With an admissions rate that dipped below 11 percent for the first time ever last year, Stanford ranked among the most competitive schools in the country. Yet for about 35 members of the Class of 2010, the test for admission was even more rigorous; according to University officials, the admissions rate for international students requesting financial aid was three percent.

The low number of foreign students on financial aid reflects the University’s inability to extend its need-blind admissions program — which all American applicants enjoy — to the international community.

The University recently announced expansions to financial aid packages for middle-income domestic families. Similar changes in the financial aid system for international students, however, have not yet been made, nor are they planned for the near future.

“The admissions pool for needy international students is extremely competitive,” said Director of Financial Aid Karen Cooper. “Some of the students that we deny in this pool are more talented than some of those we accept who do not request financial aid.”

Because Stanford does not offer them need-blind admissions, international students must declare in their application for admission whether they are seeking aid. Foreign students who request financial aid have their applications placed in a separate admissions pool from international students not requesting aid.

More than 1,000 international applicants applied for aid last year, according to Cooper — 35 were admitted.

While more than six percent of the undergraduate student body consists of international students, only one-fourth of these students receive financial aid. According to President John Hennessy, the inability to offer need-blind admissions to international students stems from a lack of funding.

“Much of the funding designated for international students comes from outside of the United States,” Hennessy said. “And that pool is a lot smaller in comparison to the alumni pool domestically.”

To offer need-blind admissions for international students, Hennessy estimated, the University would have to spend at least an additional $10 million each year — an increase that would require a $200 million bump in Stanford’s endowment. Currently, Hennessy suggested, Stanford’s endowment per student ratio is insufficient to fund need-blind admissions, which Harvard, Yale and Princeton are all able to do.

“Our peer institutions are able to offer need-blind financial aid because of the total size of their endowment compared to their student body,” Hennessy said. “Harvard has a student body that’s slightly larger than ours, but it has an endowment roughly twice ours. Princeton has an endowment five percent smaller than us, but a student population that is half in size. The endowment per student is significantly lower at Stanford than at Harvard, Yale and Princeton.”

Vice Provost of Undergraduate Affairs John Bravman ‘79 attributed Stanford’s inability to offer need-blind admissions to donors’ general unwillingness to give large gifts to the program. While the University has received some substantial gifts for financial aid — most recently, a $10 million gift for Latin-American students in honor of Alejandro and Lida Zaffaroni in March 2006 — donors typically do not designate their contributions to financial aid for international students.

“It’s going to be a real challenge to get to need-blind admissions if people are unwilling to make gifts designated to that cause,” Bravman said. “We’re about 40 percent endowed for financial aid. We have to raise the rest of the costs from the University’s own budget.”

And while international graduate students are often able to apply for research grants or government fellowships to fund their educational expenses if they are denied financial aid by specific departments, undergraduates lack such alternatives. Without work visas, international students are prohibited from participating in work-study programs on campus, which requires that the University provide increased financial aid for each international student admitted.

Hennessy said that while American students seeking financial aid ranged across the socioeconomic spectrum, many of the international students requesting aid found Stanford’s tuition and room and board costs to be greater than their family’s annual income.

The president also told The Daily that the costs for need-blind admissions may be far greater than the University has calculated. It is possible, he said, that more students needing aid will apply to the University than currently do if significant changes are made to the financial aid program.

“In terms of being need-blind for international students, we’re still a long way off,” Hennessy said. “When I set that goal in 2005, we were on a 10-year horizon. I was hoping we could finish it sooner than that, but that’s going to depend a lot on fundraising.”

Pakistani-born Fahad Mahmood ‘10, who receives financial aid, described the application process as “very competitive” and acknowledged that many of his friends did not apply to Stanford because they could not afford to do so.

“In my year, I noticed a few of my friends went to Harvard and MIT over Stanford because of those schools’ financial aid packages,” Mahmood said. “I personally feel that if you choose students on what their [financial] contribution can be, instead of choosing on their merit, then you lose out on a lot of talent.”

Mahmood said that offering international students financial aid would diversify Stanford socioeconomically and would enhance the University’s ability to fundraise in the future.

“I personally will contribute to the University 10 or 20 years from now,” he said, “because Stanford has changed my life considerably.”