The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search.
Good news for international students interested in top-ranked U.S. colleges: There may be financial aid for you.
Studying in the United States can be quite expensive for international students, who aren't eligible for federal financial aid programs and who may be charged additional fees for special services and programming. But many colleges do offer some sort of aid to help students from overseas pay for college.
[Follow these steps to start saving for a U.S. education.]
In an annual U.S. News & World Report survey, 806 colleges reported offering financial aid to at least one international student for the 2011-2012 school year. Of those institutions, 350 reported offering financial aid to 50 or more students from abroad—making the schools eligible for the top 10 list below.
Each school on this list is a private institution, and most are located in the Northeast quadrant of the United States. Many are very highly ranked, representing the upper echelons of both the Best National Universities and Best National Liberal Arts Colleges rankings lists. (Unranked colleges, which did not submit enough data for U.S. News to calculate numerical rankings, were not considered for this list.)
[See an infographic of schools that give the most aid to international students.]
Keep in mind that these elite institutions have stringent admissions standards. Students first have to be accepted to a U.S. university to be offered financial aid, and the totals below are averages of what international students received. Not every student at Yale University, for instance, received $53,255; rather, that was the average package among all international students who received aid.
These are the 10 schools that awarded the highest average financial aid awards to their international students for the 2011-2012 school year:
| School (state) | Average aid awarded to international undergraduates | Number of international undergraduates who received aid | U.S. News rank and category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yale University (CT) | $53,255 | 350 | 3, National Universities |
| Skidmore College (NY) | $52,967 | 64 | 43, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Harvard University (MA) | $51,865 | 504 | 1, National Universities |
| Amherst College (MA) | $50,990 | 141 | 2, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Trinity College (CT) | $50,854 | 139 | 38, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Williams College (MA) | $50,591 | 127 | 1, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Dartmouth College (NH) | $48,977 | 251 | 10, National Universities |
| University of Chicago | $48,907 | 58 | 4, National Universities |
| Bates College (ME) | $48,888 | 76 | 22, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Duke University (NC) | $48,391 | 134 | 8, National Universities |
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find additional data on international student enrollment and financial aid, complete rankings, and much more.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2012 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The international student data above are correct as of Oct. 16, 2012.
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