Correct, your S won’t be eligible for any federal financial aid. So if that $24K included the $5.5K student loan or any work study (it’s too high to include a Pell Grant), you would have to look at the net cost of attendance (COA) before deducting those items.
If the EFC of $24000 per year number is from Princeton’s NPC, then it means P is giving your family a grant of about 61,000 = 85000 - 24000, not a FAFSA aid, not a loan.
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Thanks for explaining. So given that he qualifies. 24k per year will be the tution fees.
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The bill from the school to you consists of the tuition (~$58,000), room-and-board and fees (if any) lump together, and you would pay what is not covered by the grant.
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Keep in mind that the NPC is not accurate for international applicants. You can use it to get directionality, but your actual costs, if accepted, could (and likely will) be higher.
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And this is true only at schools that meet full need for international students. The list of such schools is short.
@sk_ks_1000, for such schools (including Princeton), it means they will be affordable to you.
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That 24k would cover tuition AND room and board, although as was mentioned above, you would also have to cover the amount of any federal loan and work study award (since as an international student your son isn’t eligible for them but the NPC doesn’t know that.)
Please note that every college has their own NPC and will give different results from the same data that you provide.
Princeton is known to be one of the most generous colleges for need-based financial aid, which is why their NPC is a good one to run first — because that will show you the minimum cost. Other colleges will very likely be more expensive for you —but you have to run the NPC for each college to find out.
Please note that if your son qualifies for merit aid at various colleges, his costs could go way down. Merit aid is not based on income, but I believe it may be limited for international students. Note that the Ivies do not give merit aid to any student—international or not.
It’s complicated, but it’s great that you are looking into this early!
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This does not seem right from the past answers
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That’s because you mentioned UCLA and GTech, as well as “Ivies” in general. UCLA and gTech are public universities that primarily serve their state’s students. Ivies are all very different (although they’re coming closer in terms of financial aid and as for vibe, alas, as long as they’re affordable, your son won’t have the luxury to eliminate any of the 8 possibilities even if one college is a betrer fit than the other…)
At most colleges, he’ll be compared to Americans for his academic record, and then will be moved to the international pool for financial aid - and at need aware colleges, this stqge can be pretty brutal.
The above colleges are need blind/meet need for ALL admitted students and consider students based on their record. Only these, plus - I checked before getting back to you- Pomona, specifically for applicants in your son’s situation. They only admit the best in the world though. But it means your son can apply to these 8 and compete against the best from the rest of the world, with no difference made between him and other incredible applicants.
Pomona is a very intellectual college that’s part of the Claremont consortium - think a bit like Oxford and its colleges, all next to one another. One, Harvey Mudd, focuses on Engineering&Liberal Arts; McKenna focuses on Social sciences; Pomona covers all the traditional research disciplines; Pitzer Social sciences and social justice; Scripps empowers women.
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For need based aid. It might vary for admissions.
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They’ll use his transcript, ie., evaluate him against other American transcripts. There may be a second stage where internationals currently in the US are compared.
But since his record is based on a US school it’ll be compared to what they expect from American schools and whatever context for the school (exam-based, blue ribbon, Title I, etc.)
He won’t be compared to applicants with records from his country of origin because it’s almost impossible.
24k is the minimum you’d be expected to pay, generally including tuition, fees, housing&food (“room&board”), books and miscellaneous expenses.
If that is affordable, you can run the NPC on every college from the list above, see which ones return similar numbers, explore them for fit (Brown and Dartmouth are polar opposite, and Amherst is quite different from Bowdoin…) and choose one for early decision (may be called REA or SCEA or ED. These 3 categories have small differences.)
These colleges are considered extremely generous so even at need aware/meet need colleges you shouldn’t expect as much. In addition, even for them, the numbers are likely to change a bit.
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Correct. While these colleges are need-blind for international applicants, OP’s son is still international applicant from an admissions perspective, although his application will be read by the AO covering the state and his academics and activities will be viewed in that context.
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I wanted to hear the answer which you are saying. That he will be treated similar to American applicant. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case.
Though all of these colleges says that they don’t differentiate in this basis on their websites. It appears from all other answers in this forum that this is not correct.
Is there someone here who was involved in the college admission process. Working or even retired now. Their insight will matter a lot. Please clarify.
Basically the question is - is he in the international pool or US pool. As from statistics we are clear that # of US students are more than all other countries combined in any of these colleges
He’s an international attending a US school.
(Op worried, as an example, that their son would be compared to Indian applicants; his record won’t be compared to that of a kid presenting a CBSE transcript for instance. )
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I understood the question, and responded accordingly.
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I am.
@skieurope also knows.
There are different layers to this.
- need blind/meet need for all applicants:
These are specific universities with a unique policy whereby qualified applicants won’t be denied for financial reasons AND will be provided with sufficient aid to attend if applicable.
Your son will be compared to kids from his HS and from HS similar to his.
Then there’s a small step wrt other non residents attending US schools (especially if your son is from an over represented country).
Then again your son is treated the same as all admitted students for financial aid.
The issue is that 90% qualified students are denied.
BTW Pomona is explicit in that they do not ask or check nationality if the student is attending a US HS.
