Financial Aid for Intl students.

[akiboy]

I applied to Rice University , UCLA , Virginia Tech. I was pretty confident that I could get admitted into the above institutions as my academic and extracurricular requirements outweighed those stipulated by these institutions. But then I was horrified to find that these institutions do not give financial aid to International students. I was supposed to fund the college fees myself for 4 years! VA Tech also recommended that I shouldn't apply if I cannot fund my education. My question is IF colleges like Harvard , Princeton and Stanford can give financial aid to International students then why not these institutions? I badly wanted to apply to USC Viterbi School of ENgineering(UCal) but my family cannot afford the full tution fees. Even if i get 50% aid from these institutions its more then enough..But no! They do not give aid to international students.


Really disappointed since these colleges were my first choice..So I applied to Duke , Harvard and Williams and some colleges in Canada. Hopefully , I should get admitted.

Sorry about my rant! Just wanted to let out my frustration !

Akshay

 

[Mr.Conley]

I applied to Rice University , UCLA , Virginia Tech. I was pretty confident that I could get admitted into the above institutions as my academic and extracurricular requirements outweighed those stipulated by these institutions. But then I was horrified to find that these institutions do not give financial aid to International students. I was supposed to fund the college fees myself for 4 years! VA Tech also recommended that I shouldn't apply if I cannot fund my education. My question is IF colleges like Harvard , Princeton and Stanford can give financial aid to International students then why not these institutions? I badly wanted to apply to USC Viterbi School of ENgineering(UCal) but my family cannot afford the full tution fees. Even if i get 50% aid from these institutions its more then enough..But no! They do not give aid to international students.


Really disappointed since these colleges were my first choice..So I applied to Duke , Harvard and Williams and some colleges in Canada. Hopefully , I should get admitted.

Sorry about my rant! Just wanted to let out my frustration !

Akshay

First let me say good luck. I applied to Rice (didn't go) and have a younger sister who will be going there next year. It's a great school and I'm sure you'll love it.

Now the answer to your question is very simple: money. Harvard's endowment hit $36 billion this year and they've been averaging something like a 20% annual return on investment- that's alotta money. Now of the colleges you listed, Rice is the only one with a seizable endowment- about $4 billion if memory serves. The others on you're list simply don't have the cash to meet the need. They're both (I'm pretty sure) state public schools, and they consequently HAVE to make sure that all their instate students get as much financial aid as possible, and with the cut backs of recent years that's a surprisingly difficult mission. Heck, the UC's don't offer fin aid to Americans from other states, and to hell with international students.

Now Rice has more money then the other two on your list, but you have to realize that fin aid is pretty expensive. Harvard's projecting to spend $121 million next year on the undergraduate population alone. That's a lot of money, and for whatever reasons, most colleges typically focus on meeting all the fin aid needs all all American applicants before even addressing international applicants needs.

Furthermore, depending on how Rice's endowment is divided up, they might not have that much actually reserved for fin aid. You have to remember that most of the money in these endowments is donated, and people don't just donate nilly willy to these colleges. Almost all the money comes with specific attachments directing it to specific purposes (ie. maintaining the dorms, building a new football stadium, etc. etc.). That means they can't just "move" the money from whatever to fin aid with some serious legal issues. Now Fin Aid usually receives a pretty significant amount of funding from alumni, but you never know. Rice might just have a very small fin aid endowment.

Hope that helps.

 

[akiboy]

Thanks Mr Conley! I was under the impression that USC Viterbi is the center for cutting edge technology and research(I guess it is1) and they must be getting ample funding..ANyways ,I hope I get into the colleges I applied to...I dream of studying in J.F.K School of Government IF i get into Harvard!!


Akshay

 

[Mr.Conley]

Thanks Mr Conley! I was under the impression that USC Viterbi is the center for cutting edge technology and research(I guess it is1) and they must be getting ample funding..ANyways ,I hope I get into the colleges I applied to...I dream of studying in J.F.K School of Government IF i get into Harvard!!


Akshay

Well, the government might direct money in their direction, but by and large that money is going to be used to pay for the equipment, lab space and supplies these centers need to operate, not to financial aid. Furthermore, I find the idea that the US Government would allow research funds be diverted to scholarships of foreigners somewhat incredible. Nothing against you, it's just not what the money is there for.

Secondly, just in case you weren't aware, you might not necessarily be studying at the JFK School if you got into Harvard. You have to remember that Harvard consists of 14 or so very independent graduate and undergraduate schools. The JFK School of Government is a graduate school, as an undergrad, you would enroll in Harvard College (different from Harvard University), the undergraduate school at the university, which is totally independent of the JFK school. Now could you take a couple courses at JFK while at the college? Yes. Will it be were most of your studies are? No. Not that that's a big deal anyhow. The Government department in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is top notch and there is a lot of overlap between the two faculties. JFK is just more focused, and is best for people who already have an undergraduate degree.