Ghanaian students and US financial aid

The four numbers to know

How many Ghanaians study in the US?

12,825 in the 2024/25 academic year, the highest figure on record. Ghana is now the 14th largest sender of students to the US in the world, up from 23rd two years earlier, and the second largest in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria.

The number was almost flat for years, at about 3,000 from 2014/15 to 2017/18. It has roughly tripled since 2019/20, with the biggest jumps in the last three years: up 31.6%, then 45.2%, then 36.5%. Ghanaians are now about one in five of the 65,385 students from sub-Saharan Africa in the US (our calculation from the Open Doors regional figures). The US government's own count of student records tells the same story: Ghana had the largest increase of any African country in 2024, up 33.7% to 14,937 active student records (SEVIS by the Numbers 2024).

Are they undergraduates?

Mostly not. Two in three Ghanaian students in the US are graduate students. Undergraduates are 2,446, or 19%, though their number has more than doubled since 2018/19.

This matters for anyone hoping for a funded undergraduate place. Graduate students are often paid through research and teaching assistantships, which do not exist for undergraduates. Across all countries, 81.9% of international undergraduates in the US say their main source of money is their own family, and for 12.6% it is their US college or university (Open Doors, source of funding). Open Doors does not publish this by country, so there is no Ghana figure, but the route to a funded US bachelor's degree is a narrow one. It runs through the universities in the next section.

What happened to student visas in 2025?

They fell sharply. The US issued 2,692 F-1 student visas to Ghanaians in the 2025 fiscal year (October 2024 to September 2025), against 5,193 the year before: a drop of 48%.

The fall was steepest in the summer, when most students collect their visas: 1,203 F-1 visas from May to August 2025, against 3,515 in the same months of 2024, down 66% (our sums of the monthly tables). The first five months of the 2026 fiscal year, October 2025 to February 2026, were down again: 471 against 1,110 a year earlier. The annual table for FY2025 had not been published when we checked, which is why we added up the monthly ones. For FY2024, the monthly tables came within 10 visas of the annual figure.

The data shows how many visas were issued, not why fewer were. Refusals are part of it. An analysis by the education company Shorelight of State Department figures put the F-1 refusal rate for Ghanaian applicants at 72% in 2024 and 81% in 2025, against 35% for all countries in 2025, as reported by ICEF Monitor and Newsweek. We could not open Shorelight's own table for Ghana, and the State Department does not publish a student-visa refusal rate by country, so treat those two figures with care.

Which US universities fund international undergraduates?

A small group, and generously. Harvard gave grant aid to 805 international undergraduates averaging $83,013 each. Dartmouth, Yale, Penn and MIT each aided between about 400 and 500. These are grants, not loans.

Two things stand out. First, the awards are large: at most of these universities the average grant is above $80,000 a year, close to the full cost of attending. Second, the numbers are small. Across these 13 universities, about 4,100 international undergraduates from every country in the world received grant aid (our sum). Princeton, Brown, Amherst and Williams are also known for generous aid to international students, but we could not reach their published figures, so they are not in the chart.

The policies behind the numbers are clear. Harvard says international students are eligible for exactly the same aid as Americans, and that families earning under $100,000 are not expected to contribute (Harvard). Yale meets 100% of demonstrated need regardless of citizenship, without loans (Yale). MIT says it is need-blind and meets full need for all undergraduates, domestic and international (MIT). Our list of universities that meet full need explains the difference between need-blind and need-aware.

What does a year cost, and what does the cedi do to it?

About $92,000 to $98,000 a year at the most selective universities for 2026-27. At the 5 October 2026 rate, Harvard's billed costs alone come to about GH₵1.08 million a year. Aid is calculated from your family's income in cedis, so a weaker cedi can raise the aid a university offers, but at a university that does not meet full need it raises your bill.

A dollar cost 145% more in cedis at the end of 2024 than at the end of 2021. The cedi then recovered in 2025, but a dollar still costs about twice as many cedis as it did before 2022. For a family paying any part of a US bill, that is the single biggest change in affordability over the period. Our aid offer comparison tool shows every offer in cedis at today's rate and at a 20% weaker one.

Can a Ghana scholarship pay for the US?

Rarely. Of the 278 foreign-study awards in the Ghana Scholarships Authority's public database for 2025, six were for the US.

Most of the Authority's foreign awards are bilateral places in countries such as Morocco (74), Hungary (62) and Russia (57) (our count from the Scholars database; the total of 278 matches Graphic Online's report). Large foundation programmes are a bigger route: the Mastercard Foundation's programme with CAMFED Ghana alone supported 2,140 tertiary scholars over ten years (Mastercard Foundation). For a US degree, the university's own aid remains the main source of money. Our guide to Ghana government scholarships covers how the Authority's awards work.

What does this mean for a family planning now?

1. Build the list around aid, not rankings. The money for international undergraduates is concentrated at a few dozen universities. Start with a list built for full aid.
2. File the aid forms properly. The CSS Profile decides how much of that money you are offered. Our document checklist shows what your family needs to gather.
3. Plan for the visa from the start. With fewer visas issued in 2025, prepare for the interview early and keep a funded option outside the US.
4. Compare offers in cedis. Use the comparison tool before you accept.
5. Keep your dates in one place. The deadlines calendar puts every application and aid date for your list on your phone.

Sources and method

We used only published figures from the bodies that collect them, read from the original files between September and October 2026. Where we worked something out ourselves, such as a share, a change or a sum, the text says so. Open Doors counts students at US colleges in an academic year, including graduates working on Optional Practical Training. The visa figures count F-1 visas issued to Ghanaian nationals, which is not the same as students who enrolled. The aid figures cover international undergraduates seeking a degree who received grant aid from the university itself. We will update this report each year after IIE publishes Open Doors in November.

Citing this report: AkwaaAdvisors, “Ghanaian students and US financial aid: the 2026 report”, 6 October 2026, akwaaadvisors.com/reports/ghanaian-students-and-us-aid. Journalists and counsellors are welcome to use the figures and charts with a link back.