University-College Funding
Most of the Universities and colleges in USA provide financial aid to international students according depending on their academic merits and necessities. The type of financial aid and the amount varies based on university, level of study and department. The availability of funds are more likely to get in the field of Physical Sciences, Biological sciences, engineering rather than course like social sciences, humanities and management studies. Moreover, the funds and assistantship is easily available in graduate studies rather in undergraduate.
Let us see the types of financial aid are provided by the university-college funding for Undergraduate and Graduate Program:
Aid for Undergraduate Program:
Each educational institution has its own funding policy which is generally available from the university/college website or profile. The student who requires financial aid for the undergraduate studies has to submit financial aid application and bank statement along with the institution’s own financial aid forms and Foreign Student’s Financial Aid Form. These forms are provided by the college. The administration of providing financial aid is governed by College Scholarship Service of the College Board. The major information asked in these financial aid forms are as under:
- Your personal total annual income
- Your parents total annual income
- Your average annual living expenses
- Information about your and your parents assets
- Other sources of funding available for your studies other than that from the University
Your University’s international student office is the best source for financial aid for an undergraduate Aid. Around 10% of international undergraduates receive financial support from their host institution, which includes a reduction in the amount of tuition fee. Talk not only to the admissions office but also to people in the particular academic department in which you are going to study. Sometimes scholarships are offered according to departments.
Most of the scholarships, grants and loans which are available in USA are restricted only to the citizens of USA. According to NAFSA i.e. Association of International Educators, less than 20% of financial aid for international students comes from the sources of USA. However, if the student is not getting any type of financial aid from the university/college at the time of admission, most of the Indian student manages to get some kind of financial aid from the university after one or two semester. So, you should not worry much about the funds if you can manage your expenses for at least one year.
Aid for Graduate/Post graduate Program:
The student who intends to seek financial aid for their graduate study has to fill their requirement for financial aid at the time of submitting the application form. There are various types of financial assistantships are available to the international students. These aids includes scholarships, fellowships, grants and assistantship.
Around 41% of graduate student manages to get financial support from their host university. At times, international graduate students have better chances to get graduate, teaching and research assistantships as compared to the student from USA. Getting assistantships are the excellent opportunity to make graduate education more reasonable for international students.
With an assistantship, apart from receiving financial support, you can also do part-time work in teaching, research, or other professional areas along with earning your degree side by side. The experiences you have during your assistantship will prove helpful you in your future career.
Along with that you will also find more funds available for PhD programs than for master’s programs and, similarly, more funds are available in the sciences rather than in social sciences and humanities. Moreover you’ll find more money for academic programs rather than for professional programs.
While we're on the subject, the chances of receiving financial aid from the host institution increases in your second year of studies.
Fellowships:
For a graduate student, a merit scholarship is called as “fellowship”, and it is awarded by universities or by other organizations. Chat to your host institution about various opportunities of “fellowship”. Fulbright Scholarships are awarded to around 4,700 graduate students over the world every year. Visit www.iie.org or contact the nearest U.S. embassy for more details.
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