Financial Aid
The United States Government does not offer any scholarships for International students studying as undergraduates. International graduate or post graduate students are encouraged to apply for the Fulbright Fellowship which is directly funded by the United States Government.
99% of the financial aid that international students receive comes from the universities that they apply to. Each university has a set amount of money allotted for scholarships for incoming students. Most of these scholarships are merit-based, meaning that they are given to the students with the highest marks and the highest SAT, ACT or GRE test scores. Merit-based scholarships are the most lucrative scholarships, and are the best chances that have students have of getting their education paid for. Students that receive significant merit-based scholarships are generally at the very top of their high school class, have all distinctions on their ECZ exams, and score over 600 on all subjects of the SAT.
When you apply for admissions in an American university, you will simultaneously apply for scholarships. Upon receiving your acceptance letter, you will be informed if you have been offered a scholarship or not. Furthermore, when researching schools it is important to select schools that typically offer significant scholarships to a high percentage of their students.
While most scholarship money is offered from the universities themselves, some scholarships come from private funders or organizations. These scholarships are highly competitive because they are open to students worldwide. Furthermore, they are generally small amounts of money that will not pay a significant portion of tuition. More information can be found on the websites below:
http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp