federal financial aid & international students!

[nushi]

Hello everyone ?

While looking into universities for the specialization i want to apply for, i found johns hopkins university (although really tough to get accepted in!!!) having it...

but the i found that the department, after mentioning that it offers graduate assistantship & health insurance & such to all its matriculated students, it says that international students however are not eligible for federal financial aid! ?

does that mean that an international student is not offered an assistantship, covering their tuition fees & provided with a living-expenses stipend? 'cause i thought that assistantship is not related to federal financial aid! or what do they mean by federal financial aid?!!

[Warelin]

48 minutes ago, nushi said:

does that mean that an international student is not offered an assistantship, covering their tuition fees & provided with a living-expenses stipend? 'cause i thought that assistantship is not related to federal financial aid! or what do they mean by federal financial aid?!!

I think the page you found relates to Undergraduates. I think this is the page you were referring to?

Funding at the Graduate level is not dependent on Federal Financial Aid. The only time that Federal Financial Aid would have any impact is if you wanted to take out any student loans. Federal Aid is handled by the Student Financial Services office. Funding at the Graduate level is determined by the Grad School or the individual academic departments. As a Graduate student, you would still be eligible for Graduate funding.

[nushi]

oh, thank you warelin ?

i see... actually, this is referenced in the sociology department's application & admission for graduate studies, here: https://soc.jhu.edu/graduate/admissions/

specifically in the second paragraph of the tuition & financial aid section:

Unfortunately, though, our financial support does not cover some expenses that a student may incur upon their arrival, including rent and other living expenses until they receive their first paycheck. Additionally, international students are ineligible for federal financial aid.

i got confused too when i read this, 'cause i thought that graduate funding is not related to federal financial aid! so i'm not sure why they're mentioning this in the application page for graduate studies!!!

[Warelin]

12 hours ago, nushi said:

Unfortunately, though, our financial support does not cover some expenses that a student may incur upon their arrival, including rent and other living expenses until they receive their first paycheck. Additionally, international students are ineligible for federal financial aid.

 

I think they're referring to the fact that a lot of students take out loans because moving expenses can be expensive. I think I spent around $1500 to move my stuff via a storage pod + first month's rent + deposit + car rental + gas money to move. A lot of people take out a loan because they can't afford that cost out of pocket and a lot of programs don't pay out a stipend until 2-4 weeks after classes start. I think that's why they stress initial living expenses and federal financial aid within those sentences.

[nushi]

thank you so much dear warelin ?

yeah, that makes sense...

anyway, i just found that they "strongly encourage" international students to make/send evaluations of their sent transcripts! & this costs so much... so i decided not to apply there, 'cause all the odds for me to be accepted in JHU are against me (low acceptance rate - only one professor there doing the research i want, & she didn't respond to me)!!!

[Guacemole]

On 12/26/2018 at 9:27 AM, nushi said:

Hello everyone ?

While looking into universities for the specialization i want to apply for, i found johns hopkins university (although really tough to get accepted in!!!) having it...

but the i found that the department, after mentioning that it offers graduate assistantship & health insurance & such to all its matriculated students, it says that international students however are not eligible for federal financial aid! ?

does that mean that an international student is not offered an assistantship, covering their tuition fees & provided with a living-expenses stipend? 'cause i thought that assistantship is not related to federal financial aid! or what do they mean by federal financial aid?!!

Hi,

I think I might be later to this conversation, but I wanted to clarify that international students are ineligible for federal financial aid (FAFSA). This aid is usually a loan offered to citizens and permanent residents, who later do have to pay it back to the government. We, as international students, can apply for scholarships and grants including teaching and research assistantships, on-campus jobs up to 20 hours/week, and definitely are considered for funding (separate from federal financial aid) in graduate school.

I hope this helps!

[nushi]

Thank you Guacemole :-)

Yes, I figured this out. We only have the chance of assistantships, fellowships, and campus jobs.