A Reader Has A Question about Foreign Students–Are Taxpayers Subsidizing Their Student Loans
03/02/2013
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Re: Jesse Mossman's blog post Big Ed (e.g University Of Washington) Betraying US Taxpayers Students

From: MrStentorianCommentator [Email him]

I have read at VDARE.com  about colleges favoring foreign students because they have to pay full price. That sounds to me like need-based funds and in-state rates are generally restricted to in-state or U.S. residents—including illegal aliens, of course.

What I wonder is whether and to what extent foreign students are also eligible for taxpayer-subsidized student loans, so that we taxpayers front a substantial amount of the "full boat" payment the foreigner is supposedly making?

If foreigners are eligible for student loans, is there any information about their rate of default on such loans, say, by returning to their home country after school? I hear of a future popping of the student loan bubble, and I wonder how much of it, like in the housing bubble, can be traced to loans to foreigners.

I would appreciate anything you know. This sounds like a job for Steve Sailer.

See previous letters from the same reader.

James Fulford writes: Your standard foreign student is not eligible for American student loans without a local cosigner. After all, if no one staples a green card to his diploma, he’s supposed to leave the country after his studies are done, making it impossible to collect from him.

There is a category of immigrant who’s eligible for student assistance—gifts of taxpayer money, not loansand that’s the refugee, according the Federal Government's student aid website:

Eligible Noncitizen

A U.S. national (includes natives of American Samoa or Swains Island), U.S. permanent resident (who has an I-151, I-551 or I-551C [Permanent Resident Card]), or an individual who has an Arrival-Departure Record (I-94) from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) showing one of the following designations:

  • "Refugee"
  • "Asylum Granted"
  • "Cuban-Haitian Entrant (Status Pending)"
  • "Conditional Entrant" (valid only if issued before April 1, 1980)
  • Victims of human trafficking, T-visa (T-2, T-3, or T-4, etc.) holder
  • "Parolee" (You must be paroled into the United States for at least one year and you must be able to provide evidence from the USCIS that you are in the United States for other than a temporary purpose and that you intend to become a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.)

If you meet the noncitizen criteria above, you are eligible to receive federal student aid

I have a feeling that the Dream Act/Administrative Amnesty beneficiaries will try to take advantage of this.

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