If you're new to the channel, we are kicking off our road to success series, which is an annual series that we do each year where we break down the scholarship, financial aid, and even application process for each college in each video. Since this is the starting for the fall 2026 intake, we're going over a guide book on scholarship and financial aid in general. All of the episodes after this will tackle one university one by one. So, this is going to go into super specific detail on everything you need to know. So, let's start with the high school and gap year students, especially those of you that have the hope of studying in the US for free. Now, I do have some good news. It's very much possible. This isn't clickbait. There are students that I've interviewed on this channel. You've seen the videos that have gotten 100% scholarship. Students that have gone through mentorship programs, the Road to Success mentorship program that have gotten 100% scholarship. So, it's definitely not clickbait. Now, remember, there are some of these students that are able to get this. So, don't ignore that sum. However, in this video, we're going to break it down on how you can maximize those chances. There are two types of aid that you need to know about. The first one is scholarships. Now, scholarships are basically merit-based. What this typically means is it depends on your capability as a student. How well are you doing academically? How are you able to stand out in your application that you've put forward? how competitive is everything on your application versus a different student that they're considering. Now, they don't typically differentiate between an international or domestic student, which basically means no matter what type of student you are, you will be considered for a merit-based scholarship as long as they like your profile. They like how you are standing out academically or the activities you've done or the impact that you have in your community. And the best part is these merit-based scholarships are provided to you with your offer letter. So in most cases when you get your acceptance letter, it'll also mention that you've received an X amount each year for all four years of your degree. Or it may say that you've received an X amount, just a total amount for all four years of your degree. Right? Now this means that they've provided that merit scholarship at the time of acceptance and you've already secured that funding. it's locked in for each one of those four years of your undergrad degree program. The next type of aid is financial aid. Now, this one is different because it depends on your family's income and household size. So, basically, not you as a student, but your family, your parents or your legal guardians. How much do they earn? What are their spendings? What are their assets? And how many people are they supporting with the with the money that they're earning? So based on all of these factors, universities will decide how much financial aid they want to give you. Now typically when you need to apply for financial aid, a question will be asked if you want to be considered for financial aid and you have to click yes or no. This is a very important question because it's treated differently by needlind and needaware universities. Now if you click yes that you need financial aid, you're basically telling them that my family isn't that well off. I will need aid in order to attend your university. If you select no, you're saying that I do not need financial aid. I can pay the tuition fee. One important thing which is super important is this answer cannot be changed after you submit your application. Let's say you've selected no for that answer, submitted your application, you get into the university. You cannot go back to them and say I need aid because they will not give it to you at that time. The only option that you have is either attend the university at full price or decline their offer. There's nothing in between. Now this answer to that question that I mentioned is very important because different universities treat it differently. Needblind universities don't care what your answer is to that question because they will provide you with the sufficient amount of financial aid that you need in order to apply to these universities which is very nice and generous and this is how almost all universities should work. Unfortunately this is the minorities. Majority of the universities are need aware which means that if you select yes to the financial aid question it will play a big decision on whether they accept you or reject you. What does that mean? Let's say there are two students that have a very similar profile just like you. Same grade, same activities. They're applying for the same degree. One student says they need financial aid. Another student says they don't need financial aid. And let's say you're applying to a university that is need aware. The student that said they do not need financial aid has a greater chance of getting accepted compared to the student that requested for financial aid. That's what needaware means. So it's kind of like a balancing act of it can help you but it can also hurt you when it comes to asking asking for financial aid. Another thing you need to remember with financial aid is it's not dispersed all four years at a time. It's yeartoear. So every year you have to submit the CSS profile or the financial aid application form and the university will decide how much aid they want to give you. It may increase one year, it may decrease one year. Everything is decided by the university. Nothing is in your control. The other thing to remember is sometimes it is possible to get both financial aid and a scholarship. This is very likely. you could get um a $20,000 per year scholarship and you could