This post was written especially for College Essay Guy by Independent Educational Consultants:
A note from the authors: The content of this article won’t help every applicant: every situation is sensitive and unique, and education is continuously changing. However, we want to be transparent that our goals are to give you context, steps, and tools for further research so you can be empowered in your next decisions.
—Disclaimer: For the purposes of this article, an “international student” is a student who is a “nonresident alien”—not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or eligible non-resident, who has not passed the green card test or the substantial presence test—, regardless of where the student completed his/her high school education. “College” and “university” are also used interchangeably.
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Here’s the deal: it’s really tough to get a full scholarship as an international student to a U.S. college or university. Funds are limited and competition is steep—really steep. But most of you know that.
So, you’re an international student applying to school in the U.S. While we would like to think of you as the unicorn—“the one” who is accepted with $250,000+ in scholarships—there’s a problem year after year: we don’t always see international students accepted to those U.S. schools with full financial support.
That makes the problem we encounter every year even bigger: students don’t spend time and dedication into creating (and getting equally—if not more—excited about) other amazing universities and programs. Options that are actually inexpensive, with or without financial aid or a scholarship.
What other options do you say? Check out Schools that are actually cheap: Affordable options under 10,000 USD.
If you need a full ride or close to a full ride to be able to attend college, the most important step you need to take right now is to expand your options and apply to at least three schools that you...
Can get into, including options in your home country when possible
Would be happy going to
Can actually afford, including undergraduate programs outside of the U.S.
In this guide, we’ll review:
How much college in the U.S. actually costs
Who is an international student
What type of aid international students are eligible for
Four factors that determine how much aid you can receive
The effect of politics & the pandemic
Affordable options
What’s next? 10 action Items to get started on
Remember: you can find solutions for your higher education that not only fit your family’s budget but are a great fit for you socially and academically.
This guide will show you how to be proactive and stay determined.
So...how much does college actually cost?
According to US News, the average college tuition and fees in 2020-2021 was $35,087 for private universities and $21,184 for public universities. Tuition usually makes up 40-60% of what you’ll need to pay for as a college student: it doesn’t include the tens of thousands of additional dollars in indirect costs that international students face, including visa fees, room & board, books, supplies, insurance, personal expenses, and transportation.
But hold up: I can get financial aid or a scholarship even though I’m an international student, right?
Yes, you can!
Let’s start with the basics:
Do you actually know what “type” of student you are? It can be confusing, we know, as each college and university in the United States has its own definition of who is considered an international student.
Pro-tip! Make sure to consult with each college/university directly about your citizenship.
Are international students eligible for federal financial aid?
Most international students will not be eligible for federal financial aid (such as Direct Unsubsidized Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, and Pell Grants). Check out this article from Federal Student Aid to understand your eligibility for federal student aid.
If I’m not eligible for federal financial aid, how can I get financial support for studying in the U.S.?
You can receive institutional aid (which is provided directly by many colleges and universities). You can also try to apply to outside scholarships often provided by governments or foundations. This website can be helpful to your search.
How likely am I to receive institutional aid?
The likelihood of getting the financial aid you need from a US school largely depends on four factors:
How much aid you need
How strong your application is
How good a fit you are for the school, program, or scholarship
How much financial aid is available and how many students are competing for it
1. How much aid do I need?
This can be surprisingly hard to figure out. There's also a difference between “needing” money and “wanting” money. Your first two steps in this process are:
Task 1: Develop an amount of how much you can actually afford for college.
Have an honest conversation with your parents and/or guardians about how much they can contribute toward your college education, coming up with a total contribution including indirect costs. There are also upfront expenses, such as translations, vaccinations, mailing services, trips to the Embassy, standardized tests, notarizations, and more that are incredibly important to budget.
Task 2: Determine your “Financial Need,” an amount that a college determines you are eligible for.
You need to identify the amount a college will determine you and/or your family can contribute toward the cost of attending college. This is often referred to as an Estimated Family Contribution (EFC).
Most Net Price Calculators are tailored to domestic applicants, but you can get a rough estimate of your EFC with this calculator for international students.
