The other day I was chatting with parents of an international students who mentioned that many of the students from India come to US universities as these universities are giving ridiculous amount of financial aid probably to meet some target for diversity numbers.
They may wish this to be true but a couple minutes of simple research shows that it’s not. Only a handful of US colleges are both need blind and meet need for international students, and those colleges are ridiculously hard to get into. It makes sense if you think about it. Why would colleges bother to make rates for international students so much higher than costs for domestic students if they’re going to give them enough aid to make it “almost free”? That doesn’t make sense.
I understand if financial aid is given to few extra ordinary students from foreign countries, its fine but if US universities are bringing foreign students in wholesale and giving them financial aid to make it almost free… then who actually is bearing the cost of their education? Is it being paid by other American kids who are denied financial aid as their parents are not poor and paying inflated price or by tax payer’s dollars?
I do think colleges want a diverse student body, but that means more than just admitting a few international students. Who supplies the grant money will vary by college. I think the most generous colleges have endowments that generate a healthy income.
Eighteen-year-old American kids aren’t paying for anyone’s education at expensive colleges, including their own. Their parents pay. And even they aren’t paying the full cost of education. The full pay rate is a percentage of what it costs to educate one student. The colleges make up the difference.