OK, so good news, I believe Rochester is meets need for Internationals. They also have one of the highest International percentages among US colleges. And from their latest Common Data Set, they have at least a decent budget for International aid.
On the minus side, I would not describe it as a huge budget, which is relevant because Rochester is need aware for Internationals. Specifically it was just over $19M. For comparison, Harvard, a need blind for Internationals college, was over $53M. And Harvard actually enrolled fewer Internationals (268) in that CDS cycle than Rochester (383).
OK, so how does Rochester do this? Well, first, a lower percentage of Rochester Internationals get aid in the first place. This is an estimate since I am comparing four-year numbers to one-year numbers, but it looks like approximately 66% of Internationals at Harvard are getting aid, whereas it is more like 31% at Rochester.
And then the average aid amount is a lot lower at Rochester too–about $41K, versus $75K at Harvard. Part of that could be a somewhat less generous assessment of need, but at that big of a difference, I think it is a safe assumption that Rochester specifically admits fewer Internationals with really high need, so it can spread around its limited International aid budget to attract more Internationals with only low-to-medium amounts of need.
OK, does this mean Rochester admits NO Internationals with really high need? Impossible to tell from this data, but I wouldn’t assume that. I would just assume it is no more than relatively rare. Unfortunately, though, I also suspect this is not stopping a lot of high need Internationals from giving it a shot.
OK, so Rochester’s International acceptance rate overall was 12%. But my guesstimate is that to get its percentage receiving aid down to 31%, the acceptance rate for Internationals with need would have to be less than half that, so under 6%. And then to get the average award to be that low, the percentage of high need Internationals accepted would probably have to be more like around 3%, and it could be less.
OK, so to be in the top 3% of high need Internationals applying to Rochester is a daunting task. Like, 32 out of 33 are going to be rejected.
And I do think it makes sense that not a lot of high need Internationals would get straight to that result in ED, meaning Rochester could prefer to defer a lot of high need Internationals to RD to make sure it was skimming off the 3% it really wanted.
Still, that doesn’t mean it NEVER happens that a high need International is so clearly what Rochester wants that it will admit them ED. I just wouldn’t count on it happening very often.
And I also highly doubt in such cases that Rochester would not admit such an applicant RD as well. So I am skeptical that there would be any advantage to such an International applying ED.
But all that said, if Rochester is your top choice, since it is meets need you can probably go ahead and apply ED. I just think you should understand that it is a very rare high need International who gets into Rochester at all. And then if you are the kind of high need International who gets into Rochester ED rather than being deferred, they almost surely would take you RD as well.