I’ve created two lists of colleges to target for merit aid, one consisting of only 50-50 schools and a more general list taking into consideration test scores. Since all the colleges on the lists are private schools, I thought I would create a list best financial bets for 50-50 public universities. As I started looking at the schools, I realized that the criteria I used for the private colleges didn’t exactly apply to the public universities.
Costs
How to Find Merit Scholarships: Follow the Money, Part 3
In Part Two of How to Find Merit Scholarships, I said that you need to look at the numbers on institutional aid and non-federal loans to get an idea of which schools are more likely to give out merit money. Now we’ll look at some examples to see how it works.
How to Find Merit Scholarships: Follow the Money, Part 2
(Part 1 showed how to identify colleges that are likely sources of merit money.)
Now that you know who has the money, you need to target those schools more likely to be giving it away. I do this by looking at information on institutional grants. This is money the school is giving the student and is usually the largest single source of financial aid for an individual student at private schools. Since IPEDS doesn’t require the school to distinguish between need and merit based grants, I also look at the percentage of freshman who receive the institutional grants.
How to Find Merit Scholarships: Follow the Money
There are 1,586 public and not-for-profit colleges with 500 or more full-time undergraduates. Which of them are likely to give you merit scholarships? Unfortunately, there’s really no one right way to search for such colleges. After all, the college that provides a generous amount of merit scholarship to one student will deny it to another.
Guaranteed Tuition and 4 Year Graduation: Part 2
Guaranteed tuition programs are one way to save money although they probably have a greater effect at public colleges than private ones. The other guarantee program popping up with increasing frequency is a four-year college graduation guarantee. This means that if it takes you more than four years to graduate, the college will pay for the remaining classes needed to graduate. Given that the average four-year graduation rate is less than 50%, this is an appealing offer.
Guaranteed Tuition and 4 Year Graduation: Part 1
The University of Wisconsin offers a guarantee to graduate in four years. The University of Illinois guarantees its tuition for four years. Both offers are fairly new to colleges in general and don’t have much of a track record in terms of students enrolling under the programs. So which is a better deal? Or are they both just gimmicks for colleges to sooth the family fear of rising tuition costs?
5 College Costs Infographics Worth Looking At
If you believe a picture is worth a 1000 words or just have to communicate with someone who isn’t interested reading more than 140 characters at a time, infographics are for you. There are plenty of infographics on college costs that can be used as an introduction to topic. Of course, some are better than others. I think the following five college costs infographics are worth taking the time to look at.
400 Plus Full Ride Scholarships
I’ve been spending some time talking about a Moneyball approach to college admissions. The idea is to get the best college education without sacrificing your financial future. And what better Moneyball solution for college than a full-ride scholarship? Want to know where to find such scholarships? Wendy Nelson at My Kid’s College Choice has created a spreadsheet listing over 400 college sponsored full-ride scholarships.
Moneyball College Admission Rules: Know How Much You’re Paying and Why
I don’t know about you, but I’m always leery when the price of a good or service I’m considering purchasing isn’t readily available. The phrase, “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” starts echoing in my head. However, although most college websites don’t have their costs readily accessible, it doesn’t seem to be an issue for most people. I have to admit, I didn’t really start noticing it until I start writing this post.