Ask anyone who has gone through the process. Demonstrating your financials to colleges is a tedious process, and there are typically many speed bumps along the way. Reach out—ahead of time—directly to the Financial Aid Office at your dream school if you have any questions.
If you’ve been browsing college websites, you may have seen a handful of schools that say they will meet 100% of demonstrated need for accepted international students. This means they will use their own EFC calculator to figure out how much your family can pay and cover the difference so that you can afford college.
Wow—schools that meet 100% demonstrated need? That sounds great!
Well, yes and no. It’s important to note that even though a school says they will meet 100% of your demonstrated need if you are accepted, you also need to ask yourself if the school is need-aware or need-blind.
Schools that are need-blind, do not take your financial need into account when making their admissions decision. However, only seven institutions in the U.S. are need-blind for international students and they all have low acceptance rates: Amherst, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Minerva Schools at KGI, and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Schools that are need-aware have limited funding and will take how much you can pay into account as one of their factors for admission. This means that your chances of getting accepted to a need-aware school will go down depending on how much financial aid you need. For these schools, it is much easier to receive a smaller need-based aid award than it is to receive a full ride (all expenses covered). A full ride is extremely competitive at any university, regardless of their stated admissions rate.
2. How strong is my application?
Most U.S. colleges and universities have a holistic application process. This means that they look at the different aspects of your application as a whole and take academic and nonacademic factors into account. Recent Class Profiles and the Common Data Set can be helpful in guiding you to this knowledge.
Unlike schools with a single admission test, as may be the case in your home country, there is a lot to think about when it comes to applying to colleges and universities in the US.
This also means there’s a lot you can do to stand out as an applicant: work hard to keep your grades up, register for the most rigorous classes your school offers, practice diligently for the SAT or ACT (when available) and your English proficiency test (if applicable), take on projects you’re passionate about and commit to them long-term, demonstrate interest in the schools you’re applying to (more on that here and here), connect with a mentor you can trust, explore your interests with research or an internship, look for meaningful summer experiences, get to know your teachers, start the process early and write essays that really speak to who you are, essays you can be proud of.
You may also be wondering if your chances of getting accepted at a certain school increase if you apply Early Decision. For more on that, check out this podcast. You should keep in mind that admission officers tend to award aid to international students in the earlier rounds of the application process (Early Decision I/II).
Finally, in order to have a strong application, you’re also going to need an advocate. Ideally, this would be a college counselor/administrator/trusted teacher who works at your school and has experience helping students apply to the U.S.
But we also know this isn’t always possible. If your school doesn’t have a college counselor, try to find someone whom you trust (if possible, an English speaker) to support you with this process. If you’re a student who needs full financial aid, check out this podcast with Joan Liu for guidance on how to help your advocate best assist you. Overall, it’s very important to get to know your advocate. If you’re using the Common App, this person will be responsible for submitting several documents, including (but not limited to) a recommendation letter, your transcript, a profile of your school, and a school report to contextualize your academic profile.
And remember: if you are not accepted or offered aid at a particular school, it is most likely NOT a reflection of how qualified you are as an applicant. When it comes to applying for financial aid, hundreds—if not thousands—of other qualified applicants compete for very limited spots. This is particularly true for U.S. colleges and universities that offer "full rides'' to international students. These institutions are among the most selective universities in the world, and you compete against hundreds to, in some cases, tens of thousands of applicants. Year after year, we see students work incredibly hard to put their best application forward and not get accepted to these highly selective schools. This is why we recommend keeping your options and mindset open, and expanding your options to universities outside of the U.S.
3. Is the school, program or scholarship a good fit for me?
You want to find schools that are a good fit not only financially, but also academically and socially.
Year after year, students apply to institutions in the U.S. that offer full rides—trying to maximize their chances of affordability—when the college or university is not actually a great match nor fit for them (see: 10 Common Mistakes Students Make When Applying to College).
The same goes for scholarships. It’s very unlikely you’ll be awarded a scholarship if you’re not a good match (e.g., applying to a scholarship for outstanding community service when you have limited community service experience). School admissions officers notice when you’re not actually interested in the school or program you’re applying to, and are simply applying as they offer the potential to give you a “full ride.”
