Financial Aid, is it possible?

Mikalye
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 06:39:14 +0000

There are two terms that you may see bandied about. “Need-Blind” actually has nothing to do with Financial Aid, ti is an admissions term and refers to whether the applicants ability to pay is considered in any way in making an admissions decision. There is a separate term, which is “Full Need”. This is a financial aid term indicating that the school guarantees to meet all of its students full financial need for four years.

Many schools are one but not the other. For example schools like Cornell, or NYU, or Tulane are need-blind but not full need. Your ability to pay will not be a factor in admissions, but they make no promises that if accepted, you will be able to afford to go. Whereas schools like Columbia (and I think Clemson) are need-aware, or need-sensitive in admissions (if you need a lot of money that may impact the admissions decision), however they are full need. So, once you get in, they do guarantee that they will ensure that you can afford to go.

The six schools listed in the first post are the US schools that are BOTH need-blind, and full-need for internationals. There are other schools like that outside of the US that are like this, so whereas NYU in New York is need blind but not full need, NYU in Abu Dhabi is both. As is both the National University of Singapore, and the Yale-NUS. Good luck.