Financial aid for intl students [need <$58k net price]

Paying for College
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So I’m a student from Hong Kong (studying in the UK) and I’m looking at the US for unis. problem is that my total budget for tuition and living expenses is around 58,000USD (+/-5%) and most of the more prestigious colleges in America are way above that and I was wondering if anyone could give me a run through of how financial aid/scholarships for intl students work (if any) and any suitable ones they know of. Since there’s not much point going to a lower-ranked US uni if I could get into a much more prestigious UK unin at a cheaper price, is there much point in this?

For context (if its helpful) I’m in Year 11 in the UK (grade 10 for US) and for my GCSEs I’m predicted a 6, a 7, four 8s and five 9s.

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You need to look on each college website. Some colleges do meet full need for all international students. Some colleges give zero financial aid to international students.

Some colleges will be need aware for admissions and some won’t be.

You say your budget for college is $50k something. Is that for all four years or per year.

And why do you want to study in the U.S.

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On your previous thread, you said that cost was no issue and you could be full pay anywhere.

What has changed?

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Are you predicted 7+ in English, Maths, Science, Foreign language, History, and Geography or another social science?

What would you major in?

A 58k budget is really comfortable for most public universities and if you keep going you’d have a good shot at Honors colleges - the reason to choose them over UK universities would be 1°interest in gen eds, ease of “course” switching, minors, majors 2° undergraduate focus (support, class sizes, resources, etc) 3°community&campus life 4° opportunity to get some professional experience in the US before returning to the UK.

Wrt private universities, you could look into some that offer a very different experience from the UK’s, from Trinity (CT) to Wellesley or Bryn Mawr (if a girl) to Olin to Emory.

Eta: if the above thread is correct, you’re a boy so no Wellesley/Bryn Mawr and you’d be applying for Humanities so no Olin. However it means Wesleyan, Pomona, Haverford, Bowdoin, Kenyon, Holy Cross, Carleton - all very strong in the humanities with seminars having 12-16 students, quite different from the UK system, and all need aware so that your ability to pay 55-60k would be a plus in your favor - would be possibilities.

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cost-loss analysis. The UK is a lot easier to get into (you just need to study a lot and read some books about your intended degree) and is cheaper. I have a lot of friends, relatives, etc. in the US and the US also means you don’t need to narrow down yourself so early which is an attractive point and I do wanna study abroad for the experience in itself but
-is it worth spending my family’s (hard-earned!) money on a expensive US education for something of similar value elsewhere
-setting a budget is probably better than throwing money at an Ivy when I could’ve gone to UCL/LSE/Oxbridge for half/a third the cost.

so in a nutshell of a life update:
-yes I will probably still apply to the US and the ivies just to see if I can get in and then I will make a measured consideration
-but realistically since ivies are so unpredictable and are all reaches I’d be looking more at applying at good US unis that aren’t outrageously expensive and are value-for-money

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58k annually

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I think the basic problem you (and many people in your position) face is most US colleges have either no or just a very limited aid budget for internationals, and so getting that aid is very difficult one way or another–either the college in general is extremely hard to get into, or they take into account need for international students and then it is extremely hard for internationals with need to get admitted.

That doesn’t mean it is impossible, but I suspect most of the colleges you would consider as alternatives to your UK options will count as some form of reach for a high-need international. And that is fine if you are OK with a large chance of ending up at a UK option.

Given that set up, I think the next thing for you to consider is whether you want a research university like the Ivies and such, or an independent liberal arts college (which is most different from the UK experience), or some of both. You can then start checking the NPCs to see if these would be in the ballpark for you.

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^ you’re right that internationals needing a lot of aid face an almost insurmountable prospect that’s highly likely to end in failure.
However this applicant is not considered high-need because they have a budget of 50k+.
For need aware universities, it’s excellent (it gets difficult for applicants who don’t have 35k, and high need applicants typically have 10k to 0 - keeping in mind that even in Europe a ~40k income is upper middle class, let alone in middle income countries.)

@2008 : Durham, Manchester, and Queen’s Belfast have a well thought-out “Liberal Arts” degree. AAA or A*AA entrance reqs. I assume you’ll apply to Oxbridge and perhaps StAndrews?

So, you would have to find universities that offer similar academic quality as the UK universities you could get into but would offer adding value: seminar classes, experiential learning, community, US internships etc.
Most public universities and their Honors colleges are open to you (getting into honors typically means a scholarship).
Top LACs beside the couple that are need blind/meet need will also be fine with 50k+ - for what you’re interested in, Carleton but also Kenyon or Holy Cross would really work well.

