How to Get Financial Aid for International Students

We’re going to talk about universities in the US that say they offer up to 100% financial aid to international students. Whether you qualify depends on a number of factors, like your household income, how much you can actually afford in tuition, and in some cases even what car your family drives. Some universities ask that question in the financial aid form.

Need-Aware Universities

Many US-based universities are need-aware, which means that the minute you ask for financial aid in your college application, you may be put at a disadvantage.

Student A and Student B

Let’s take an example. Say you are student A, with a profile around 99 percent and a very good college application, and you’ve indicated on your application that you need aid. Now take student B, who has a slightly lower profile, maybe around 85 percent marks, but has indicated that they don’t need aid. There is a good chance that student B will be given admission over you, even though your profile was more academically sound.

Need-Blind Universities

Then there are need-blind universities, which are the silver lining in this whole situation. These are colleges that don’t pay attention to whether you can pay for college or not. They are interested in your performance and capabilities as a student. In short, as long as you get admitted, they say they will cover up to 100% of the tuition fee and living expenses if your family cannot pay that amount. I want to cover some of the need-blind colleges in the US, and we’ll start the list with one of the most prestigious universities and a dream college for a lot of students, Harvard University.

Harvard University

Up till last year, Harvard’s threshold for family income was $75,000, but this year they have increased it to $85,000. This means that if your family makes less than eighty-five thousand dollars per year, they will cover 100% of your tuition fee. They’ve also stated on their website that they’ll cover the tuition fee as well as living expenses, so you could be paying little or nothing out of pocket for a quality education at a university such as Harvard. The only thing you have to do is apply for financial aid and fill out the CSS Profile along with your college application.

Amherst College

An interesting one on our list is a liberal arts college, Amherst College, located in Massachusetts. It has an acceptance rate somewhere between eight and nine percent, so it’s comparable to the Ivy Leagues and other elite universities in the US. It’s known for degrees in math, economics, computer science, and many more. Their admission policy is need-blind for all applicants, whether you’re domestic, undocumented, or international. They care about the achievement, talent, and promise that a student shows, and they want to invest in you and your capabilities. With their need-blind policy, they’ll cover up to 100% of demonstrated need, which means the $66,000 tuition fee and $15,000 in living expenses can be zero for a student who needs this amount of aid.

CSS Profile

To determine your family’s affordability, Amherst College requires all students to fill out the CSS Profile. Specifically, they look at the amount of taxes your family pays, your household income, your household size, your assets, your liabilities, and in short what your expenses look like. A good example is a sibling who is also going to college at the same time as you. Amherst College will consider that your parents have to pay tuition for two children, which is a huge burden on them, so they may give you a little more financial aid to make up for it.

Yale University

Next up is another Ivy League university, Yale. It’s nice to hear that a university with a cost of attendance upwards of ninety thousand dollars has a need-blind admission policy for all students, irrespective of their immigration status. Yale requires you to fill out the CSS Profile in order to apply for this need-based financial aid. Many universities that provide need-based aid require the CSS Profile, which means your application needs to be flawless. It cannot have silly mistakes, and it cannot have mistakes just because you didn’t understand the process. All of your taxes, all of your documents, and being ethical about your family’s income are extremely crucial factors. As a student you only get one shot at applying to colleges, so you might as well do it right and under the right guidance.

Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College stands out because it became need-blind only last July, so it’s fresh on the list. It’s a liberal arts college located in Brunswick, Maine, in the northeast corner of the United States. It’s known for its majors in government, politics, econ, math, biology, computer science, and more.

Georgetown University

This is a controversial one. Georgetown University says that it’s need-blind for its applicants, but when you go through the fine details on its website, page after page, it says that they have limited spots for international students. So they do cap the number of international students they admit, but they still describe themselves as need-blind. It’s a private university in Washington DC and it’s known for its majors in biology, math, econ, marketing, business, computer science, and many more.

Brown University

That finishes the list of five universities, but I also want to put Brown at number six. Students applying for the fall 2024 intake may not be able to take advantage of this, but Brown recently announced that it will be going need-blind from the fall 2025 intake onwards. Students who are just entering class 11 can potentially add it to their college list.

Mistakes to Avoid

A few things to keep in mind. The CSS Profile is different from your Common App college application. They’re not connected, and the CSS Profile has different deadlines. It does not get submitted automatically just because you submit your Common App. You have to submit it separately and apply willingly. It’s also not free. Submitting to the first college costs $25, and after that it’s $16 per college, so this adds up if you’re applying to 10, 15, or 20 universities. It’s a cost you’ll want to keep in mind.

Lastly, if you submit your college application without indicating that you need aid and without submitting your CSS Profile, you generally cannot do this later on. It has to be done along with your college applications. If you forget or decide not to, there’s usually no going back, and colleges typically won’t give you aid, especially if they admit you and then you ask for it.

So before you finalize your list, decide whether you need aid, indicate it on your application, and submit the CSS Profile alongside it.