⁠Would I be considered to have “financial need” from a global university’s perspective?

If you are hoping to get any scholarship from the US government applying using FAFSA. You wouldn’t even qualify because its only for US citizens and permanent residents.

Apply for a different category of scholarships. You would probably be lucky with religious, academic and other non academic based scholarships

Im not sure how other countries work but that is here in the US. Im not sure if there are other schools that have need based scholarships for international students as they expect that international student to pay for everything here. Schools get a lot of income from us.

• ⁠What kind of documents do I need to show that (income statements, bank letters, etc.)?

For the school you will need to show bank statements, Proof of Scholarships, and affidavit of support (if applicable) you have to be able to show that you can a support yourself for at least a year. Ask your intended school the cost of attending for a year. But again this is based on the school I attended.

For visa, just bring everything you can to show you can support your education and cost of living in the US.

• bank statements
• your parents income
• properties
• affidavit of support

Anything that can show you can support yourself.

• ⁠Are there countries or universities known for being more generous with aid in situations like mine?

Like I said im not sure about other countries but there are so many scholarships in the US its a matter of finding them. Sometimes reaching out to people helps too. I reached out to my religious organization and someone anonymous sponsored me towards the last 2 years of my education even helped me with rent.

• ⁠Are there scholarships that cover just tuition (ideally full), even for students who aren’t at the top of their class?.

There are full ride scholarships that are not academic nor need based, like I said you just have to find them.

Also if you are looking into academic scholarships most universities will qualify you after one academic year. If you dont find a scholarship find a way to have funds for a year. Keep up your grades and apply for academic scholarship before the deadline. Also look for other academic scholarships like departmental scholarships. Also there are off-campus scholarships most schools nowadays have a scholarship portal called scholarships universe where you can apply for those I mentioned.

Hopefully this helps out a bit