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I can’t go to law school without financial aid but I am non-resident foreigner and do not have social security number.
I noticed that I can not apply for FAFSA and found out that some schools have special way to apply for financial aid for international students.
My question is, do I need to apply for fin. aid to all schools that I applied?
(I applied last week so no school made decision yet.)
And, is there something I need or can do for schools that do not indicate what international students should do?

It would help a lot if you had someone in the U.S. who would be willing to be a cosigner for student loans. In the event that you don't pay the loans, they would be held fully responsible, so this would have to be a relative or close friend.

poslhs wrote: And, is there something I need or can do for schools that do not indicate what international students should do?

Ask them.

International students are not eligible for any kind of assistance provided by the Federal or State authorities of the US.

Most of the top-schools have provision for need based assistance which is applicable to all students (Check Berkeley, Harvard, Chicago etc.) . But this is catch-22 situation for international students as far as VISA is concerned. In order to get your F-1 you have to demonstrate that you have the financial resources to study/reside in the United States but your need based assistance application would have to demonstrate your absence of such resources. So this path needs to be tread carefully.

One course of action would be to actually wait for acceptance from the school and then start the correspondence for any commitment of any assistance you could receive upfront. Then add this amount to your personal resources.

im_blue wrote:It would help a lot if you had someone in the U.S. who would be willing to be a cosigner for student loans. In the event that you don't pay the loans, they would be held fully responsible, so this would have to be a relative or close friend.

I am in the same situation as OP. I have a relative who is finishing B-school and will be working in the US after graduation. Would she be able to cosign?

Great Expectations wrote:

im_blue wrote:It would help a lot if you had someone in the U.S. who would be willing to be a cosigner for student loans. In the event that you don't pay the loans, they would be held fully responsible, so this would have to be a relative or close friend.

I am in the same situation as OP. I have a relative who is finishing B-school and will be working in the US after graduation. Would she be able to cosign?

As long as she's a permanent resident or U.S. citizen, and her credit score is decent, I believe she can cosign your loans. Of course, you'd have to get private loans from banks, since federal loans are not available.

Here's one example:
"The co-signer must be a US citizen or permanent resident, with good credit and income history, who has lived in the United States for the past two years."
http://www.internationalstudentloan.com ... l_student/

im_blue wrote:

Great Expectations wrote:

im_blue wrote:It would help a lot if you had someone in the U.S. who would be willing to be a cosigner for student loans. In the event that you don't pay the loans, they would be held fully responsible, so this would have to be a relative or close friend.

I am in the same situation as OP. I have a relative who is finishing B-school and will be working in the US after graduation. Would she be able to cosign?

As long as she's a permanent resident or U.S. citizen, and her credit score is decent, I believe she can cosign your loans. Of course, you'd have to get private loans from banks, since federal loans are not available.

Here's one example:
"The co-signer must be a US citizen or permanent resident, with good credit and income history, who has lived in the United States for the past two years."
http://www.internationalstudentloan.com ... l_student/

She's not a permanent resident. I am still investigating exactly what my options are so I still have other rocks to look under.

Thanks for the help.

.

spece212 wrote:International students are not eligible for any kind of assistance provided by the Federal or State authorities of the US.

Most of the top-schools have provision for need based assistance which is applicable to all students (Check Berkeley, Harvard, Chicago etc.) . But this is catch-22 situation for international students as far as VISA is concerned. In order to get your F-1 you have to demonstrate that you have the financial resources to study/reside in the United States but your need based assistance application would have to demonstrate your absence of such resources. So this path needs to be tread carefully.

One course of action would be to actually wait for acceptance from the school and then start the correspondence for any commitment of any assistance you could receive upfront. Then add this amount to your personal resources.

This seems like a good idea. The problem is that I want to apply for need-based loans but since I just sent out my applications, I will only receive my acceptances & merit scholarship offers past the need-based scholarship/loan application deadlines. Does anyone have advice on how I should go about this?

Would applying for need-based loans cause trouble when I apply for F-1 student visa?

Thanks.