Yes, especially having experience working with international students like your son. And they’ve been giving you lots of great advice.
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This may not be the correct forum but please advise on the private loan options for H4 kid.
Is your student preparing for the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®)? His test (for students planning to go to college in fall 2026) is coming up this October 2024.
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In the United States for an international family…it’s my opinion private loans will be hard to get. Lending institutions want to be sure they will be able to collect on the loans when the time comes. Internationals can go back to their home countries and the lending institution wouldn’t be able to do anything to collect.
In my opinion, your option for private loans would be the country where you hold citizenship…if they will provide these loans for students wishing to study in another country.
Since you have lived here a long time, you could ask at the bank or credit union where you have an established relationship.
How much in loans would you need?
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Around 100k. Or atleast a minimum of 50k
For all four years…or per year.
Why would you need 50k?
Is 24k not affordable (ie., if your son is one of the lucky ones and gets into one of the universities that meet need, do not have a separate international pool for FA, and are exceptionally generous)? Is PSU unaffordable from income&savings?
A college graduate can reasonably pay back about 30k over 10 years. That’s why federal loans are set up the way they are and 27k the amount students can borrow for 4 years of college. After that, the debt morass kicks in.
If you want to borrow 5-6k per year for him, I believe your own bank or credit union may be possible, but amounts like what you’re citing are just not possible because it wouldn’t be reasonable.
You might want to read this thread. There is also an older one…same topic.
I always make the same suggestion…if you plan to borrow $100,000, your replacement will be at least $1200 a month for 10 years or so. If you really think you can do that…start putting $1200 in the bank every month…right now. See if that’s sustainable for you. If not…think again.
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A good investment, especially if your son is strong at math, is to have him prepare for the PSAT. If he scores in the top 1-2%, he would grt lots of scholarship opportunities.
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Yes, but it has to be the PSAT/NMSQT taken in the correct sitting/year.
I’d connect with the guidance office of the high school. Some high schools make this test widely available to the entire class. Our high school only seated a handful of students for the test, so if the parent wasn’t aware and pushing for a spot students missed the opportunity.
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I hope OP can clarify whether their son will be a junior in the Fall (
PSAT) OR a senior (
too late).
If a junior who makes NMSF, it could help with the costs at PSU or Pitt even if they only give 2k, and it would provide alternatives at universities that provide full tuition scholarships.
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Junior in the fall. So not too late.
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100k in total.
For good stats (GPA/SAT/ACT) there are schools which will offer good merit to bring the cost down to $30k-ish. But they won’t be the ones you would call ‘good’ or have prestige. (although they are perfectly good!)
With a 3.9 GPA and 34 ACT, my D went to Alabama for under $30k per year all in. AP credit allowed her to triple major. Others graduate early or take an MA/MS.
Others possibilities: Mississippi, South Carolina, Arizona, Miami OH, Iowa State (possibly). And others!! Plus some smaller LACs in the midwest that aren’t as brand name as others. An Indian international’s son is at Wooster for c.$40k I think??
Of course its not Ivy League etc, but if you need money, these kinds of schools will ‘buy your kid’s stats’ (kind of dislike that phrase but it’s also correct!).
So maybe a mix of
- Ivy places that offer full need to internationals (e.g. Princeton)
- plus some auto merit places (e.g Bama)
- plus some others where merit might be possible?? (Pitt, S Carolina)
- plus places where need might be possible (e.g. Lehigh???)
Then you can review admissions and financials and decide on loan amounts then.
I am not anti loan, in fact would have taken a small (<$10k ) to cashflow my D to go to Denison. She chose Bama with no loans…but $100k is a lot of money.
Good luck.Lots of amazing knowledge and advice on this site.
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I don’t understand why you are planning on a 100k loan. Can you explain?
From my perspective, the loan is a 2nd step, if plan A (top universities with need blind/full need FA) doesn’t work and if plan B (PSU/Pitt) proves too expensive and/or in case of an admission that is a bit too expensive thus requiring a loan equivalent to the 5.5k federal loan.
You can’t plan first for unaffordable.
The most important part of a list is 1) having 2 suitable safeties (affordable and liked well enough) and 2)applying to affordable colleges as per NPC that, in your case, will be indicative but not reliable, hence the loan to bridge potential gaps.
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I second the advice to have your son study for the PSAT, which is a “Preliminary SAT” that is given once a year and that students take in the fall of their junior year of high school. Students who do very well on this test can become a “National Merit Semi-Finalist” or a “National Merit Finalist” or a “National Merit Scholar” and this can open doors to significant merit scholarships that don’t depend on family income. (Although this will not be true at the Ivies and other very popular schools). But it’s still worth studying for and trying to do very well on.
Also, any studying he does for the PSAT will help him for the SAT, which he will also want to do very well on because it will increase his chances of admission at many colleges (although some colleges are still “no-test” or “test-blind” due to Covid or their own
policies). Note that he does have a choice in taking either the SAT or the ACT, but that is for later. Right now, studying for the PSAT is a great idea.
Note that to get to be a Semi-Finalist or a Finalist or a Scholar, students have to do very well compared to the other students in their state of residence. Each state has a “selection index” that the student has to meet or surpass, and that varies by state. Pennsylvania has one of the higher ones, so he will have to do better than if he lived in another state (for example, South Carolina.) Here is some information about it:
PSAT Score Needed for National Merit Scholarship (prepscholar.com)
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This thread really makes me feel my privilege as a US parent from the midwest - no pressure to pay exorbitantly for prestige and put our long term finances or my kids in jeopardy because it simply doesn’t matter for the career prospects of my kids (engineers) with perfectly good in state options.
Do you want to chase prestige because you think it will matter for his career prospects in his citizenship country? If so, are you sure that is still the case for the field your son wants to study? There are some surprisingly good alumni networks, particularly of Big Ten schools like Penn State.
What does your son want to study? What are his long term goals?
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I have been reading through this thread for a while, trying to think about what the right options would be.
First of all, I think that you need to be cautious about loans. One issue is that since you are not a US citizen and not a permanent resident of the US, obtaining a loan in the US could be at best uncertain. It is possible to get part way university and then discover that you just are not able to borrow enough money for your son to complete his degree. You do not want this to happen. Loans can also pile up quickly in some circumstances and get to an untenable level.
I agree with others that your in-state public schools are very much worth considering. If you can get in-state status in Pennsylvania that could be a big help.
One thing that I wonder about is “Canada”. Your son’s stats are superb. In Canada, university admissions is heavily focused on academic merit. The most famous universities in Canada (Toronto, McGill, UBC, and Waterloo at least for computer science) tend to be expensive for international students because they can be (one exception being that U. Toronto has a tiny number of very good merit based scholarships for international students). Someone is willing to pay it. However, there are a lot of very good universities in Canada, and many of them are relatively reasonably priced, and the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar is quite favorable for those of us who live in the US.
I also agree with others that there are many universities and colleges in the US that are very good, and it is not necessary to focus on the top ranked schools. Your son is at least so far competitive for admissions at the famous schools that meet full need for international students. However, these top ranked schools are very competitive for admissions, and even the strongest students cannot count on being accepted to any of them. There are are lot of other very good schools that do offer merit aid, in some cases even for international students.
In terms of attending a university that is not highly ranked, there are hundreds of very good schools in the US. I thought that I would just mention some examples from personal experience regarding not needing to attend a highly ranked school. I have a close family member who got her bachelor’s degree (with merit aid) from a university that is not in the top 100 in the US, and then got two related master’s degrees from an Ivy League school. I have another close family member who got her bachelor’s degree (with merit aid) at a university that is not ranked in the top 100 in the US, and who is currently getting her doctorate at a university that is ranked in the top 5 in the US for her major. I have another close family member who got her degree at a small university in Canada that most people in the US have never heard of (and that is reasonably priced for international students) who is about to start her fully funded PhD at a “top 20” university in the US (for her specific major). A student can do very well with a bachelor’s degree from a very good university that is ranked somewhere in the 100 to 200 (or even 300) range, and some of them offer good merit based financial aid even for international students.
Probably the first priority is to find two universities that you know that you can afford without loans and that you know your son will be accepted to. If this is not possible due to your unusual situation, then you might want to find a longer list of universities where enough merit aid is at least likely to allow the school to be affordable without loans.
I do also wonder what your son wants to study, what sort of college or university would be a good fit for him, and what his long term goals are.
Finally, I understand that it can be frustrating that you son is doing so well in high school, and yet the future is so uncertain. However, your son’s superb results in high school are very likely to help him in a big way. We cannot be sure at this point quite how this will turn out. He might end up accepted to a famous and highly ranked university that meets full need for international students. He might end up accepted to a good “top 150” university with strong merit based aid. He might end up doing something else. However, it is very likely that his hard work and good results up to now are going to help very substantially one way or another.
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Thanks for taking time to answer and encouraging so much.
The big problem is that even in tier 2 (one after ivy) he will be treated as international student. The selection will be difficult.
Think top 200 student from their country competing with him.
Any university outside PA even in US will not treat him in OOS category but international category. Previously someone mentioned that I am splitting hair when talking about OOS vs international but this is not the case. Say Georgia Tech, he won’t be in a pool for OOS kids. (Reason I am saying is he knows several kids(GC/citizen) in his schools who went to Georgia Tech whom he compare that they are about his level or mostly lower). Basically, bar is raised very high for him everywhere.
He want to pursue a management/business degree. Though very good in science he don’t want to go for Computer Science or traditional engineering course.
Basically if he is applying for any college outside PA and also many good colleges in PA (e.g UPenn) he is like fresh out of boat kid from outside US despite his whole life legally here.
This is a question in general to all.
What is his options in Oxford UK or other good colleges in Europe(France etc)? Question again boils to whether for them too he is from US or again in a pool from India.