An applicant should compare funding requirements as separate records: the documents a prospective student provides to verify financial support, and the institution-specific actual undergraduate costs. DHS guidance says, “The documents that prospective students provide to verify financial support are determined by school policy.” EducationUSA states, “Actual costs vary by institution, so refer to each institution’s website for specific costs.”
Identify the school-specific evidence
For each application, make a separate record of the documents specified by that school’s policy for verifying financial support. The records should not be merged. A practical consequence of the DHS guidance is that a document list from one school should not be treated as the list for another without checking the other school’s policy.
The record should preserve the school’s own wording. If the available material does not identify a document clearly enough, the applicant should ask the school which instruction applies rather than infer an accepted document. This keeps the comparison tied to the applicable school policy.
Compare costs on an institution basis
Cost information belongs in a separate field. EducationUSA’s statement means that actual undergraduate costs should be checked on each institution’s website and should not be assumed to be identical across schools.
The comparison should attach each cost statement to the institution that supplies it, preserving the wording and context in which the institution presents the figure. One school’s cost figure should not be substituted for another school’s figure.
Confirm the unresolved details
The cited statements establish the comparison principle, but they do not specify a particular school’s document list or actual cost amount. They do not establish a fee, deadline, or funding formula for an individual application either.
The applicant should confirm those school-specific details in the institution’s current materials before treating the funding requirement as complete. If the materials do not answer the question, that gap should remain marked for confirmation rather than filled with an assumption.