<p>I am an international student planning to apply to universities abroad for my undergraduate degree. Since I know my family's (six people) annual income comes around $50,000-$60,000 and i will definitely need financial aid and scholarships, is it fine to only short list universities that will be able to offer financial support? There are a lot of good universities that I'd like to apply to but they unfortunately do not offer a lot of help to international students, e.g. the UC system. Is that unwise, because there are outside scholarships as well and I could just be reducing my chances of getting into a world renowned university? Bottom line is that I don't know how to shortlist universities, then, because most of them are great but money is the deal-breaker for me. Help me sort all this out, please. I want to make the best decision I possibly can, keeping in mind my finances, the reputation of the universities and my chances of getting in.</p>
<p>If you can’t afford them, don’t apply.</p>
<p>You won’t be getting outside scholarships from the American side. You can investigate if there are any financial aid opportunities available to you from your own country.</p>
<p>That being said, I do agree with skieurope: only apply to universities that you could afford if admitted. </p>
<p>Off-course. Why apply to a school you know you will NOT be able to afford when all is said and done?</p>
<p>I agree with everyone here - don’t apply if you can’t afford it. However, there are some universities which offer full tuition merit-based scholarships also available to internationals. You might want to consider those.</p>
<p>Look <em>both</em> at schools that offer financial aid (need-based) to internationals AND schools that offer merit based awards to all applicants who qualify (or to all selected applicants regardless of citizenship). So, you could apply to Amherst; to Gustavus Adolphus; and to UCincinnati’s Cincinnatus scholarship ( to cite three widely different colleges).</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies guys. I know there are plenty of universities that offer financial aid to international students but most of them are top universities and I can’t apply to only the top universities, I have to have backups. So, I was referring to universities that offer partial scholarships and such, which I might be able to compensate for with outside scholarships. Does anyone here have any experience with applying for and receiving outside scholarships? Should I count on them? As in, is there reasonable support available or is that a crap shoot?</p>
<p>It’s a crap shot. You might be able to get $100 here and $500 there with essay competitions and such, but you won’t get serious money without serious effort. (You’ll get a few thousand dollars if you win serious competitons like the Putnam math competition or the ACM programming contests, but you’d be competing against the best of the best in their field.)</p>