Scholarships and financial aid

We do not pay for anyone’s degree. We have no scholarship fund, no agreements with universities, and no ability to allocate money to a student.

What we can do is prepare someone for an exam. The money comes from the university, and this page explains how it decides.

We say it first because it is the most common lie in this business — “we will get you a scholarship.”

Neither of these is academic. Both are paperwork, and both cost four years of aid.

Mistake one: thinking that not asking for money improves the chance of admission. Brown, Stanford, Cornell and Columbia each state the same rule in their own words — an international student must request aid at the moment of application. If they do not, they can never receive it. Even if the family’s circumstances change. For all four years.

Mistake two: reading “100% of demonstrated need is met” as “we will pay nothing.” Those are different things — see the next section.

The phrase is not one product. Some universities close the gap with grants alone — nothing to repay. Others package a student loan and a campus job. Cornell says so on its own page: an international package may include grant aid, work-study and student loans.

And “full need met” is not “the price is zero.” A family contribution is calculated, and it can be substantial.

A need-blind university decides admission without looking at whether the family can pay. A need-aware university takes it into account.

Very few universities are need-blind for international students. We do not print how many — published counts contradict each other, and a wrong number helps nobody here. Read each university’s own financial aid page.

And the honest part: at a need-aware university, asking for a lot can itself lower the chance of admission. That is what makes the rule above hard — you must make the choice without knowing the outcome.

Our advice does not change: ask. There is no point being admitted without aid to a place you cannot attend without it.

There are two mechanisms, and they get confused with each other.

In need-based aid the score affects admission only. The amount is decided by the family’s financial documents. Harvard states it plainly on its own site: all aid the university administers is based only on financial need. So at Harvard even a 1600 brings no scholarship — it improves the chance of getting in, and nothing else.

In merit scholarships the score sets the amount directly. That mechanism is real, but it lives at large public universities rather than the Ivy League. Alabama publishes its entire ladder:

FAFSA is for US federal aid. An Uzbek citizen cannot use it. It is not your form.

Most selective universities ask international applicants for the CSS Profile instead. It is College Board’s form, it costs money, and it asks in detail about the family’s income and assets.

The CSS Profile site states that the Profile is free for families earning up to $100,000 a year. We could not confirm how that applies to a family in Uzbekistan — the page says nothing about applicants living abroad. So budget for the cost.

And ask each university separately: some issue their own waiver, some accept the free ISFAA form instead, and some let an applicant facing hardship submit the Profile after an admission decision.

The CSS Profile is one cost among several. Also budget for:

• Each university’s application fee.
• SAT registration and international fees — separately for every sitting.
• TOEFL or IELTS.
• Visa fees.
• All of them need an international payment card.

El-Yurt Umidi. A state foundation that funds study abroad, including a bachelor’s quota. Competitions run more than once a year. Check the current terms and dates only at el-yurt.uz and eyuf.uz — we print no date here, because they change.

The condition that matters most: this is a contract, not a gift. A recipient commits to returning and working in Uzbek state organisations for a term set in that contract, and to repaying costs if it is broken. We print neither the term nor the sum — the figures circulating online rest on a superseded decree. Ask the foundation itself, before signing.

• FLEX is not a university scholarship. It is a one-year US secondary-school exchange for pupils in grades 9–10 and pays for no part of a US degree.
• Global UGRAD is a one-semester non-degree exchange, open only to students already enrolled at an Uzbek university — a school-leaver cannot apply.
• Fulbright requires a completed bachelor’s degree. A grade-11 pupil cannot apply.
• The Presidential state scholarship is a domestic award for students already at an Uzbek state university. It does not fund study abroad.

In 2024/25 there were 1,177,766 international students in the US, 357,231 of them undergraduates. By primary funding source: 51.5% personal and family money, 25.2% current employment, 19.3% a US college or university (IIE Open Doors 2025).

Do not misread the 25.2%. It covers all degree levels including graduate study and post-completion work authorisation. It does not mean a quarter of undergraduates work their way through. On a student visa, on-campus work is limited to roughly 20 hours a week.

No reliable figure exists for the share who receive full funding, and no reliable Uzbekistan-specific figure was found either. We will not derive one.

We do not award, arrange or guarantee any scholarship. We cannot guarantee admission anywhere.

We do not promise a score gain either. Anyone promising a specific number cannot know it — not them, not us, not anybody.

What we can offer is the programme, the calibre of the teacher and the follow-up. The rest is your work.