Hi, I’m looking forward to apply to Stanford as an international student.
I understand that financial aid is a factor for admission for international student, and according to their website, if I don’t request consideration when applying, I will not be able to do it during my whole undergraduate.
That been said, I live on my own (with my partner) and have a stable job as a Software Engineer, and I think I might be able to pay the whole tuition, however adding the expenses of living in California (maintaining both me and my partner) may be too much for me.
I’m also worried by the fact that a F-1 visa prohibits me from working even part time off campus during the first year. That situation might led me to get a private loan to assist to Stanford anyway, and asking permission to work part time off campus afterwards.
Financial aid from Stanford would be extremely helpful for me in this situation.
My question is:
Can I apply to Stanford asking for financial aid, and in the case of getting rejected, apply again without asking for financial aid?
Are you applying for admission as a graduate student, or as an undergraduate? If you are a grad school applicant, you need to check Stanford’s policies about funding international grad students. They may be significantly different from the policies about funding undergraduates.
In either case, in order to get your student visa you will need to present evidence that you can cover all of the costs of your education and living expenses for at least the first year. For your partner to be able to accompany you with an F2 visa, you will need to be legally married, and you will need to present evidence that you and your partner together have resources enough to cover your partner’s full costs as well.
@jym626, Based on your comment I infer I can reapply the next year, right?
@happymomof1, I’m applying as an undergraduate student.
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you will need to present evidence that you can cover all of the costs of your education and living expenses for at least the first year
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Just in case, do you know what kind of evidence they require? I could present a contract with my current salary, however I wonder if they’d accept that if I plan to quit during the first year on Stanford.
If you do get aid, wouldn’t your financial aid be calculated using that income? You would probably get a lot less financial aid than you actually need, right? What could happen is that even if you were admitted and even if you got enough aid, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford it without the income.
If you don’t use aid, you will need to show that you have $55,000 USD in hand, or already approved loans, or you will not get a visa to study here.
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That wouldn’t be a problem for me. I can show $55,000 USD in savings. I plan to live with my savings during the first year, and start working afterwards.
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If you do get aid, wouldn’t your financial aid be calculated using that income? You would probably get a lot less financial aid than you actually need, right? What could happen is that even if you were admitted and even if you got enough aid, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford it without the income.
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You’re right. According to Stanford website, they seem to calculate financial aid based on family financial circumstances:
Based on that, I guess they will calculate financial aid based on my parents income, which are much lower than me. As mentioned above, I plan to live with my savings during the first year, and then start working again to cover most of my expenses. A private loan could be useful to me in case I’m struggling a bit.
It would be the ability of the family (your parents And You Combined) to pay. How in the world could you work enough to pay $55K/year when you are going to school full time?
I can answer one question from @Erinsdad A former colleague of mine is running a well-regarded start-up in san francisco. one of their best coders/developers is being paid $120,000 a year. Part-time. And while attending college.
A degree from Stanford will take you FOUR years, not one. You need a way to pay for ALL FOUR YEARS (and yes, I’m yelling…because you seem to want to ignore this important fact).
Look…your chances of getting accepted to Stanford are in the 5% range…which is about the %age of international students accepted. Being full pay will increase your chance of acceptance extremely minimally. And if you can’t pay for years 2, 3, and 4…yOU are wasting $55,000 on year one.
There is NO WAY for you to work enough on a student visa to fully fund your college costs fter you exhaust your savings.
So…I stuck with my suggestion. If you really require need based aid to attend Stanford, or any college for that matter…apply for need based aid.
You are being very short sighted not to apply for aid given you do NOT have $200,000 to fully fund your college education here.
@ErinsDad My family will not be paying for my education nor helping financially in any sense.
I’m pretty confident I can earn more than $55000 per year working part time as a Software Developer. The issue is that I have to ask the university for permission to do that kind of job.
As I said on the first post, I think I might be able to cover everything. Still some help from Stanford can benefit me a lot.
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I’m pretty confident I can earn more than $55000 per year working part time as a Software Developer. The issue is that I have to ask the university for permission to do that kind of job.
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Your visa won’t allow that.
And many software companies will not hire int’ls here on visas because of fear of proprietary info.
You won’t even get a visa w/o showing that you have the money in the bank EACH year…not just once.
What about your partner? What visa will he/she have? He/she won’t be able to work here either.
@southernhope is that person American? if so HUGE difference. Many hi-tech companies will not hire int’ls, not too mention that an education visa doesn’t allow for that kind of employment.
If they don’t like you enough to fund you according to their aid formula, you shouldn’t expect to get in the next year. Why don’t you complete your undergrad and use your money/borrowings/earnings to pay for MS there. MS is not all tht hard to get into there.