Financial Aid, Scholarships and...

We don't generally get involved with financial aid applications, but here are some useful tips to get you started, and some other ideas for alternative student revenue streams.
  • Home
  • About
  • Getting Started
  • Application Timeline
  • Picking the right University or College
  • The Elements of an Application
  • Transcripts
  • Recommendations
  • Essay advice
  • SAT and ACT tests
  • The School Profile
  • Financial Aid / Scholarships
  • Should I Pay?
  • Resources
  • Deferred or Wait-listed?
  • Contact
  • News
  • UK Applications
  • Home
  • About
  • Getting Started
  • Application Timeline
  • Picking the right University or College
  • The Elements of an Application
  • Transcripts
  • Recommendations
  • Essay advice
  • SAT and ACT tests
  • The School Profile
  • Financial Aid / Scholarships
  • Should I Pay?
  • Resources
  • Deferred or Wait-listed?
  • Contact
  • News
  • UK Applications

Financing Options for International Students

29/7/2016

0 Comments

 
As you may, or may not be aware, going to university or college in the USA is very expensive - for the kind of institutions you will be looking at we are talking between 50 and 90 thousand dollars a year. This is 'All-Inclusive' if you will, but remember, a US undergraduate course is four years long, so the grand total will be between $200,000 and $360,000.

You may be surprised to learn that there is quite a lot of financial aid money available for international students. Accessing it, however, is highly competitive - and being privately educated in Dubai puts us at the top of no-one's charity list. 

Anyway, I'll explain how it works as best I can, and there is really no harm (other than a lot of forms to fill) in applying. 

Financial Aid
Broadly speaking, universities and colleges in the US take one of three approaches to financial aid for international students, they are either:
  1. Need Blind, Full demonstrated Need – these institutions will offer you admission based on how much they want you – they will then guarantee that they will meet your full demonstrated financial needs in order that you can afford to attend.
  2. Need aware – these institutions will offer you admission based on a combination of how much they want you and whether they can afford to make up any shortfall in your finances so that you can afford to attend.
  3. Need blind, not full need – these institutions will offer you admission but will not guarantee to aid you financially if you cannot afford to attend.
Institutions will let you know which of these approaches they take, and if they really want you, they may well offer you aid.  

How to find Financial Aid
You can find out which institutions have financial aid available for international students by visiting the College Board's Big Future scholarship search page here: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search#!personalinformation

How to apply for Financial Aid
In order to apply for aid you will first need to complete an extensive form about your finances. The College Board has the CSS form available here: https://student.collegeboard.org/css-financial-aid-profile, but ironically, I think you have to pay for it.

When to apply for Aid
If you are applying for aid the time to do so is between the early and regular application deadlines, i.e. November 1st - to January 1st or February 1st (depending on the institution)

It is important to remember:
  • Financial aid is reassessed every year and not necessarily tied to inflation..
  • Financial aid forms are read by an accountant, not by admissions
  • Students are taxed on aid that covers anything other than tuition!

You are more likely to get aid if colleges think you will definitely attend, so if you have somewhere you really want to go, that isn’t a very top tier university, reach out to them personally. Dubai College students are of a very high caliber and would potentially be at the top of second tier institutions' applicant pool, and thus a little more likely to be given financial aid. UNLESS colleges feel that the student really wants (and has the profile to make it possible) to go to Harvard and is unlikely to attend their institution; finances are finite so why waste the time and effort to calculate a financial package for a student who is unlikely to show up. Hence the need for personal contact and reassurances. 

Scholarships
Merit based scholarships are hard to come by, and many will be for athletics – which again are fiercely contested, but these and other academic scholarships can also be found here: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search#!personalinformation 
Merit based scholarships can range from covering the cost of books to a 'Full ride' - which means all costs. These can be applied for each year, and if you are unsuccessful, there is nothing to stop you applying again the following year.  

Please don't...base your choice of institution on a financial package. Consider the broken leg theory (it's a sporting analogy, but is relevant for any kind of scholarship, I suppose) - if you were given a scholarship to play tennis at a university and broke your leg and couldn't play, would you still want to go to that university?

Finally, Get a Job
If you don't get student finance due to your economic position, but it is still going to be a stretch (up to $360,000 remember), there are other ways for international students to minimise costs - the best of which is to get a job at the university at which you are studying. Jobs can range from giving tours to conducting research to being a resident adviser in a dorm and can be done for college credit, free accommodation or cold hard cash. Take this latter RA position - in exchange for being part of other students' support network, and being resident in their accommodation, Resident Advisers are usually given free housing (this alone is worth between $10k  and $15k per year), a small wage and sometimes free food! Add to that a summer spent working in the admissions office and you'll start to see a significant reduction of costs. In addition, the personal growth that this kind of community involvement gives to young people is priceless.
​ 
0 Comments

    Author

    Jonathan Tate

    Archives

    July 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  Dubai College USA Applications
  • Home
  • About
  • Getting Started
  • Application Timeline
  • Picking the right University or College
  • The Elements of an Application
  • Transcripts
  • Recommendations
  • Essay advice
  • SAT and ACT tests
  • The School Profile
  • Financial Aid / Scholarships
  • Should I Pay?
  • Resources
  • Deferred or Wait-listed?
  • Contact
  • News
  • UK Applications
  • Home
  • About
  • Getting Started
  • Application Timeline
  • Picking the right University or College
  • The Elements of an Application
  • Transcripts
  • Recommendations
  • Essay advice
  • SAT and ACT tests
  • The School Profile
  • Financial Aid / Scholarships
  • Should I Pay?
  • Resources
  • Deferred or Wait-listed?
  • Contact
  • News
  • UK Applications