Thank you everyone for your kind advices. I will apply ED to Barnard this fall but I will have many safety schools ready for the regular round. My school is one of the best IB schools in Europe and every year many students from my school get in US colleges even with financial aid. I have never seen anyone who wasn’t able to attend college just because of their financial status. Our counselors do a good job I think. Nevertheless, I know it’s very hard for an international student to get full financial aid from a need-aware university, but I will try least in the early rounds.
The challenge is that Barnard is need aware for international students. Your ability to pay will be a factor in the admissions process. If your family makes less than $10,000 then you need virtually the full cost of attendance to attend Barnard
Limited funding for international students means that there is a finite amount of money allocated to finance international students. The school is using their own money- there is no money coming from the US federal government or the state of NY to fund international students.
Let’s say for the sake of simple numbers the school has 100,000 to fund international students
The school is going to leverage how to fund the list students possible who align with the institutional mission.
Since cost of attendance is $70k,
Does Barnard fully fund 1 student and fund one other students whose financial need can be covered by the 30,000
Does the school fund 2 students who need &50k each
Does the school fund 10 students who only need $10k each
Does the school fund 20 students who only need $5k each
These all all of the things that colleges take into consideration when funding international students.
@yellowzebra - You mention in Post #20 that counselors at your school do a good job - if I am reading this correctly, you have access for assistance through your current school and they have experience with students attending schools in the US. I would recommend you work with your counselors regarding the financial piece too, as they should know from experience the likelihood of aid awards for students from your school and can craft your list around facts/affordability.
@sybbie719 has explained it in a nutshell. Limited funds means just that. There is not enough money to find everyone that Barnard would like to fund. You are in the category that is not need blind for admissions as an international student. So those limited funds apply to you.
If Barnard is your first choice school, go ahead and apply ED. IMO,it is likely you will not be accepted with an inadequate package, given what you have said about your family finances. Since you cannot get a student visa to even get into the country without showing specifically how you will pay for all of your transportation, education and living expenses, there is no sense in accepting you if you can’t afford to come here. You would have to be worth Barnard shelling out more than $300k over 4 years for you to be accepted.
Barnard pledges to meet full
Need but so if they can’t meet your needs with the limited international funds they have, they won’t accept you.
But apply and see. You could be amongst the accepted and funded international students.
Just have affordable back ups!