Lowest GPA to get financial aid in the US?

Receiving financial aid based on merit, which is what you are asking, is a less common and difficult proposition. The main reason is that majority of colleges do not provide much merit aid, to begin with. 90% of the financial aid in the US is based on "NEED" or your family's ability to pay. This main reason is why it is difficult for International students to receive aid. When students from France or Nordic countries apply to the US, they are puzzled because in their own country they can receive an excellent subsidized college education for close to nothing. Even in the UK, attending the best universities like Oxford and Cambridge costs 4 times less tuition than American counterparts. That is why studying abroad is attractive to Americans versus the other way around.

Your best option is to apply for financial aid based on "need". Almost all the top schools including many Ivy League schools and MIT, Duke, etc offer generous financial aid to International students if you need it. On the other hand, none of these schools offer Merit-based aid regardless of your GPA or Test Scores. The reason is that they fully expect theirs admits to having the best GPAs and Test Scores.

I'm submitting a couple of links to some well-written articles about financial aid for international students.

https://blog.collegevine.com/schools-that-grant-financial-aid-to-international-students-a-complete-list/

https://blog.collegevine.com/the-american-college-admissions-process-made-easy-a-guide-for-international-students/

I would disagree with the previous answer in context to your question. I don't believe that you would receive merit-based financial aid if your GPA was 2.0 or 2.1 or even 2.5. Burea College which is well known for giving international students generous financial aid has an average GPA of around 3.6 for its most recent class.

Lastly, I would like to inform you that this is not a consulting site where you can call and talk to members and have detailed conversations either for free or for money. This is a simple Question and Answer blog. You may ask 1 question at a time and expect to receive 1 or 2 responses in a timely manner.

Good luck

If you're an American Citizen, the minimum GPA to get Financial Aid is 2.0. However, I would not suggest cutting it that close because it is very easy to lose that amount even if you are only close to that amount such as (2.1-2.4).

Also, it really depends on the college you apply to because they can have their own terms and conditions for financial aid for you to have.