get a $40,000 per year financial aid. So together your total aid is $60,000 which is not bad. It could be enough to cover the tuition fee and living expenses of some colleges in the US. So this combined offer is also possible and many students that is how they're able to get that 100% scholarship or free US college that you guys see all over the place. In most cases it's not one or the other. Nobody gets full merit scholarship or full financial aid. It's a combined offer. It's a combination of the two. So suppose you request for financial aid. There are applications separately that you have to submit in order to apply for financial aid. If you are a US citizen or a domestic student in the US, you'll fill out something called the FAFSA, which is the free application for federal student aid. Now, this form is an onlinebased form which basically walks you through your parents' income and other questions related to money like do your parents own a house? What are some of their other assets? Uh what kind of expenses do they have? Household size basically meaning do you have siblings that your parents also support? How many people in your household are going to college? All of these questions are asked in the FAFSA form that you submit. Now the FAFSA has separate like opening and closing deadlines. Like I mentioned, you'll be if you fill out the financial aid form for one year, you have to do it each year so that your aid for each year can be decided. And then after you fill out the entire form, they will decide how much aid you get. This aid comes in two forms. There can be a grant and then there are subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Now, as the name suggests, the grant is the amount of money that doesn't have to be paid back. So, let's say you get a $40,000 grant. It's you've gotten the grant. It goes towards your tuition fee. You don't have to pay it back to anyone. You don't have to pay it back to the IRS or FAFSA. Nothing. It's a grant done. The subsidized or unsubsidized loan, as the name suggests, it's a loan. So, at the time, let's say you get $20,000. You get $40,000 for the grant and you get $20,000 for the loan. The loan amount will be subtracted from your tuition fee. So, you don't have to pay it right now, but after you graduate, slowly you'll start paying off that $20,000 loan because it's a loan that you've taken from the FAFSA-IRS. Um, so that's how the FAFSA works. Now, this is a very strict, complicated, and very important process. So, I highly recommend doing this with your parents or a counselor. I've walked many students through this process as well. It's included in the Road to Success mentorship program as well as the one-on-one mentorship program. So, highly recommend checking those out. Um, they also include other aspects of the application, everything, college shortlisting, assistance with essays, um, activity workshops, reviewing your entire application, submitting it. It's basically like a guided application assistance program um including all of the scholarship forms. So definitely check that out if you're interested. Link is going to be in the description below. The other type of application form that exists for financial aid is the CSS profile. So the CSS profile is basically similar to FAFSA, but it's for students that don't have US tax returns. So international students will use the CSS profile. It basically asks for all of the same questions. international tax returns, income of parents or guardians, how many people are in your household, um, and all of the basically the same questions. And based on the CSS profile, the college will then determine how much financial aid you're getting. The entire process is the same. You have to fill out the CSS profile each year um, in order to be eligible. Lying is prohibited. If they find out that you lied, you will probably never be able to get any amount of financial aid. And yes, before anyone asks in the question, they ask for proof of everything. So if you say that my parents earned X amount after the CSS profile is submitted, there is something called ID do packets where you have to upload documentation supporting all of the numbers that you've provided. So it's all there as proof. It's all asked for. It's all vetted out. So lying in no way is tolerated. You have to be very ethical about this whole process. And remember, I I do see a lot of international students have a habit of like let's show less than we actually have. And this really backfires because most of the universities that you'll be applying to are need. And showing less than you actually have may result in you not even getting the admission. An important part of the whole admission process is to remember that financial aid and scholarships come second. The first part is actually to get the admission. If you don't get the admission, there's no aid. So, it's a balancing act. And my suggestion is to be truthful about your actual family finances to the degree that you can be. Another thing I want to point out is let's say a student says yes, I want to apply for financial aid in common app and forgets to fill FAFSA or CSS profile, whatever they qualify for. Um, in that situation, that's it. You you don't get aid. um you forgot to do it. Unfortunately, for that particular year, you don't get aid. You can try again next year. That's how it works. They're very strict on the deadlines, dates. If you miss anything, you'll basically have to come back next year to do it. So, there's no way around it. So, with that, we wrap up the process for prospective undergrad students. And basically, that's how you get that 100% financial aid or scholarship or full ride that so many students kind of claim they get. It's all through a combination of merit scholarships and financial aids. Um with that we we