<p>International applicant pool is extremely competitive, and asking for financial aid will decrease the acceptance rate at any institution EVEN if the school is not need-aware (but, not necessarily need-blind).</p>
<p>Only way to get a good handful of thick envelopes is applying to a wide range of schools. Obviously, applying to HYPSMC exclusively is not a good battle plan. Lesser known universities (top 30 - 60) and a lot of LACs do not get as much international applicants, so the odds of being accepted(assuming that the applicant’s credentials are superb, exceeding the norm at the institution), are relatively high. Those schools may not sound so impressive to the folks back in your motherland, but it’s better than not getting a single acceptance letter. </p>
<p>Yes, being an international sucks.</p>