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need aware/meet need: how much you can pay matters for admissions. So, your son may be admitted by Admissions but Financial aid may consider he’s too “expensive” and thus he ends up being denied. How much the college wants him will also play a role and being able to pay ~25k is a positive because many internationals can afford 0-10k. Of course, many, many, many are full pay…
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need blind/ don’t meet meet: the applicant may get in but may not be able to afford the university because there’s no financial aid for internationals. However, some universities offer merit scholarships. That usually means a high GPA and a high test score.
Next message about PA because it’s a complicated state, unfortunately.
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He’s in both.
He’s attending a US school so is in the US pool academically. His competition, so to speak, are students who attend US high schools and more precisely students from his school and/or that type of schools.
Then theres a subset if he’s part of a group that’s over represented. So if there’s an oversupply of, say, Sri Lanka kids applying from rural US high schools they won’t admit them all. So there might be a subpool of international over represented applicants who made 1st cut.
The same process happens in many ways -when the best students from everywhere apply, Admissions need to cut and cut and cut among all qualified applicants.
Then for financial aid he’s in the International pool. Here, things are harder - and an admitted student may get denied for financial reasons. This is very common for kids whose parents can’t afford to pay anything.
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Pennsylvania is one of the worst states financially, but unless I have this wrong (this is technical and not my area of expertise so CHECK with a specialist lawyer or see if a local law school offers consults) it does consider your son as an instate applicant because he attends a PA school AND you’ve initiated a green card application. In addition, I think you may be eligible for a PHEAA grant if your income is within the limits.
So, your son is considered the same by PA public universities for admission.
PA is complicated because it has 2 “public” systems:
-state-related: Penn State system (University Park, Behrend, Altoona, Harrisburg, and other branch campuses), Pitt (Pittsburgh and branches), Temple. They’re part public but mostly private; state residents get a discount, sort of like NYS residents with Cornell’s contract colleges. The flagship is Penn State University Park. Even with a discount, it’s quite expensive, and there’s very little financial aid or merit aid. The only merit aid is 5k for students admitted to Schreyer (one of the best honors colleges in the nation) but no full tuition scholarships :(.
Students who don’t attend straight away may choose a “2+2”, ie., start at a branch campus and finish at the flagship, like California CC->UC… but branches are much much more expensive than CaCCs. PA CCs lead to PASSHE schools.
- public, state system: PASSHE schools - West Chester, Shippensburg, Bloomsburg, Millersville… These are the true public universities for the state of PA. They’re more like regional state universities or “directionals”. The new governor has a plan to make them affordable for most residents.
In addition to this, PA has about 200 colleges, some truly topnotch: UPenn, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, Lafayette, Dickinson, Bucknell, Lehigh, Gettysburg…
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Thanks for taking time to explain so well.
Just did not catch below parts.
What is this about? I am from welll… an over represented country India.
Are you referring in general to the hard filter criteria for good schools?
At the handful of “meet need/need blind for internationals” colleges, imagine there are 100 Indian students in the process of getting their green card who attend US HS and passed 1st cut. Well, they won’t all be selected even if they’re academically qualified.
Same thing for Boston Latin students and straightA extraordinary trumpet players and winners of the science fair.
There may be many criteria based on institutional priorities, regional diversity, etc.
And citizenship is just one factor.
When 25,000 people apply for 2,000 places, and almost all are qualified… many things come into play. Many moving parts. Your son will be in the same situation as all, meaning odds are he won’t get in - 95% won’t- and he won’t know why. Itsnot a matrer of who has the highest GPA or the highest number of APs.
Ultimately so many factors come into play after 1st cut, none of which you can control, that you shouldn’t worry about it. All your son can do is be the absolute best version of himself.
My recommendation is that you and your son run the NPC on each of these highly selective colleges, read the Princeton review’s Best Colleges and the Fiske guide, go visit if you can, join their mailing list, figure out which one is the best fit, and apply early (REA/SCEA/ED) to that one, preparing RD applications.
If you’re unsure, pick Pomona since he’ll offer geographical diversity (to a certain extent: PA is less represented there than CA or OR but it’s not Alaska or Maine) and they guarantee that citizenship is not a factor at any point if the student attends a US HS.
So, your son just finished sophomore year and is about to start his junior year at a Pennsylvania high school. He currently has a 4.0 and had taken some AP classes. Is that correct?
Has he taken the exams?
UCLA and GTech are out of the picture but they would also be if you were permanent residents, because they’re unaffordable.
You’ve got 2 excellent flagships, Penn State and Pitt, which unfortunately are very expensive (* ) but at least should consider him instate for admissions and tuition.
Then Temple, which offers merit scholarships.
(* probably 35-40k direct costs.)
Schreyer essay topics are published in July (they’re one of the main factors in decision) and these applications open August1.
Then you have your ED/REA/SCEA choice from one of the “meet need/need blind for all” universities, due November 1.
Then you can apply to universities with top merit scholarships that match your stats, usually with a Dec1 deadline.
Then you have to try your luck with various “need aware/meet need for internationals” universities as well as universities with merit scholarship competitions open to internationals - UPenn, Northwestern, Stanford, WashU stL, Emory, Williams, Haverford, Lafayette, etc.
In short, there’s no reason to despair. Your son should keep his grades up and do as well as he can academically and out of school (volunteering, music/arts, job… rollerskating, knitting, rock climbing, anything of interest). He should enjoy HS and know he’ll land on his feet at the right college for him. In fact, he may even have severam affordable choices and may be dealing with an embarrassment of riches Spring senior year, as long as he designs a reasonable list. 
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