Financial Aid, Philosophy, And International Students

How do US colleges evaluate the international financial aid application?

What follows is my answer to this question that was posed to me on Quora.com.

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If you apply for aid to schools in the US as an international student you need to know that you may significantly hurt your chances of admission to many of the schools you apply to.  Most schools practice what is called need aware admission for international students. This means your application for aid will be used as an admission factor, and in most cases this factor may outweigh all the other factors no matter how great a student you might be. There are less than 10 schools left now that say they are need blind for international students. But even those schools still look to give aid to those international students who will add to the diversity of their class and not simply at the academic credentials. (They do not state this in public, but it is the common practice.)

Most schools in the US now have to gap even US students. What this means is that they do not have enough money to cover the need of US citizens and therefore cannot meet all the need demonstrated on the FAFSA or other financial forms the school may require. International students are looked at, in terms of financial aid, as largely afterthoughts for these kinds of schools. Many schools will not even permit you to apply (or, if they are really cynical, they will let you apply to boost applications numbers but turn you down because you have asked for aid). 

As for the schools that do permit international students to apply for aid you need to be aware that they use the money they have strategically. Many schools give weight to where the student comes from as much or more than the overall academic credentials. Schools wish to have a wide range of countries represented on their profile; therefore, coming from places where they have very few students will increase the chance that you will be admitted and will receive aid.

 However, it may be that the aid they will offer will not cover the full costs of the school (again, this is called gapping). They hope that you might be able to fid additional resources to cover the gap. 

There are lists of schools that provide aid and I will link to one of them here. Again you need to be aware that the data is not as straightforward as it might appear. For example, several of the schools that top the list for aid are what are called United World College schools. These schools receive funds from a billionaire philanthropist, Shelby Davis, to help cover the costs of students who come from one of the 14 UWC schools around the world. Therefore, if you are not enrolled in one of these schools, your chances of receiving aid are not good.

If you look at the list of schools which do provide a great deal of need-based aid you will notice that a significant percentage are women’s colleges. These schools have invested huge sums of money to enroll great international students, mostly from Asia. The reason they do this is to improve their academic profile; typically, these students have testing and overall academic performance that tops those of most of the other students in their overall applicant pool. They are, in effect, paying great international students to keep their numbers of students applying high. (This is cause and effect: because they offer aid, large numbers of international students apply.) Enrolling these students also keeps their academic profile high. I would, if you are applying to schools this year (and female), strongly advise you to look at these schools.

As for the nuts and bolts of the forms, you will need to make sure all your documents are certified, that you have the appropriate tax documents and all materials you might need in order to be considered appropriately. In addition, exchange rates fluctuate so aid amounts may change based on this.

Link to schools with best aid percentages for international students:


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In a subsequent conversation on this issue I was asked why schools are not more forthcoming with information that would be useful for applicants, parents, and educators. As many people have written lately, higher education must, in addition to its goal of providing opportunities for students, succeed, as any other business must. If schools shared all the data they have about admission, aid, and job placement some schools would lose applicants, enrollment might fall, and so would their rankings and brand. Some schools do a good job of providing useful information on websites and in outreach to students. Some don’t. But the rule to follow as a student looking to attend college is to be, as the philosopher Daniel Dennett advises in his wonderful new book, “Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking”, skeptical. Skepticism is different than cynicism. Some great thinkers—Socrates, David Hume, and now Dennett—advise those approaching virtually any topic to do so with a healthy skepticism. This approach encourages an examination of relevant data and with a goal of coming up with a set of penetrating questions based on well thought out analysis. This method of thinking and research applies not just to people looking to attend college but also to anyone who wishes to learn how to learn effectively in the world and not just in a classroom.