move on to our prospective masters and PhD students who also have a wide set of funding. Now one thing is for masters and PhD there's no financial aid or merit scholarship. It's in the whole concept of working. So you get funding on teaching assistantships and research assistantships. These are the two types of fundings that grad students get. Research assistantships are basically working part-time in a lab in your college campus under a professor. So, you'll be expected to work like 10, 15, or even 20 hours per week in that lab. You'll be helping the professor on some research projects. You get paid. Um, teaching assistantship is where you help a professor teach a class. So, you'll be responsible for grading some assignments or holding office hours as a TA or answering questions or proctoring some exams or tests that happen, taking some low-level lectures for some basic courses. It could be any work to support a class that a professor is teaching. Um, both of these options, like the TA as well as the RA, have a pretty good salary of anywhere between 15 to $25,000 per year. That's the average. Um, it can be a little higher or lower depending on the college and where it's located, but it's it's a good way to uh subsidize the amount of tuition fee that you're paying or an excellent way to basically um have your living expenses. Like $25,000 per year is more than sufficient for living and food expenses if you're living as a student and sharing and being frugal about your expenses. So, it's not bad at all. Now, there are some colleges that fall in the exception category that offer merit scholarships to master's students. A good example of this is NYU. It offers like 10 or $15,000 as a merit scholarship to a lot of master's students, but it's not that substantial um when the tuition fee is like more than $50,000. So, just remember with your offer letter, you may also get that merit scholarship if the college has a history. So, if you're looking for these merit scholarships, do your research and see if the college offers these to you. Um, another exception is Dartmouth College. Um, Dartmouth College provides need-based financial aid. It's available in the CSS profile list. One of the very few master students, M's colleges that provides this type of financial aid and they offer up to 50% of the tuition fee in financial aid for um students that do qualify. So, these are great options as well. Now some other like highlight colleges that I would like to talk about and mention. These are both for prospective undergrad as well as grad students are colleges like Harvard, MIT, Stanford even and even Cornell that state on their website that if your family income is less than X amount in some cases it's $100,000 $200,000 per year um you do not have to pay any tuition fee. And yes, that is right. There's no exception to that. The only thing to remember is remember it's a two-step process. So you have to get in first and then you qualify for that exception. So if you are a smart enough student to get into this exceptional university then they will take care of you. And this is in no way a lie. I've I've mentored students myself both who've gone into undergrad programs and that have gone into masters or PhD programs that have gotten these offers like this where it's like we're covering the whole tuition fee for international students. A good example of this is the Tata scholarship by Cornell University. And it's all mentioned in your offer letter. It's it's not a scam. They're not trying to deceive you. It's absolutely true. It's a reward for high performing students. The only thing to remember is students chase after these scholarships without paying attention to the first part of the process, which is actually getting in. To get in, you have to be an excellent student. And if you haven't watched the video already, check out the fall 2026 guide for prospective undergrad or masters and PhD students to understand what it takes to actually get in and work on that part of the application process. Truly, if you can set yourself apart and get admitted and, you know, be in this spot where you're competitive enough to be a high performing student, most of the top colleges in the US do provide these financial aids and help you get that 100% full ride offer that you're aiming for. Just remember, if you're someone who is not on this boat where you're not willing to work and you are below average, getting that high scholarship from a top university is difficult. you probably would need to aim at like lower level or lower tier universities likely in the US if scholarship is still uh you know a priority for you. Nevertheless, there's always something for everyone. Now, if you're watching till this point, I want to know from you. Enough of all of this like serious talk. What's your favorite summer activity? Summer, I'm talking about peak summer. What is the favorite thing you want like to do? Go to the pool, go to the beach, play basketball, tennis. What is it for you? For me, I think this summer, I really want to try to do the pool thing. I will try to do the pool thing. Um, I've never been a pool person, but I feel like it's getting so hot here in California that this is a great summer to try and probably going to be my thing this time. So, um, like the video if you're watching till this point, subscribe to the channel since this is episode zero. Let's get this video to 500 likes. I mean, you guys can do at least that much. And um if you have any suggestions for which colleges we should cover for like individual explanations, we'll do like the road to success series where we break down the whole individual process for each college specifically. Let me know that in the comments below as well. Okay, subscribe and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.