Funding Question from Yogeshwar

Hi saket,
I have a query regarding financial support form which needs to be filled for admission. What kind of impact this form can have on my appln ? If I declare that I cannot attend the school without financial aid, whether it is good/bad ? If one gets RA/TA, then this financial doc has less importance?

Any extra info regarding this, will be helpful.

Hi Yogeshwar, yes you are right about this. The financial support form itself is just needed for visa purposes. When you are admitted, the university issues you an I-20 that lists among other things the total cost of education at the university, how much the university is willing to shell out for you and also the money you/your family is willing to invest. Sending the financial support form just makes your life easier, and the whole transaction for admission easier. Schools will also conditionally admit you and ask for this financial support document to be filled before they send you an I-20. That is probably fine too, but just implies that you'll probably waste a couple of weeks in mailing things back and forth. Other than that filling out that form doesn't have an impact on your application.

The second part you mentioned in the query does have an impact on your application... if you mention in the application that you don't want to be considered for admission unless you are being offered funding, you will get an immediate reject letter if the program cannot support you. I feel that is not a good thing to do. Your chances for getting aid or admission are more or less fixed. Checking a box that says admit only if funded doesn't have an impact on your worthiness for admission, but just means that even if you were good enough to get admission only, you won't find out about it. So my suggestion is to say that you are okay with attending even if you don't have funding to begin with. If the school considers you worthy of financial aid, they will inform you all the same.