Wiktoria Parysek | An aid policy for all

With the class of 2013 admitted, Penn Previewed and ready to register, the financial-aid application fears are mostly nonexistent among our newest pre-frosh. The taxes have been returned, the forms have been meticulously filled out and the aid notices have been received (albeit with mixed reactions). Basically, there's not much that can be done now. The only ones who may still have concerns are the international students.

Penn's aid policy for international students differs significantly from the policy governing U.S. citizens, permanent residents and Mexican and Canadian residents. Because of the school's need-blind admissions policy, the financial circumstances of these students are not a factor in the admissions decision. But reverse the language, and that means that international students' ability to foot the Penn bill can be considered during the admissions process.

This doesn't mean no international student can receive aid from the school - according to Elisabeth O'Connell, an associate dean of undergraduate admissions, "Close to 25 percent of our international undergraduates receive financial aid, if you include Canadians and Mexican nationals." Take Canadian and Mexican citizens out of the equation, though, and the number drops to between 15 and 20 percent, O'Connell says.

The reasoning behind need-sensitive admissions makes financial sense - the federal government boosts the financial aid of residents through work-study and federal loans. But without the protection of need-blind admissions review, many international applicants are forced to reassess their financial needs and educational goals during the application process. Now a sophomore, Maria Conde, a political science major from South America, believed that applying for financial aid along with admission would negatively impact her chances of getting in. "I was afraid that I'd be compared with other international students with similar grades and similar scores who could pay for Penn easily and that I would end up getting rejected," Conde remembers.

"I really thought that being able to pay for Penn would be an important factor in the application process for international students." While this may sound like an absurd thought, this fear is completely grounded in the University's very own policy, as found on the SFS Web site: "[S]ome [international] candidates whom we would like to admit will be turned away because we exhaust our aid budget."

This one line in the SFS FAQ speaks volumes about Penn's diversity. By severely limiting those international students who cannot fund a Penn education, the University simultaneously encourages those who can pay out of pocket to apply. This seems to go against Penn's mission for diversity within the school. By admitting students based on their financial situation, Penn is creating an international class of upper-upper-class - not a true representation of the non-U.S. (or U.S.) population. O'Connell claims that Penn actively "reaches out to students from all financial backgrounds from all over the world." While this may be true, Penn's policies and even paperwork may be discouraging to most of these recruited students. Conde recalls how, aside from the fear that she would not be admitted, her main worry with the financial-aid application was that "it really seemed like a very difficult task." U.S. families often complain about the scrupulous nature of the forms, but Conde couldn't have filled out the forms if she had tried. "Neither Nicaragua nor Brazil is very organized about taxes, as the U.S. seems to be, so I thought that it would be very difficult to fill the forms out."

Even if she had gotten around to figuring out the paperwork, Conde would have a very small chance of admittance. O'Connell admits that "being 'need aware' means that it can be more selective for international students from outside of North America to apply to Penn." There you have it. O'Connell is quick to remind us, however, that "it is important to put this in context." She goes on to say that many universities don't offer any aid to international students. And Penn is working toward totally need-blind admissions. Bill Schilling, director of Student Financial Services, says the school is actively working to increase the endowment for international-student financial aid.

But as long as students still have the threat of no aid, despite obvious financial difficulty, looming over them, we have a problem. As an international student who wouldn't be writing this column without significant support from Penn, I can't help but wonder how very different the international-student scene would be if the University adopted a need-blind policy for all of its applicants.

Wiktoria Parysek is a College sophomore from Berlin. Wiki-Pedia appears on alternating Fridays. Her email address is parysek@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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