Financial Documents

[Abhishek Ban]

Suppose someone gets admission to a college that is providing him/her a scholarship (RA + Full Tuition + Health) of 19,000 USD p.a. and the Total cost (that they would be mentioning in the I20) is 18,500 USD p.a. How much liquid cash do I have to show in my Financial Statement then ....because the college states that I have to provide Financial Statement in order to receive the I20.

[Vacuum]

Does the university provide a form that has multiple funding options on there? Usually there is a spot for personal funds, sponsor funds, scholarships, loans etc. I would think that you would just fill out your 19000 under the scholarship/sponsor type sections. You could always give your university a call to make sure about this before you fill out the forms. I know that if you are supplying personal funds, you need an official financial statement from the bank to send along with the form you fill out. For all the other varieties of funding you need to have proof that you aren't making it up, so any document from the university that describes awarding you 19000 would be attached to the form.

[kaykaykay]

I would say nothing. If I remember correctly I wrote some very small amount in (as much as I actually had, or could gather like 500 or 300?) but no one cared.

[Bumblebee]

In some of the universities I applied to last year the financial statement included a box that you had to mark if you were using the school's funds (i.e. TAship, RAship, fellowship) to pay for your tuition and boarding. That usually is enough, you don't need to add anything else. In the school that I'm currently attending, though, the department notified International Services directly and I didn't have to fill any form. They just sent me the I-20 with the financial information there. Since the I-20 already stated that I was getting funds from the school, I didn't have to bring any bank statement to the embassy for the visa interview.

[GIS_GURU]

Hi there!

If your application to a certain school has been accepted and you are offered a fellowship or assistantship, you should not have to worry much about the Financial Statement. However, if you have not been accepted to the university, it would be advisable to get a Financial statement that shows the ability to cover all expenses incurred (i.e, tuition, rent, insurance and etc.). An I-20 would be issued only if you have been accepted and fulfill the requirements by Homeland security. If in doubt, contact the International Coordinator to clarify. Some schools don't even bother requesting for your Financial Statement (partly cause they know that you are fully funded).

Good luck.