Are you an international student? Do you need financial aid?
Sorry. It’s a tough spot to be in.
Many colleges don’t offer any aid to international students and scholarships from independent organizations are limited.
What else can you do?
Refine your college list.
Not every college offers good options, but there are a number of great colleges and universities that give away millions of dollars every year to help international students each year.
How do you find out about them?
I’ve done the work for you. After scouring hundreds of college websites, I’ve put together a list of 65 schools that stand out by offering generous aid to international students.
Here are the results:
Full Tuition Merit Scholarship Schools
These scholarships offer full tuition scholarships to international applicants based on student merit. Students apply for these scholarships at the time of their application.
Carleton College – Northfield, Minnesota
Full Tuition Scholarship (up to six per year)
Carleton also gives away partial tuition scholarship. In total, Carleton gave 26 international students aid last year totaling $2,589,268.
Rice University – Houston, Texas
Allen International Scholarship
Rice students are also eligible for need-based aid. Rice gave away $1,828,575 in aid last year to 75 international students.
University of Miami – Coral Gables, Florida
The University of Miami also offers partial tuition merit-based scholarships. Last year the school gave away $3,318,202 to 118 international students.
Washington and Lee University – Lexington, Virginia
Washington and Lee University also offers need-based aid. Washington and Lee gave away $3,640,194 last year to 73 international students.
Need Blind Schools Committed to Meeting 100% of Demonstrated Need
These schools do not consider your ability to pay as a factor in your admissions decision. Once you are accepted, they will cover your full need whether that be a partial scholarship or full tuition.
Harvard University – Cambridge, Massachusetts
530 students, $27,866,340
Yale University – New Haven, Connecticut
350 students, $18,639,436
Princeton University – Princeton, New Jersey
409 students, $16,397,219
Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Cambridge, MA
374 students, $16,854,797
Dartmouth College – Hanover, New Hampshire (UPDATE 9/21/2015: Dartmouth has just announced it will no longer be need blind for international students beginning with the Class of 2020. Likely Dartmouth will still offer some of the best aid for international students, but it can no longer technically be considered need blind.)
251 students, $12,279,562
Amherst College – Northampton, Massachusetts
146 students, $7,655,287
Other schools with generous aid for international students
These schools give away millions of dollars each year to help international students. Most of these schools will take your ability to pay into account in the admissions process but once accepted, these schools offer highly qualified applicants generous aid packages ranging from partial tuition scholarships to full tuition grants.
Bard College – Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
196 students, $7,617,880 total
Bates College – Lewiston, Maine
84 students, $4,081,959 total
Beloit College – Beloit, Wisconsin
111 students, $2,143,021 total
Bennington College – Bennington, Vermont
46 students, $2,024,000 total
Brown University – Providence, Rhode Island
207 students, $8,400,000 total
Bryn Mawr College – Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
157 students, $6,179,834 total
California Institute of Technology – Pasadena, California
26 students, $1,124,845 total
Clark University – Worcester, Massachusetts
165 students, $3,993,130 total
Colby College – Waterville, Maine
82 students, $3,957,995 total
Colgate College – Hamilton, New York
114 students, $5,360,736 total
College of the Atlantic – Bar Harbor, Maine
52 students, $2,164,213 total
Colorado College – Colorado Springs, Colorado
70 students, $3,155,913 total
Connecticut College – New London, Connecticut
57 students, $2,747,848 total
Denison University – Granville, Ohio
153 students, $3,879,380 total
DePauw University – Greencastle, Indiana
$5,090,458 total
Dickinson College – Carlisle, Pennsylvania
133 students, $4,429,897 total
Franklin and Marshall College – Lancaster, Pennsylvania
159 students, $5,951,714 total
Grinnell College – Grinnell, Iowa
157 students, $5,655,157 total
Hamilton College – Clinton, New York
66 students, $2,975,464 total
Hampshire College – Amherst, Massachusetts
87 students, $1,924,573 total
Hendrix College – Conway, Arkansas
$1,687,347 total
Illinois Institute of Technology – Chicago, Illinois
592 students, $10,703,818 total
Kenyon College – Gambier, Ohio
58 students, $2,304,722 total
Knox College – Galesburg, Illinois
$2,976,508 total
Lafayette College – Easton, Pennsylvania
103 students, $3,859,836 total
Lawrence University – Appleton, Wisconsin
110 students, $2,222,784 total
Macalester College – St Paul, MN
222 students, $7,647, 111 total
Middlebury College – Middlebury, Vermont
129 students, $6,313,628 total
Mount Holyoke College – South Hadley, Massachusetts
448 students, $15,480,183 total
Oberlin College – Oberlin, Ohio
146 students, $4,343,742 total
Ohio Wesleyan University – Delaware, Ohio
149 students, $3,368,998 total
Reed College – Portland, Oregon
45 students, $2,080,424 total
Sarah Lawrence College – Bronxville, New York
$2,592,487 total
Skidmore College – Saratoga Springs, New York
80 students, $4,281,849 total
Smith College – Northampton, Massachusetts
168 students, $7,339,206 total
Soka University of America – Aliso Viego, California
164 students, $5,308,880 total
St. John’s College – Annapolis – Annapolis, Maryland
39 students, $1,229,271 total
St. Lawrence University – Canton, New York
155 students, $5,939,516 total
St. Olaf College – Northfield, Minnesota
$5,309,947 total
Stanford University – Stanford, California
187 students, $9,088,919 total
Swarthmore College – Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
56 students, $2,604,476 total
Trinity College – Hartford, Connecticut
146 students, $7,446,464 total
Union College – Schenectady, New York
82 students, $2,706,410 total
University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
332 students, $14,245,353 total
University of Richmond – Richmond, Virginia
128 students, $5,628,674 total
University of Rochester – Rochester, New York
328 students, $6,538,139 total
University of Southern California – Los Angeles, California
221 students, $4,254,535 total
Vassar College – Poughkeepsie, New York
92 students, $4,445,049 total
Wabash College – Crawfordsville, Indiana
53 students, $936,950 total
Wellesley College – Wellesley, Massachusetts
114 students, $5,417,075 total
Wesleyan University – Middleton, Connecticut
83 students, $4,270,370 total
Wheaton College (MA) – Norton, Massachusetts
103 students, $2,344,486 total
Williams College – Williamstown, Massachusetts
80 students, $4,373,650 total
Worcester Polytechnic Institute – Worcester, Massachusetts
350 students, $8,148,755 total
Yeshiva University – New York, New York
133 students, $3,209,689 total
Hopefully this list provides you with a good place to start in your college search. There are a number of other schools that also offer substantial aid to international students.
Check as many college websites as you can and contact the financial aid departments directly to ask questions.
There is a lot of aid out there available, and if you look hard enough, there is a good chance you’ll be able to find some!