(easy jazz music)
- Hi, I'm Gabe with Crimson Education.
Today we're gonna be taking a look at the real cost
of a US education and ways that you can afford it,
regardless of where you come from.
We'll be wading through all of the rumors
and providing you with all the details you need
to know about making the world's best education affordable.
The fact is it may be more attainable
than you originally thought.
So where should you begin with college cost?
There's so many rumors around about the huge tuition fees
and crippling student debt you garner
when you attend a top-tier institution.
The fact is going to college in the United States
is expensive on average, but there are a lot of options
for financial aid and scholarships
that you may not yet have heard about.
At places like Harvard, 70% of students
receive some form of financial aid.
Additionally, 60% receive some form
of need-based scholarship.
And 20% don't have to pay anything to attend Harvard.
In cases where universities have lots of money
and are relatively generous with aid, like Harvard,
it can actually be more affordable to study abroad in the US
than to stay at home.
It takes a combination of strategy and luck
to attain that sort of aid.
But before we get into ways
to alleviate some college expenses,
let's take a look at some of the costs
at top-tier US colleges: tuition, living expenses, and all.
In the US, there are four major types of universities:
Ivy League universities, private research universities,
liberal arts colleges, and public universities.
The fees at each type will vary, even within each category.
So let's take a look at the full-fee-paying prices
at some of the top US colleges.
At Columbia the cost of attendance per year
is approximately $79,000 without financial aid.
Now a big leap over the other side of the country,
and you have one of the world's biggest
and best public universities, UC Berkeley.
If you can get in there, the total cost of attendance
is about $34,000 US, which is still steep,
but no more expensive than full-fee-paying tuition
in countries like Australia or New Zealand.
Then there's other Ivy League schools,
like Harvard, Yale, Princeton.
The average cost of attendance between them
is about $67,000.
When you combine these tuition fees with the cost of living,
you can expect the cost of going to college in the US
to increase by about 10 to $20,000 per year.
But remember, these are just the costs
without any financial aid or scholarships.
And there are a number of ways to alleviate these costs.
Often students and their families aren't expected
to contribute the full amount,
unless they can actually afford it.
US universities offer a number of options
to help make education more affordable for students.
One of those options is financial aid.
Financial aid can factor into your college application
based on how a school approaches providing the aid.
And there are two possible approaches
in the US college system: need-blind, and need-aware.
So what does that actually mean?
If a school is need-blind,
it means it does not take your financial situation
into account when considering your application.
While it does not fully guarantee full financial support,
it means they can't knock you back
because you can't afford to pay.
There are only five US universities that are need-blind
for international students:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, and MIT.
Now on to the next topic, need-aware.
If a school is need-aware,
it means it will take your financial situation into account
when considering your application.
All US schools, apart from the five mentioned before,
are need-aware for international students.
That means that your financial need
may directly impact your college application.
A number of colleges in the US guarantee
that they will provide what's called full-need
if you are admitted.
Regardless of need-blind or need-aware,
these colleges will ensure your financial needs are met
in order for you to enroll as long as you're admitted.
A school can be full-need and need-aware at the same time,
which will present you with a dilemma.
They can knock your application back
if they don't think they can afford to admit you.
The ideal school is full-need and need-blind,
so they can't judge your application
based on your financial needs, but they'll make sure
you can afford to go there if they admit you.
However, as I mentioned earlier,
there are only five colleges in the US
that offer need-blind admissions for international students:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, and MIT.
US colleges determine your financial aid
using a method called expected family contribution, or EFC.
EFC is basically a scaling of the total value of aid
offered in relation to your family's assets and wealth.
So essentially, the more your family earns,
the more you pay.
And conversely, of course, the less your family earns,
the less you pay.
The basic principle of determining an EFC
is to make education more accessible
for those who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Acquiring financial aid can be difficult,
not just because some schools are stingy,
but also because you have to fill in lots of forms
when applying to college, unless you don't wish
to apply for financial aid at all.
In addition to the standard college application forms,
like the common application,
you need to make sure you fill in
a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA form.
So the FAFSA forms are used to rank your EFC
on a numerical scale.
The EFC scale starts at zero and ends at 99,999.
If you're at the lower end of the scale, you'll pay less
than if you're at the other end of the scale.
Now let's take a look
at each Ivy League school's expectation and limits
for family contribution and how much you can expect to pay.
First, we have Brown and Cornell.
At Brown and Cornell the same logic is applied
when determining your EFC.
For students from families with total parental earnings
lower than $60,000 and assets less than $100,000,
no parental contribution is calculated towards EFC,
making easier to get lots of aid.
At Columbia families with total incomes of less then $60,000
and what Columbia calls typical assets
are not expected to pay a dime towards tuition
and on-campus living costs.
So if your family's calculated total income
falls somewhere between 60,000 and $100,000,
Columbia offers a reduced parental contribution.
And anything above that, unfortunately,
you'll expect to start forking out some serious cash.
At Dartmouth, another Ivy League, free tuition is offered
if your family is making less than $100,000 per year
and possesses what they called a standard amount of assets.
Now to Harvard, which I'm sure you'd expect
to be prohibitively expensive
for anyone who's not a member of the elite.
But in fact, Harvard is a need-blind school
and is pretty affordable for lower-income students,
even more so than some other Ivies.
If your family earns less than $65,000 a year,
then Harvard won't ask you to contribute at all
towards the cost of attending.
If your family's income falls between $65,000 and $150,000,
you'll be expected to contribute up to 10% of your income,
depending on your individual circumstances.
If your family makes more than 150K,
then you're gonna have to contribute
proportionately more than 10%, depending, again,
on your individual circumstances.
The final definitive amount you're expected to contribute
will be determined by the assets your family possesses.
