Students are not likely to receive the same amount of financial aid every year. This can be a good thing or a bad thing but too often is a bad thing. Students must apply for financial aid each year and any changes in their families’ circumstances can affect their EFC/SAU and the amount of money awarded. This can be a good thing when a family’s situation changes for the worse and the student receives additional aid to compensate for a lower EFC/SAI. The same would be true if the EFC/SAI remained the same but the cost of attendance increases as it has been known to do.
FAQ: Do students get the same amount of financial aid every year?
(Skip to the end to see the list of 248 colleges that take a 3.0 GPA or less.) You can go to a four-year college with less than a 3.0 GPA. There are a number of colleges that are open admissions meaning that they will admit anyone who meets their minimum standards. This can mean just having passed specific classes in high school or meet minimum scores on selected placement tests. There are also colleges that admit students with less than a 3.0 GPA as part of their regular admissions process.
If you look at the US News College Rankings you’ll see that there are two major rankings, National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges. In general, people have heard of National Universities but few are familiar with the Liberal Arts Colleges or why they are a separate group. So what exactly is a Liberal Arts College?
A “likely letter” is a letter from the college admissions office stating that you are likely to be admitted as long as nothing changes before the official admissions deadline. They are not formal offers of admissions–just notices that students are very “likely” to be admitted. Students receive likely letters a month or two before the regular admissions decision deadline.
The term “Public Ivy” was coined by Richard Moll in Public Ivies: A Guide to America’s Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities which was published in 1985. Moll identified eight public institutions with Ivy League characteristics. He argued that these characteristics, which included both academic and non-academic elements, provided an Ivy League experience at a public-school price. Since then, others have added to the list or often just use the term to describe a public institution with high academic standards.
There is no official definition of what is a flagship university. In general, when people talk about flagship universities, they are referring to the most prominent public university of their state. It is usually the first public university that was established in the state and receives the most state support. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the “best” public university in the state although many assume so.
(Common list of Tier 1 Universities for 2022 is at the end of the post.) What is a tier 1 university turns out to be a very interesting question. I never really looked into it and just assumed that Tier 1 was a school ranked in the top 50 of US News College Rankings for National Universities. Tiers 2, 3, and 4 were the next group of 50 institutions. Everything not ranked in the top 200 were considered unranked schools. I do remember at one point something about US News deciding not to do Tier 2, that those schools would be part of a larger Tier 1, or something like that.
The FAFSA is the 
No. You don’t have to be accepted to a college to apply for financial aid. You can submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (
