<p>Which of the following two schools is more generous with international student aid-</p>
<p>Bates College
Mount Holyoke College ?</p>
<p>Can you also list the general pros and cons of studying at each?</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke</p>
<p>Are you sure? Can you list some general pros and cons? Thanks!</p>
<p>Bump^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I have no idea which school is more generous with international student aid. I do know, however, that Mt. Holyoke is much better endowed than Bates. As of June 2009, MHC’s endowment was $488M compared to Bates’ $189M – a difference of about 167%. MHC is a little bigger, but not much: 2,200 students vs. 1,750. So that’s $220K/student vs. $108K/student. That’s a pretty meaningful difference, and it means that MHC can be more generous about a lot of things.</p></li>
<li><p>Why do you care? If you are an international student and need aid, you don’t really care about which school is more generous to internationals in general, you care about which school gives YOU a better offer. While the two may be related, and ARE related across the whole population of international applicants, they aren’t necessarily related for each student.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You need to look each school’s website to determine…</p>
<p>1) do they give aid to int’ls</p>
<p>2) do they meet need</p>
<p>3) do they only give a select few in’tls aid.</p>
<p>And…you need to determine whether you qualify for aid and how much your family would be expected to pay.</p>
<p>A school may give awesome aid to int’l students, but if the school thinks your parents can pay for more than your parents can pay, you’ll still have a problem.</p>
<p>MHC policy…</p>
<p>*Limited amounts of financial assistance are awarded competitively to international applicants based on their academic achievements and financial eligibility as determined by College guidelines. Applicants must apply for financial aid at the same time they apply for admission. Once a student has been admitted, she cannot then apply for aid. </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>MHC does not meet need, nor do they award FA to all int’l students.</p>
<p>I think mom2 has given a misleading interpretation of Mount Holyoke policy. Here is what the official policy says:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Now, there are several nuances that have to be unpacked from that (and the rest of the policy). MHC does NOT say it is need-blind in its admission of international students, but it does say that if it admits an international student who has applied for aid, it will be with what MHC considers to be an adequate aid package (which will include loans as well as grants). Unlike U.S. students, however, an international student (a) cannot appeal her financial aid determination, (b) cannot get aid adjusted in the future based on her parents’ changed circumstances, (c) can never get aid if she didn’t request it at the time of application, and (d) will not get any aid to cover travel expenses. The bottom line is that MHC has a budget for international aid that comes 100% out of its own funds, it allocates that budget carefully in the admission process, and it is unwilling to do anything that would see that aid go over the budgeted amount.</p>
<p>But MHC has a lot of international students – 400, almost 20% of its student body. I’m sure most of them are full-pay, but some are not.</p>
<p>Bates is a little more straightforward:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But Bates has only about 100 international students – 6% of its student body, and 1/4 the number at Mount Holyoke.</p>
<p>From this, it looks like Bates has a somewhat more generous policy, which likely applies to far fewer people. Apart from that, though, you really can’t tell much about how either college applies the details of its program – how they determine parental contribution, what balance of loans and grants they use (although neither seems overly reliant on loans). With financial aid, the devil is in the details.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot JHS and everyone else!</p>
<p>JHS, that was great info!</p>
<p>BTW, the admission rate for Bates in 27% and that for MHC is 58%. Does this mean it’s easier to get into the latter?</p>
<p>^^By definition, it is much easier to get into every college that excludes half the world’s chromosomes. :D</p>
<p>But your question should be, ‘which college is easier for an international that needs $$’. And, as JHS notes, MHC is need-award for international admissions (like many US colleges). In others words they will take into account the fact that you have applied for aid in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Just an FYI, Mt. Holyoke gives very little merit based aid (if any).</p>
<p>bluebayou- correction, it’s much easier only if you belong to the other half of the world’s chromosomes…otherwise, it’s impossible…lol…poor joke, sorry…</p>
<p>Isn’t Bates need-aware as well?</p>
<p>intparent- Does the college give much need-based aid?</p>
<p>Hey, is there any way I could show a college I’m very interested (assuming I applied to the college under ED II)?</p>
<p>intstud: your post #12: “touche”. hahahhahaha</p>
<p>Hehehe… :)</p>
<p>Here is some info on these 2 schools.For fall 2010,Bates College had an intl student pop. of 98,with 81 recieving finaid.The average aid package was USD43800,with the cost of attendance being USD51300.Mount Holyoke had 439 intl students enrolled,with 410 recieving finaid.The average intl aid package was was USD35300,with the total cost being 52000.The highest amount awarded to an intl(freshman,or should I say woman?lol) was 54100,more than the cost of attendance.If I had your chromosomes Id apply to MHC lol!</p>
<p>*Limited amounts of financial assistance are awarded competitively to international applicants based on their academic achievements and financial eligibility as determined by College guidelines. Applicants must apply for financial aid at the same time they apply for admission. Once a student has been admitted, she cannot then apply for aid. </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>I did not intend to mislead. One area says one thing (the above) and another area says something rather different.</p>
<p>It would be easy to read the above and think that since they say that their financial aid is limited and competitive, it would mean that some with need won’t get aid.</p>
<p>However, the other area indicates that if you’re an int’l and you get accepted with need, you’ll get your need covered.</p>
<p>So, the school is “need aware” - at least for int’ls. That suggests to me that if you have need, but can somehow cover all of it yourself, don’t apply for aid. It would be frustrating to think you got rejected for having need, when you could have gotten the money somehow yourself.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>macmill’s numbers absolutely confirm my hypotheses from reading the policies: Bates awards somewhat more aid (25% more, on average) to far fewer people. The amount to each individual student varies a lot. Based on this information, if I were the OP I would certainly apply both places (if I was interested in both). I would think I was a lot more likely to get accepted at MHC (and to get aid there), but that if Bates accepted me it might well give me a better aid package, including being willing to adjust aid if my family’s circumstances got worse.</p></li>
<li><p>mom2, I hope neither you nor anyone else thought I was suggesting you meant to be misleading. You were trying to be helpful in pointing out that MHC has a restrictive policy. The only reason I said anything was that I didn’t want people to think that MHC accepted international students with need but didn’t give them meaningful aid.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks a lot everyone!
Okay, assuming (just assuming) I could apply to only one of these, which one should I pick (my financial need is huge) ?</p>