And obviously, families with significant assets
must pay more than families with fewer assets.
Finally, at UPenn the system is a bit different.
If you earn less than $40,000 a year,
your family will be expected to pay little to nothing
for tuition and living expenses.
If your family's income is between 40 and 70K,
you may be asked to pay around 5% of the total cost
while the rest will be covered by aid and work study.
Additionally, 46% of UPenn's undergraduate students
receive need-based grants from the university.
At Penn most undergraduates from families
with incomes of less than 180K
are receiving some form of grant assistance.
Above that threshold you can expect to be paying a bit more.
A particularly exceptional case among the Ivies
is Princeton, where families making less
than a whopping $140,000 a year
will have all tuition costs fully covered.
Additionally, families that make less than $65,000 a year
will benefit from free room and board.
And now to Yale, Harvard's nemesis.
If your family earns less than $65,000 a year
and possesses what Yale calls standard assets,
then you won't be expected
to make any financial contribution whatsoever
towards your education.
Alternatively, if your family earns
between 65,000 and $200,000 a year,
your parents will contribute a percentage
of their yearly income on a sliding scale
that begins at 1% just above $65,000
and moves towards 20% at the $200,000 level.
So you can see there are ways to bring the crazy cost
of US college down, way down, sometimes right down to zero
if you demonstrate that level of need
and receive an offer of admission to a school
that offers aid at that level.
The way these schools operate isn't all that different
from a government-supported, fee-paying structure,
such as the Commonwealth-supported places in Australia.
Instead of the government,
we have the universities themselves
reaching into their deep pockets
to make their fees affordable for students
based on circumstance.
The second option to help curb
expensive US college tuition fees
are scholarships offered by the colleges, the US government,
and outside or independent groups.
Scholarships may be merit-based, need-based,
or based on circumstance at colleges.
Characteristics like background, ethnicity,
country of birth, and many others can have an impact.
Much like financial aid,
you don't have to be an American student
to gain a scholarship.
You don't have to be the smartest or best student either.
You just need to fit the model of the student
that the college is looking to award the scholarship to.
There may very well be a scholarship out there
that fits you well.
Let's start with merit-based scholarships,
which are pretty self-explanatory.
If you display excellence as an applicant
of outstanding merit,
you put yourself in line for a scholarship.
But excellence and merit in what regard?
Excellence can come in many forms
and so can merit-based scholarships.
Firstly, you've got the scholarship for academic excellence.
These are the most common of US college scholarships.
Academic scholarships can be funded by the college itself,
the federal, state, or local government,
or by private organizations.
To get an academic scholarship you have to be excellent
in some academic area or excel broadly,
though it will depend on where you're applying.
Generally speaking, you'll need to have excellent grades
and/or SAT or ACT scores.
Secondly, you've got the sports scholarships.
Merit in sports can only be awarded at colleges
who play in Division I and II sports.
So if you're trying to gain admission
into your dream college on a sports scholarship,
they need to meet those minimum requirements.
Schools in Division III are not allowed
to award scholarships just for sports.
Sports scholarships are funded by the major bodies
that regulate college athletic programs,
including the NCAA, the NAIA, and the NJCAA.
The NCAA is the largest and provides over $2.9 billion
in athletic scholarships annually.
Depending on the school you're trying to get into,
sports scholarships can be fiercely competitive,
and obviously, you'll have to be great at sports.
Sports scholarships won't come easy,
and there are many rules
about how students can receive them.
Having said that, if you're in a position
to attract interest from prospective colleges,
seize that opportunity with both hands
as they are some of the best options
for national and international students.
Thirdly and lastly in the merit-based section,
there's the average academic performance scholarships.
While the name suggests otherwise,
average academic performance scholarships
are not awarded to the most average of students.
But they are a variation
on the traditional academic scholarship.
The main difference is that an average academic scholarship
will take into account more than just your grades
and standardized test scores.
They can account for extracurricular activities,
leadership achievements, or anything beyond academics
that makes you stand out as a student.
One of the most world-renowned US college scholarships
is the Robertson Scholarship.
If your selected as a Robertson Scholar,
you can gain a full-ride scholarship
to attend Duke University
or the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
It's your choice, and it's really free
if you receive the scholarship.
Now beyond merit-based scholarships,
there are need-based scholarships.
Many of these will be determined
based on your particular circumstances.
You'll probably have to meet some specific requirements.
And these could include country of origin,
gender, ethnicity, and further elements of your background.
It's definitely worth doing research into your dream school
and working out whether there's a scholarship
for someone just like you.
At this stage, you've probably figured out
that education in the US can, despite many reports
to the contrary, be quite affordable,
even though the tuition fees can reach ridiculous heights.
It really depends on how strong of an applicant you are
and whether you know how and where to apply.
Despite the sometimes outrageous cost of living
that can stack up, although if you attend college
outside of a large city, living costs
will be far more affordable, there are plenty of ways
to get around the financial hurdles of studying abroad,
whether it's financial aid support, a scholarship,
or just being strategic about where you choose to study.
Basically, don't let the perceived hurdle of cost
put you off of applying to study overseas.
If you're hardworking, passionate, and determined
to study in the US, you deserve that chance.
Luckily, a number of top US colleges understand this
and make it possible for you to get there.
They want the greatest diversity of talent possible,
so they've created pathways for students
from all over the globe to gain admission
regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Thank you for watching.
If you have any specific questions
about college costs in the US,
send us an email at info@crimsoneducation.org,
and we'll have one of our academic experts
get back to directly.
Or if you wanna see what life is like at Harvard, NYU,
Duke, and a number of other top US colleges,
check out some other videos on our channel.
We'll see you next time right here
to talk more about all things college.
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