The Catholic University of America

Catholic University is a private Catholic research university in Washington DC holding the Carnegie R1 'very high research activity' classification, with students from over 80 countries. Its aid position for international students is stated with unusual precision on its own financial assistance pages: international students may be eligible for Catholic University merit scholarships of up to USD 33,000 per year, but are NOT eligible for federal financial aid, federal loans, or university need-based aid. That is a clean, unambiguous boundary. Catholic University also takes an unusually firm line on English, stating that no single factor in admission matters more than English ability and that it verifies scores and does not tolerate fraud. A secondary source indicates there is no application fee for undergraduate programmes, which should be confirmed.