Depending on the amount of financial aid you need, your choices in the U.S. may be limited to schools that give the most financial aid. However, even with this limited list, you have choices … and it is important to be intentional with these choices.
4. How much financial aid is available and how many students are competing for it?
If you want to take a reading break, we highly recommend this podcast with Ethan and Joan Liu: Financial Aid Tips for International Students (and Their Counselors).
If you’re ready to number crunch (and will bookmark that podcast for later), you can get a sense of how competitive financial aid is at a certain school by looking at:
the percentage of international students who received aid
the average aid award they received
the acceptance rate (percentage of applicants accepted to the school)
First, take a look at the Common Data Set for a university you’re interested in (or any university you want to know more about). Remember to just type the university’s name and “Common Data Set” on Google and you should be able to find it. Take a look specifically at “nonresident alien” (international student) sections: for example, how many nonresident aliens are in the first year (B2)? What’s tuition (G1)? How much is the average dollar amount of institutional financial aid awarded to undergraduate degree-seeking nonresident aliens (H6)?
Two independent educational consultants, Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy, work through numbers from the Common Data Set every year, in conjunction with speaking with admission offices directly to create some incredible resources. Check out their tables, especially the sheet about Financial Aid for Nonresident Alien Undergraduates. Want a walk-through from Jennie about how to use this table? Listen to this podcast.
While using this helpful table, keep in mind that it does not indicate the maximum aid that a school provides to a student, so it is not a guarantee that the U.S. schools on the list above provide full financial aid.
This is why we invite you to check out the Yale Young African Scholars List of United States Colleges & Universities that Give Financial Aid to International Students. As they mention in their article, the list is not comprehensive, but can serve as a starting point in your search.
For more on merit- and need-based scholarships, check out this Scholarship List that is continuously updated by a team of Independent Educational Consultants. This page and this one can also be helpful for finding merit scholarships.
The effect of the pandemic and policies of the administration change in the U.S.
The data available from U.S. colleges and universities that accept and grant full or generous financial aid packages to non-U.S. applicants is from the 2019-2020 application season and previous years.
Although data for 2020-2021 is still rolling out, the number of international students applying to US institutions is increasing, particularly to highly selective schools (also known as those that give the most financial aid). Here’s some figures for you:
As of January 22, 2021, there has been a 9% increase in the number of international students applying through the Common App (Forbes)
There has been a “record-breaking 17% increase” in the number of applications to “the nation’s most selective four-year institutions, both public and private” (NYTimes, Feb. 20th, 2021)
There has been an increase in the number of international applications received by individual colleges. Two notable examples are Middlebury with a 38% increase in international applicants and University of Pennsylvania with a 50% increase.
There has been a change in the percentage of applicants applying from different countries. According to Forbes, "applications from China are down by 18%" but that is "more than offset" by increases in applicants in other countries such as India (+28%), Canada (+22%), Nigeria (+12%), Pakistan (+37%), the United Kingdom (+23%), and Brazil (+41%).”
Okay I get it, getting aid is competitive. But I still want to see if I can get the financial aid I need for a U.S. school. What should I do?
Here’s a list of 10 action items:
Use Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy’s list to find U.S. schools that offer high average aid awards to a large % of international students. Research these schools and find which are the best fit for you.
Start early and read up about the financial aid process:
Find and connect with your school official or identify a mentor who can advocate for you during this important process.
Reach out to the experts! Message the college or university you are interested in and speak directly with an admission officer.
Pour time, care, and effort into your grades and the message you want to communicate in your application.
Read all the fine print on every college website! Plan ahead for deadlines, requirements, and fees.
Understand the REAL cost of university. Read this article on hidden fees.
Check out these scholarships at universities around the world.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, make sure you have affordable options on your list, especially at non-U.S. universities, and carefully consider your options for staying in your home country.
Do your best to avoid these 10 Common Mistakes Students Make When Applying to College.
Additional CEG Resources for International Students
