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By the way, i'm totaly confused about the whole finanacial aid terms and what applys to internationals.
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International students do not qualify for federal or state aid: they cannot file the FAFSA (free application for federal student aid) and are not eligible for Pell grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Stafford loans, Perkins loans, PLUS loans, and work-study (a federal program that pays half of the student's wage of an on-camps job).
International students do sometimes qualify for institutional grants, i.e. aid administered directly by the college from the college's own fund. In fact, most aid for international students comes either directly from the college they attend or from their home country. Some of the institutional grants are based on need ("financial aid"), some are based on merit ("scholarships"). In order to apply for need-based financial aid at a college that will consider it, you would file either Collegeboard's Profile application (online) or the International Student Financial Aid Application (on paper). Your college will tell you which form they prefer. At some point, either with the original application or after you get accepted, you will need to complete the Certification of Finances. Your college is legally required to verify your financial resources before they issue your visa documents.
How to find funding? Here's what will NOT work: you CANNOT make a list of your dream colleges and then magically find funding for them. Instead, you need to start out with a list of colleges that you could afford (taking into account the financial aid opportunities there) and then pick from those. Unfortunately, that will dramatically limit your options.
How to find colleges with funding? You could use Collegeboard's
college search engine to get a list of colleges with acting majors who also award some sort of financial assistance to international students (there's a checkbox under "Paying"). Not all of these might offer you enough financial aid to attend, but it's a good start.
If you want more options, many more universities have general theater programs. I can even offer you a shortcut for financial aid there: a majority of the top 20 national universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges (by US News ranking) have a theater program as well as need-based financial aid for international students.
