Forbes Asia - October 2018

F

The Paper Chase

A reporter’s guide to inding top U.S. colleges that
can accommodate those Asian students who are not
members of the global inancial elite.

BY QUANZHI GUO

LIKE MANY inancially strained
international students who look
to the U.S. for the best education,
I had to think twice about apply-
ing for inancial aid because
doing so lowers the chance for
admission. Among more than
4,000 degree-granting institutions
in the U.S., there are actually only
ive four-year colleges that are
truly need-blind for international
students: Harvard, Yale, Prince-
ton, MIT and Amherst.
At these schools, the policy has
two crucial parts. First, your ability
to inance your education does not
impact your chance to be admit-
ted. Second, the schools guarantee
that the inancial aid they grant
will be based entirely on need
rather than merit, and they will
make sure they give you enough
aid to inance your education. In
that respect, their policy is even
better than need-blind.
In addition to these need-
blind schools, there are Cornell
and Georgetown. hey extend
their need-blind admissions
policies to international students
but do not meet the full dem-
onstrated need of international
students admitted. Cornell states
that “du e to our limited funds
we cannot provide funding to all
admitted international students
that demonstrate inancial need,”
while Georgetown says it has “a
very limited number of need-
based scholarships.” he cruel
reality: Yo u are admitted but
cannot go to your dream school
because your request for inan-
cial aid is rejected.
It boils down to the fact that
U.S. students have far more op-
tions than international kids. Ac-
cording to a survey of 1 , 100 col-
leges by U.S. News, more than 30
colleges ofer need-blind admis-

sions for U.S. citizens, and more

than 60 promise to meet the

demonstrated inancial need of

accepted students. Coming from

China, I faced a much tougher

challenge. he ive need-blind/

full-need schools are among the

toughest in the world to get into.

For example, Harvard took only

4. 5 9% of those who applied for
   the class of 2021 , and only 1 2%
   come from outside the U.S.
   he competition at many
   schools that take need into ac-
   count was just as tough. While
   colleges work to maintain a
   balance of international versus
   domestic students, the pool
   of international applicants is
   becoming larger and more
   competitive, not just in terms
   of application materials but also
   with regard to inancial backing.
   According to a recent story by
   Caixin, a Beijing-based inan-
   cial news organization, Chinese
   students are spending an aver-
   age of $ 1 00,000 a year to study
   overseas, totaling $ 56 billion.
   hat’s a staggering sum when
   you consider that the average an-
   nual household income in China
   is $ 1 0,220. Still, I knew that re-
   questing aid would signiicantly
   lower my chances.
   Several more inancial
   hurdles confront international
   students. We are not eligible for
   federal student loans, the main
   source of aid for most U.S. stu-
   dents. In addition, due to visa re-
   quirements, of-campus jobs (at
   least those that don’t pay under
   the table) are only available to
   those who have completed one
   full academic year and who have
   a qualifying economic hardship
   or an emergent circumstance.
   It was a tough decision, but
   I knew that even if I exploited

every option, I would not be able

to aford an American educa-

tion at many top schools. In the

end, I decided not to apply to

some schools because of their

aid policies. But in research-

ing colleges, I found that in the

non-need-blind camp, there

are a handful of schools that

meet full demonstrated need for

admitted students despite being

need-aware or need-sensitive in

admissions. In other words, if

you get admitted and request aid,

they will grant you it (though

sometimes they underestimate

students’ needs).

hese schools include Dart-

mouth College, University of

Pennsylvania and the University

of Chicago. Many liberal arts col-

leges also belong to this bracket

and can be more generous. For

example, Swarthmore College,

Colgate University, Davidson

College, Va s s a r College and

the University of Richmond

are committed to meeting full

demonstrated inancial need of

all admitted students, including

those from outside the U.S.

Need-based inancial aid is

not the only hope. Many schools

and organizations ofer limited

scholarships to international

students based on merit, region

or interests. he application is

usually separate and very selec-

tive. For example, Harvey Mudd

College ofers the FIRST Robot-

ics Scholarship, Babson College

ofers the Center for Wo m e n’s

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Scholarship, and We sleyan Uni-

versity ofers the Freeman Asian

Scholarship, which covers four

years of tuition and fees for stu-

dents from 11 Asian countries.

Foreign students can consider

another option. While the price

tag for U.S. education contin-

ues to increase, Germany has

abandoned tuition fees for both

domestic and international stu-

dents altogether. And in many

other countries, especially in

Europe, the cost of education is

heavily subsidized by the state

for all students.

My American education did

not end up being an impossible

dream thanks to the generous

support of my alma mater, Col-

gate, which admitted me even

though I needed inancial aid

and then met 1 00% of my inan-

cial need for four years. hat

gave me the privilege to pursue

work based on my interest rather

than being shackled by crippling

loan obligations.

I was among the lucky few.

OCTOBER 2018 FORBES ASIA | 37

Our reporter earned her degree at Colgate University in New York

State, thanks to the school meeting all of her financial aid needs.