How do I ask for more financial assistance / financing options as an international in the US?

April 19, 2008 10:32 AM

How do I ask for more financial assistance / financing options as an international undergraduate in a US college?

I am now considering my options for university next year. I am an international student (east asian female) from a middle-class family with a pretty big mortgage. I hold a conditional offer from Cambridge Uni in the UK and an unconditional one from Amherst in the US, but I'm favouring Amherst at the moment because of the liberal arts aspect.

I applied for financial aid from Amherst, but they determined that I do not have any need. I suspect that they do not include mortgages in their calculations. The finance office told me that I can do work-study, but I know that the around $2000 I earn per year will not help much to offset the yearly $45000+ tuition my parents have to pay. My family is living fairly comfortably now, but I don't want to put an undue burden on my parents (the tuition will be around 1/3 of my family's yearly disposible income).

Is there any chance of an appeal working, or some loans that I can take from the college? What I've seen mostly is that loans are only made to US students, and I've never heard of an international student with loans in their aid package.

And should I do this quickly before I accept their offer in May, or is there room for discussion after that?

posted by anonymous to education (8 comments total)

Amherst is amazing, you will not get a better undergrad education anywhere in the world IMO. (Unless you know in advance that you want to work with very specialized science equipment, and even then there is a major university in the same town where you might be able to work something out.)

Figure out the finances before you accept.

Talk to the financial aid office or the admissions office about what your options are.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:00 AM on April 19, 2008

During the financial aid seminar I recently attended for the private university I will be attending int the fall, they indicated that unfortunately international students cannot receieve any federal aid, which would be why you hadn't been granted government loans. There was one Korean student who was advised to contact her native country's government or relevant organizations that may assist students who are studying abroad.
posted by Asherah at 11:33 AM on April 19, 2008

By all means, do it before school starts and if you can, before you even accept. They should know that it may be a deal-breaker for you, and you should go in with 1) questions about how the system works 2) a target that you want to reach with them and 3) a good feeling of what you'll do if they won't meet your needs.

But I had to comment about this, based on my own fight with another school that cost less than this (or did when I went:)

...yearly $45000+ tuition my parents have to pay... ...the tuition will be around 1/3 of my family's yearly disposible income...

For real disposible? If that's the case, there's not a lot of leeway from grants from the school based on need. Even if that's their total income, you'll probably find that they think you can quite afford it. At a total income around that level, the financial office bluntly told me that they thought my family could send me and another student to school at full tuition. Wha?? What about all this debt in the house, the business, the... well, they assume you can sell off, refinance, or take money out of any and all of those.
posted by whatzit at 5:42 PM on April 19, 2008

When you say disposable, do you mean disposable (like their income after taxes) or discretionary (income after necessities)? Some people use disposable to mean discretionary. Either way, though, even if you were a US student, you would probably not get offered much aid--only unsubsidized loans. You could always look into private loans. Judging from everyone I went to school with, few students at US universities come out of school debt-free unless they're extremely gifted and get funding or their parents bankroll the entire thing.
posted by fructose at 6:14 PM on April 19, 2008

*and I went to a school where tuition was less than $8k year.
posted by fructose at 6:15 PM on April 19, 2008

Sorry to tell you, but US universities and colleges just don't offer up a lot of assistance for international students.

Unfortunately, even with your folks' housing costs, you're doing a whole lot better than a lot of other international students.

You can take out private loans with a U.S. citizen co-signer- but they're at a pretty high interest rate. International students I know use CitiBank for their loans.

Good luck.
posted by k8t at 11:28 PM on April 19, 2008

Also, just FYI, it is THE NORM as Fructose says, in the U.S. for students to take out loans to pay for university.

The way it works is that all students fill out a document called FAFSA which looks at parental and student income based on taxes. Then an "expected family contribution" is calculated. This assumes that the family will take out loans for this.
posted by k8t at 12:43 AM on April 20, 2008

And Amherst-specific:

Your folks probably filled out a financial form which CERTAINLY had something about debt on it. (Having gone through the application process with an international student, there wasn't a school that didn't ask).

And here's what Amherst says:
"In determining the family contribution, Amherst considers your and your family's income, taxes, living costs, assets, debts, and in certain situations, personal or financial circumstances that may affect your ability to pay for college. The size of your family and the number of children in college are major factors as well. In the case of divorced or separated parents, we expect each parent to submit financial information."

Looks like Amherst doesn't use private loan companies, rather it extends 10-year loans to its own international students. A 10-year loan is REALLY REALLY short, IMHO. Most people take a much longer time to pay off their student loans.

Personally, I'd think about Cambridge. It'll be cheaper, certainly.
posted by k8t at 12:57 AM on April 20, 2008