Private Universities and Financial Aid

Real quick, is the whole financial aid ban on illegal immigrants only at public universities, or is it at private ones too?

There is no sweeping clear cut yes or no answer. But for the most part, private universities follow the same rules as public ones.

Although a university may be private, they still offer some sort of state-based financial aid for residents (albeit, significantly less, and which people in our situation can't get).

Also, getting scholarships from private universites is difficult for an undocumented immigrant because its like asking the university to choose you over a legal resident/citizen who may be just as qualified as you.

Moreover, when a private university, or any university offers financial aid, its gotta be substantiated in the bookkeeping because those sorta of transactions are subject to audits (obviously). Hard to do when the recipient is undocumented.

However, I have heard of stories where undocumented people have gotten in to places like Harvard, etc, etc. It's different for every single private university, as well as every single "Dreamer" wishing to get into a private university. No two DREAMers are alike.

One thing you can be certain of is the cost of private universities, with or without financial aid, trumps the cost of attending a state (public) university, and double trumps the cost of attending a Community College.