When talking to people about paying for college, one of my mantras is that you can’t get money from a college you’ve never applied to. Well, that’s changing with a new app called TuitionFit. TuitionFit is an absolute game changer in the college money arena and every family needs to know about it. Because if you use TuitionFit, you just could get money from a college you’ve never applied to.
(You can see an updated evaluation of the College Navigator here.) The College Navigator website is part of the National Center for Education Statistics. They are responsible for collecting all kinds of education related data including that in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The College Navigator is just the user-friendly way of accessing the IPEDS data. If you don’t like the user-friendly approach, you can access the data directly through the IPEDS Data Center.
Families are told not to avoid private colleges and universities because of their high sticker prices. The fact is that very few people pay the actual sticker price. This includes families in the highest income category since most private colleges provide financial aid for high income families in the form of tuition discounting more commonly known as “merit aid.” However, some 50-50 schools are more likely to offer merit aid than others. This means that some colleges will be much more affordable for high income families than others–assuming the student qualifies for merit aid.
(Updated for 2019) Robert J. Kibbee, the former Chancellor of City University New York, observed “Over the years, we have come to identify quality in a college not by whom it serves but by how many students it excludes. Let us not be a sacred priesthood protecting the temple, but rather the fulfillers of dreams.” And if the dreams fulfilled aren’t going to be determined by family income, colleges are going to need to provide substantial financial aid to the neediest students.
In case you’ve been in a coma and haven’t heard, there is a student loan crisis. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the total student loan debt of $1.46 billion exceeds that of consumer credit card debt. Apparently, students are borrowing too much to pay for college. Of course, you could argue that maybe they’re not borrowing too much, they just don’t have jobs that will allow them to make their loan payments. Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that students are often borrowing more than they can reasonably repay.
Given that very few private colleges meet 100% of financial need, the cheapest option for most low-income students will be one of their state’s public universities. There will always be some low-income students that will have their full need met at private colleges, but they will be the exception. The majority will find themselves “gapped” and forced to consider private loans to make up the difference.
(The following has been updated for 2019.) Merit scholarships from colleges aren’t simply a way for schools to reward students for accomplishments, it’s part of the supply and demand of paying for college. Colleges use merit aid as a way to increase the supply of “accomplished” students at their schools. This is why the most competitive colleges in the country such as Princeton and Harvard don’t offer merit scholarships–they have no problem attracting high achieving students to their schools.
The list of 50-50 colleges and universities is designed to provide students and their families with options for good schools where students are likely to be admitted. What makes a 50-50 school even better is when it provides generous financial aid. This can come in the form of scholarships and need-based grants. And quite a few 50-50 colleges do and are worth looking into.
If you knew that the average amount of financial aid a college awarded freshmen was $25,000, would you consider it? With the cost of four years of college ranging from $100,000 to over a quarter of a million dollars, why wouldn’t you? I’m not saying you have to apply to the college, I’m just saying give it a look over because chances are it’s one that wasn’t on your radar. The table below lists all 50-50 colleges that provide the most institutional aid in each state according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Since it is limited to 50-50 colleges, there are only 36 private colleges and 46 public institutions on the list.