Basically, I like finding out stuff that helps people make good decisions.
After many years as an IT Project Manager and Developer for one of the top FinTech companies, I was introduced to the world of college planning once my kids started high school. As a project manager, I immediately understood how big of a project this was going to be once I started gathering information. I also knew how expensive college can be and became obsessed with helping my kids make the best college choice for them while finding the best college deal possible.
During this journey, I discovered the keys to finding the best college deal possible are the five Cs:
1) Transfer as much college credit as possible.
2) Find cash by identifying all the scholarships possible (institutional and private).
(For more information on this, checkout my other site, USAScholarships.com)
3) Discover ways to cut college costs
4) Make the right college choice
5) All of the above must be done with a competitive spirit.
After understanding the details of the five Cs, I was able to re-define what a full-ride should be and was able to achieve building a full-ride for all of my kids. Now I’m currently teaching other high schoolers and parents how to accomplish this, or at least work towards the goal.
The most important one of the five is College Choice. Picking the right college has a dramatic effect on the other 4 Cs. This is where DIY College Rankings can transform your college search.
DIY College Rankings is dedicated to providing information about colleges to help you make optimal college choices. Using my skill sets of project management, data analysis, business process analysis, and software development, my goal is to provide DIY College Ranking visitors with dynamic, easy-to-use tools and helpful information to select the best college possible for future college students.
Your future college should have an affordable price, be a great fit, and have an amazing program for the area in which you are interested. I’ve helped my own kids achieve that, and I’m here to help you make that possible. You can contact me at [email protected].
I would like to give a special thanks to Michelle Kretzschmar. Michelle is the founder of DIY College Rankings and has provided an amazing foundation on how to evaluate colleges with a data driven approach. I plan to build on her work to make the process of choosing a college more transparent, and provide the knowledge needed to pick the perfect college.
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Michelle, love your site and enjoying the data sheet I purchased from you. Almost. On one of your articles you included a video or text description of how to use highlighting as part of a sort for visual cross-referencing. Can you tell me where to find that? I don’t see a site search feature.
Thanks, Bendan
Hi Bendan,
Glad you enjoy the site. As for the highlighting, click on the Get Your Spreadsheet Data button at the top and watch the video on the page. Towards the end of the video, I show how you can highlight fields.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Michelle
Thanks Michelle. There’s so much good info here – my only problem is knowing where to find it again. And fyi, in Excel 2013 I found conditional formatting on the Home tab as opposed to on the “Format” section (or left click).
Best,
Bendan
Michelle, on our downloaded data set, where is “% of need met?” Thank you.
Hi Michelle,
Can you touch on 5 and 6 year programs? If, for example, a student enters a 5 year MOT (Masters of Occupational Therapy) program or 6 year DOT program, do they get to keep their merit aid the first 3 (undergraduate) years? 4 years? more?? These programs tend to be high value as they save a year of tuition, but we are trying to plan on when to anticipate the spike to graduate tuition and the loss of merit aid. Are there other aid options that become available to graduate students? Thank you!!!
Hi Jill, excellent question! I have to admit, this isn’t something that I’ve looked into before but will start. In the meantime, your best bet is just to ask the admissions or financial aid office. It really can’t hurt. And I’ll start taking a look into it as well.