Studying at a U.S. college as an international student can rack up a high bill. Not only are there expenses for tuition, housing, meal plans, books and supplies, but international students also have to pay for travel costs, including airline tickets and visa applications.
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In an effort to recruit more international students, many colleges offer substantial financial aid packages.
For instance, the average amount given to international students was roughly $26,800 at the 533 undergraduate schools ranked among Best Value Schools that submitted this data to U.S. News in an annual survey for the 2022-2023 school year. But the average aid was more than triple that – nearly $77,000 – at the 20 schools that gave the most financial aid to international students.
Best Value Schools is a U.S. News designation that looks at academic quality and price, factoring in the average net cost of attendance for an out-of-state student receiving the average level of need-based financial aid. The lower the cost and the higher the program quality, the better the deal.
Wesleyan University awarded the largest amount of financial aid per international student on the list, about $83,000. During the 2022-2023 academic year, 84 international students received aid from the private liberal arts school in Connecticut.
With the exception of three California-based colleges – Stanford University, Pitzer College and Pomona College – the 20 schools that gave the most financial assistance to international students are located along the East Coast. Massachusetts is home to five, followed by three in New York and two in Connecticut. The rest are in New Hampshire, Maine, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Additionally, 15 placed in both the top 20 of Best Value Schools and within the top 20 in their respective ranking categories. Financial resources per student, including spending on instruction, administration and research, makes up 8% of the U.S. News Best Colleges ranking. While financial aid is not included in that ranking factor, better-resourced schools tend to also have more money for financial aid.
The 20 colleges and universities on the list below are all private, with tuition and fees ranging from nearly $71,500 to about $83,000.
Among public schools, the University of Vermont – which charged almost $44,000 for out-of-state students – awarded the most aid to international students, about $39,500 on average, with funds given out to 97 international students during the 2022-2023 academic year. Although the average amount of aid was much lower at Arizona State University – about $12,200 per international student – it offered aid to 2,500 international students, the most of any public or private institution that provided data to U.S. News.
Below is a list of the 20 undergraduate institutions in the U.S. where the average amount of financial aid for citizens of other countries was the highest.
