So far I’ve been rejected from all schools where I applied for financial aid (all need sensitive except 1; I’m international), but accepted to schools where I wasn’t eligible to apply for aid. This is making me question the impact of financial need on chances. How significant is it? (i.e. is there an equivalent SAT point deduction?)
(Also my parents have nearly no income so the aid amount would be the whole tuition+fees)
For international students with financial need, all institutions other than the small group that guarantee both admission and aid for specific stats, must be considered reaches. It really is that simple.
At the top of the financial aid forum, there is a thread that lists the places that have automatic full ride scholarships. Some of those are open to international students. If your stats are good enough for those scholarships, take a gap year, and apply to those for fall 2019.
Ditto happymomof1: as an international financial aid applicant, all colleges and universities that provide need-based assistance should be considered reaches. There’s a LOT of international applicants vying for a limited pool of money.
A representative of Colby College, about a decade ago, said that his college receives about 1,000 applications annually from international students, with about 900 of them applying for financial aid. And only about 10 financial aid packages to distribute among them. That would have made an international financial aid admission rate of around 1%, at a time when their overall admission rate was about 35%.
Another small liberal arts college (I forget which) said that most successful international financial aid applicants have an ACT score of at least 31, when their mid 50% range was about 22-27.