Hey! So I am an international applicant (from India). I am applying to Exeter, Andover, Choate, Hotchkiss, Deerfield, Berkshire, Lawrenceville, Cushing, Northwood, Blair, Suffield, Millbrook, Taft, and Loomis Chaffee. (for pg year)
I am a very strong applicant, I have all A grades, national awards, strong extracurriculars.
However, I need significant financial aid. I am wondering if schools will outright reject me if they do not have the budget to give me financial aid? Or will I be offered a place but without financial aid?
I will still be able to attend if I do not get financial aid, but it will be extremely difficult for my family to manage that. Do you think I should send a letter to schools specifying this— so that they do not reject me thinking that I won’t be able to attend either way.
Most schools provide decisions that are consistent with your FA needs. So if they can’t offer you FA and you have requested it, you will be rejected. Whether their assessment of your need matches theirs is a different matter.
Sometimes, you will be waitlisted and told you will be admitted if FA becomes available. This would be the result of students who were admitted with FA not accepting those places, and basically replenishing the FA funds.
There are a couple of schools who will provide an acceptance but no FA, knowing you need it, but these are rarer.
If you can afford to pay, they expect you to do so. I think sending a letter will help you get admitted and will likely also result in you having to pay.
Also, if you plan to attend university in the US, you will need funding for that too, and again as an international student, you will be in a tough pool. Having done a PG year in the states won’t change that, and having high FA need may make it difficult for you to be admitted to a u.s university. That will be a challenge for BS too unless you can demonstrate that you can return home for college.
If you are such a strong applicant that there is little question about a college placement, it may behoove you to just apply to college although you have said in another thread that you don’t want to do that.
To add to this, you will need to show official proof of the ability to cover at least one year of your US university cost in order to get a visa to study at the university.
Students applying for an F-1 visa typically provide proof of funding for their first year from the following sources of funding:
Personal funds
Sponsor funds
Government or sponsoring agency (includes CONACYT, etc.)
Universities will typically accept the following forms of financial proof from your sponsor(s):
Bank account statements translated to English
Proof of guaranteed loans
Financial award letters
Other official documents outlining liquid assets
If your family will use most of their resources to send you to boarding school, you may not be able to provide this proof needed for a visa. It is a very rare US university that will be need-blind for international students AND offer them enough to cover costs. There are literally currently SEVEN schools in the US that will do this (a few others, like Brown, are working toward it - class of 2029 for Brown).