<p>What it means when a school is need aware for admissions is that your ability to pay is taken into account when the school is deciding whether to take you or not. Most schools are need blind in this country but also don’t tend to meet need. THey accept students, offer what they want to in each case, and it’s up to the student to come up with the rest. They gap. There are a number of schools that do meet need or most of it for their students, and in this group some are need aware because they don’t want to make offers when the chances the student can come are small since they can’t afford it. For internatonals, this is particularly the case, because they CANNOT come without showing that they can pay. I believe the school fills out a portion of the student visa and there is information required on the form showing how the student is going to pay for his education and stay in the US. If the numbers are not going to work out, why bother to accept the student. So they just reject him.</p>
<p>So international with need at such schools have to have a profile that the school wants badly enough to meet the need, or in most cases, the applicant will be denied. </p>
<p>“Worth applying” is up to you. IF you are way up there in your stats, test scores, grades, then give it a go. If you are not, it’s probably a waste of time, especially coming from countries taht send a lot of kids to the US. That can be a factor too, as schools do tend to like diversity. </p>
<p>So for Bowdoin, if it is need aware for internationals, you’d either just be turned down, no explanation given, or accepted with a financial aid package based on the formulas Bowdoin uses to determine what your family should pay, not what they want to pay. You can accept or decline if you are in that stuation, and can also try to negotiate more money, one reason why schools prefer to flat out reject in these cases for internationals if the money clearly isn’t there.</p>
<p>I recommend running your numbers through Bowdoin’s NPC which is pretty accurate unless you have a family business or some other odd thing that is not reflected in the questions asked of that calculator. If it appears as though Bowdoin will calculate your family’s contribution to be more than the $15K budgeted, it is an additional strike against applying there, because there is not even an agreement on what the school and you define as affordable. They aren’t likely to budge, so if your parents truly cannot come up with what the school deems what you should be paying, yes, it 's a waste of time. Whether the school is even going to accept you and offer what they feel is the adequate award is even a small shot, but at least the possibility is there.</p>