Replies

he could have received private financial aid such as from Indonesia or a private individual or scholarship. also if he had green card or refugee or parolee status he might have been eligible for aid from NY state.

If Obama really was a citizen of Indonesia then where the HESC was concerned he would have been better off lying and saying he was a citizen of the U.S. HESC is a state agency for state residents. Its rules say that their grants and scholarships are for U.S. Citizen residents of New York state only. To qualify as a resident you need to have lived in the state for at least 12 months prior to the first semester in college, or have completed your last two semesters in an New York high school. For Obama, or anyone else, to apply as a foreign national would be useless so far as that organization is concerned. It would have gained him nothing.

From the HESC website:

“I graduated from a university outside the United States. Will my foreign degree allow me to be eligible for State aid without taking the ATB exam?

If your degree comes from a college or university that is recognized by your home country’s Ministry of Education, you are considered to meet the requirements and do not have to take an ATB exam.”

I don’t have the time or inclination to dig around in their stupid website, but from this blurb I’d say that they do indeed offer state aid to foreign students.