Aid for international students

Explore your funding options

Gathering resources to fund your education in the United States can be one of the most challenging parts of the admissions process. Financial help is available, but finding it takes work and persistence.

Start by researching funding possibilities in your home country. Contact an overseas advising center to learn about opportunities.

Student loans

As an international student, you are not eligible for student loans through the U.S. federal government, but you still have options for borrowing money. Always carefully consider the terms of a loan before you borrow, and investigate other funding sources, such as scholarships and fellowships. Never borrow money that you cannot pay back.

Review loan options

IU scholarships 

IU offers specific awards to recognize the achievement of our international community.

Explore international student scholarships

External scholarships 

It is worthwhile to expand your search beyond IU. Be patient and persistent—while many U.S. scholarships are limited to citizens, numerous organizations offer support to international scholars.

Search external scholarships

Fellowships and assistantships

If you are a graduate student, you may be able to secure a fellowship or assistantship through your department. An assistantship is a paid position that requires you to teach or conduct research. A fellowship is an award of money that may or may not come with a work requirement. Contact your school or department for details.

Services for sponsored students

Sponsored students are those students who have a government, company, or organization paying for their studies at IU. These students have unique needs. To ensure that sponsoring organizations and the students they sponsor are able to accomplish their specific educational objectives, we created Sponsored Students Services.

We are proud to partner with over 60 different sponsoring governments, companies, and organizations, and currently host approximately 270 sponsored students. We provide one point of contact for sponsors (Daniel Whitmer in the Office of International Services) and can serve as a liaison with admissions, academic departments, and other student services on campus.

Set up third-party billing for your sponsoring organization

Our services and fees

We can assist sponsored students and sponsoring organizations in a variety of ways. If you have any questions about how we can help, contact us. We can:

• Advise on the admission application process, liaise with graduate school offices, and answer questions about admissions
• Assist with sponsors’ financial terms, help students understand billing requirements, and liaise with Student Central about billing concerns
• Provide a free official transcript to sponsors (Requires a one-time consent from the student. Learn about personal information at IU.)
• Help students understand sponsor regulations, assist students with sponsor requirements (health insurance, program extensions, etc.), liaise with academic departments for sponsor requirements (program information, change in academic level, etc.)
• Provide a single point of contact for international advising, including F-1 and J-1 visas, U.S. regulations, travel questions, etc.
• Provide assistance and counseling with personal matters, including housing, health problems, academics, family and dependent concerns, general advising, and other sensitive matters
• Host specialized sponsor student orientation sessions 
• Provide programming specifically tailored to sponsored students, and inform students of campus and community events

The international sponsored student fee is a per-semester fee for all students sponsored by the U.S. or other government, a company, an organization, an educational institution, etc.

Federal aid options for eligible noncitizens

If you’re an eligible noncitizen, you may qualify for federal loans and grants. To be eligible, any one of the following must be true:

• You are a permanent U.S. resident with a permanent resident card (I-1551), also known as a Green Card.
• You are a conditional permanent resident.
• You have one of the following listed on your Arrival–Departure Record (I-94) from the Department of Homeland Security:
  • Refugee
  • Asylum Granted
  • Parolee
  • Cuban-Haitian Entrant

If you are not a permanent resident and do not have a Green Card, you may still be able to get money for your education. Contact the Office of International Services for questions.