realistic and honest opinions on the competitive nature of financial aid in the US for international students. </p>
<p>I’m sorry that the responses aren’t being positive for you, but that’s because people on this thread are being realistic, which you, apparently, don’t want to hear. Attitude-wise, if you are this defensive, it will come across in your application, and you will be rejected, because so far, you’ve demonstrated that you don’t like to hear anything that doesn’t coincide with your opinion.</p>
<p>You want people here on CC to give you a list of schools that are guaranteeing to give you aid. No one can give you that information because no school guarantees aid, not for anyone, specifically not for international students. You don’t qualify for our federal aid, nor do you qualify for any State aid and that’s where a bulk of scholarship money comes from. There is no money fairy that will give you $60,000 per year. </p>
<p>Your stats are not spectacular which puts you more at a disadvantage. When the colleges recruit, they do send out admissions officers who don’t deal with the money aspect (per Alphonsia’s reply). I can bet they did not hand you a financial aid award letter guaranteeing you a set amount of money for the upcoming year. </p>
<p>The problem is this:</p>
<p>1) School Reps are always going to encourage someone to apply, and they will claim that if you have great need, you will get money (If that school gives aid to int’ls). </p>
<p>2) Your stats aren’t high enough to get into the those top schools that give full aid to int’ls…unless you come from a country where few apply to these schools.</p>
<p>3) Your parents have a LOT of savings, which may mean that if you get accepted the schools may decide that your family should pay ALL costs or MOST costs…so no “half aid.”</p>
<p>I also wanted to add my thought that students who are not in the top stats and are international or OOS ARE the money faeries LOL, great state schools have spots for full pay students to help cover costs. I want to see a line in the common data sets that consists of “students in the bottom 25% of stats who are full pay” for OOS or IntL (I am sure that is there somewhere). Maybe if your parents understand that asking for FA is a negative for certain schools, they would get the point of matching both your stats and your ability to pay. Maybe they actually know that already though. </p>