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I mean my american applications are all reaches and my target/safeties will mostly be in the UK/Australia/Canada. I’m more looking for ambitious colleges that meet needs for int’l students but I would prefer schools that have more than 10% international. But I am planning on applying to a few ivies (I hear Princeton is nicer with financial aid?) because worst thing they can say is no so might as well try. On that note, when schools say they’re ‘test-optional’ or ‘needs-blind’ how true is that?

Also not to vent but what is with the whole US admissions process, in most other places including the UK its just really about doing well in school, getting good grades and maybe reading some books about the specific subject you want to do.

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regarding grades I’m predicted a 9 in English literature, 7 in English language (was one mark off an 8 and based on the actual grade boundaries I got a 9 in the mock but our teachers set the boundary high for some reason), two 8s and one 9 in the three sciences, 9 in History, 9 in Religious Studies and an 8 in ancient history (my teacher and I both think we could get a 9 in the real thing). For languages, I got a 9 in Chinese (in the real thing which I did last year) and a 6 in French.

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There are colleges in the US where you just need average grades and you can get in without test scores or essays or recommendations. Those are not the colleges talked about on here or the ones you are interested in. If all it took to get into an Ivy was good grades a test and reading a few books how on earth would they select a class of 600 students from a 5-6 figure number of applicants? They are looking for the best of the best, and even many of those are rejected.

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Run the net price calculators at schools that provide financial aid for international students before you apply.

https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/financial-aid-estimator

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The Net Price Calculator will only be accurate for international students IF it asks if you are an international student.

In addition, the NPCs not yet updated for when this student will be starting college.

So view those results with a lot of caution.

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Many of these elite schools you are interested in have TONS of applicants who have done the above you listed. They can’t accept all of these students. Essays, letters of reference, ECs allow these colleges to take a holistic view of applicants as the create an incoming class.

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not sure if those work coz it says specifically its only applicable for students from Canada or us

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You can use it as if you were an American student then deduct any federal aid from the financial aid package and recalculate your net costs: that number will be your best-case scenario.
You must do this for every college b3cause each calculates differently.

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View the results even with this…with caution. In addition to being an international student, the NPC are not yet set for when this kid will be starting college.

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not sure if this helps but I’ll be starting 2026 sept

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Net price calculators are now set ( for the colleges that have done so) for students starting college fall of 2024. You are two years away.

IF you decide to try a NPC, use income info for the 2024 tax year because that is what the 2026-2027 financial aid will be based on. Of course, you will be estimating that…it’s only April 2024 now. And costs of attendance will likely change at the colleges. And, you will be estimating total assets as well.

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Exactly.

At a high level, the US has a public university system that, at least holding aside cost, largely resembles the university systems in other countries for admissions purposes, including relative predictability of which undergrad programs will admit you based on your basic academic qualifications. There are some complexities involving in-state versus out-of-state, but even then both of those channels tend to be largely predictable, with the exception of a very few OOS programs and even fewer in-state programs.

But then we ALSO have this system of private colleges and universities that is essentially unique in the world, and the most popular institutions in that private system (and a very few public programs that more or less act like those privates) practice the sort of holistic review that many high-numbers internationals complain about.

But then taking a step back, why are these high-numbers internationals so interested in these particular US colleges? Well, superficially, because they are the most “prestigious”, and also sometimes because if admitted, they have the most generous aid.

But if you really start thinking about that, those virtues depend in part on the very admission system these same people are complaining about.

To summarize a complex topic, these institutions are fabulously wealthy in a variety of ways, and they use that wealth to buy the most famous professors, provide swank dorms and other student services, provide the most generous aid, and so on. All that has made them very desired and prestigious.

But they didn’t get this wealthy by acting like a normal public institution. They got there by carefully cultivating repeat dealings with the socioeconomic elite families of the United States, and increasingly internationally. And that is still an ongoing process, they want to be in this same position in 50, 100, or 500 years, and so they are still carefully maintaining those relationships with elites.

And then they also admit a few really accomplished non-elite kids, which is nice for those non-elite kids. And these days that includes some non-elite international kids. But that is the exception and not the rule, because they need to keep admitting the elite kids to further their long-term institutional plans.

So, non-elite high-numbers internationals simultaneously desire to get admitted, WITH a very generous aid package, to one of these fabulously wealthy US institutions that have ongoing repeat relationships with the global socioeconomic elite, and yet complain about the admissions policies that are all part of how those US institutions created and maintain that sort of positioning in the first place.

And when it is pointed out there are US institutions that have the sorts of admissions policies they would prefer, well, they don’t want THOSE sorts of US admissions, those are no better than what they can already get in their own country.

Exactly.

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