Financial Aid and Scholarships

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The cost of attendance at US colleges varies widely, from below five thousand dollars per year to more than eighty thousand dollars per year (considering out-of-state tuition). Within this wide range, we can see a pattern if we compare the cost of attendance at private and public schools. Private colleges are more expensive compared to public colleges; according to an article by US News, private colleges cost an average of $35,676, while their public counterparts cost $21,629 a year for out-of-state tuition and fees. Therefore, for many students, especially international ones, attending private colleges or even public ones can be financially challenging. However, it is important to understand that the costs of private colleges are often just the sticker price, meaning that the actual cost that students pay is often lower than the advertised cost due to scholarships and financial aid. While public colleges also provide generous financial aid, it is generally targeted toward domestic students. The point I am trying to make here is that US colleges can be affordable to anyone.

The financial aid that colleges provide can typically be categorized into two categories: need-based aid and merit-based scholarships.

1. Merit-based scholarships: Merit-based scholarships are the more common type of aid that colleges provide. These can be based on your high school academics (more common), artistic talent, athletic abilities, or other categories of merit or their combination. Colleges usually have many different kinds of merit scholarships, and the amount of scholarship given also varies. These usually have a separate application in addition to the admissions application based on which students are selected. Besides the scholarships provided by colleges, there are many external organizations and foundations like the Stamps Foundation which provide merit scholarships covering certain schools.
2. Need-based financial aid: As the name suggests, this aid is based on the financial need of the student. Applicants apply for it by providing their financial profile by submitting CSS (or FAFSA or ISFAA), and colleges assess their financial situation and provide aid accordingly. Depending on the college, the aid may cover all of the student’s needs or only some portion and can be in the form of grants or loans.

There are often some terms floating around when you talk about need-based aid. Let me try to explain a couple:

• Need-blind: If a college is need-blind, it means that your admissions decision will be completely independent of whether you can afford the college or not. However, this doesn’t mean that if you are accepted, the college will provide you with enough aid to be able to afford it. While this might not sound that useful, there are often situations where students qualify for other scholarships that can help them cover the rest of the expenses. One thing to keep in mind for international students is that many colleges are need-blind for domestic students while being need-aware for internationals. So, you would want to check if a college is actually need-blind for internationals too — there are only a few though.
• Full demonstrated need meet: A college that offers to meet 100% of your needs will provide you with enough financial aid to supplement the amount you and/or your family can spend so that you can afford the cost of attendance at the college if you are accepted. While this sounds great (and it is) colleges often take into account the applicant’s ability to afford the college when deciding whether or not to accept them in the first place. And again, like need-blindness, this policy might also differ for domestic and international students.

So, when you need financial aid to be able to attend a college, you should ideally look for colleges that are need-blind while promising to meet 100% of your needs. However, for international students, this list might be very small — only five to my knowledge: Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, and Amherst.

Besides these, colleges often offer aid based on some combination of need and merit, or other factors like legacy or place of residence (though need or merit might be considered there too).