126 Hardest Colleges to Get Into

woman rock climbing representing hardest colleges to get into

woman rock climbing representing hardest colleges to get into(See the list for 2022 at the end of the post.) What are the hardest colleges to get into? Anyone going through the college admissions process can’t help but ask the question at least once. It’s a lot like visiting a Parade of Homes that you know you’ll never afford or maybe like rubbernecking while driving past a car wreck on the freeway-which ever analogy works for you. Of course, you can just look at US News College Rankings and get a pretty good idea. And that’s the point, everything in the media seems to reinforce the perception that exclusivity equals quality. Even if when we know better, we can’t help but feel insecure when we choose a lesser-known college.

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5 Crucial Items Missing from Your College Comparison Spreadsheet

female using college comparison spreadsheet on a laptop

female using college comparison spreadsheet on a laptopA college comparison spreadsheet is really the most effective way to narrow your list of colleges you want to actually apply to. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s pretty useful when trying to make the final decision on which to attend as well. It’s just that I think that by putting in a little spreadsheet grease at the beginning of the process will provide you with much more affordable choices at the end of the process. The key is to make sure that your college comparison spreadsheet contains these 5 often overlooked pieces of information that will give you some idea of how much you’ll pay for college.

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5 Financial Aid Strategies Parents of Sophomores Need to Know Before the Spring Semester

Couple considering financial aid strategies

parents considering financial aid strategiesParents of sophomores need to know that their students’ college financial aid awards will be calculated on the base year that starts January 1 of the student’s sophomore year. This means that the fall semester of the student’s sophomore year will be the last chance parents have to implement some financial aid strategies that could significantly increase their student’s eligibility for need-based financial aid. Furthermore, there will be some major changes of the FAFSA starting with the 2024-25 school year that parents need to be aware of.

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653 Colleges with No Application Fees for 2022

Student looking at computer listing of colleges with no application fees

student looking at colleges with free application feesI’ve updated the list of colleges with no application fees based on the Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and information from the Common Application. The IPEDS data is the fee charged for the previous academic year while the Common Application Data is for the 2022-23 year. Yes, it’s very possible the data reported by IPEDS will not be valid for the coming year. But it’s what is available.

College Application Fees can be Expensive!

Everyone knows the cost of higher education is spiraling out of control. Did you know that just the cost to apply to college has reached equally outrageous levels? Applying to US News 2022-23 Top Ten (there are actually 11 top 10 because of a tie) National Universities would set you back $845 in application fees with a low of $70 to a high of $90. Only two schools charged less than $75. That doesn’t include the cost of sending in test score reports.

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Cheapest Out-of-State Colleges in 34 States

Money sticking out of a pocket representing colleges with cheapest out-of-state colleges

pocket with money representing saving at cheapest out-of-state colleges(The Cheapest Out-of-State Colleges List has been updated for the latest data available in September of 2022.) Back when I was a freshman attending a rather large state university in Austin, Texas, I ran into quite a few students (relatively speaking) from the state of New York. They told me that they were attending college in Texas because our out-of-state tuition was cheaper than their in-state tuition. I only saw them that one year because the following year, the legislature raised out-of-state tuition and Texas was no longer as appealing to New Yorkers as it once was.

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The EFC Chart: Understand How Much You’ll Pay for College

stack of money representing efc chart

stack of money for college representing the EFC ChartTroy Onink used to provide a Federal FAFSA EFC Chart until he passed away in 2018. His chart is still probably one of the most commonly found on the internet even though it’s from 2017-18. It’s still useful for its shock value. Most parents have little sense of what college is going to cost and the EFC chart is a wake-up call. Hopefully, parents who see it today will be motivated to use an EFC calculator to get an estimate for their own situation. In any case, since the table is outdated, I’ve created my own EFC chart.

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28 Free Resources for FAFSA Help

hand out of water looking for free FAFSA help

Hand reaching out of water for FAFSA helpWhy should you care about FAFSA help? In case you haven’t heard, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for 2023-24 is available on October 1st. That means that it’s time for high school seniors to collect all their documents so they can fill out the FAFSA. Why? Because you will need to have submitted the FAFSA to be eligible for financial aid awarded by the federal government, colleges, and many states. And the sooner, the better. While filling out the FAFSA isn’t the key to great financial aid, it is a necessary step.

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15 Things Parents of High School Freshmen Must Know NOW About Preparing for College!

Mother and son representing what high school freshman need to know about paying for college

Mother and son learning preparing for collegeAs the parents of college freshmen drove home from dropping their kids off at college, many had to be thinking about how they’ll do things differently next time knowing what they know now. Many were probably wishing, “if only someone had told me four years ago when we first started thinking about preparing for college that…, things would have been so much easier.” It’s a common dilemma in life, you don’t know what you don’t know. So I’ve created the following list of things that parents of high school freshmen need to know about preparing for college and how financial aid works. Let me know if you have anything to add.

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The Hard Truth About Private Scholarships

hand stacking coins representing truth about private scholarships

hand stacking coins representing the truth about private scholarshipsThere are two major delusions/misconceptions about paying for college that too many parents have. The first is that by not saving for college, parents claim this will make their kids eligible for more financial aid. Why bother saving if it means they won’t get any financial aid? This falls into the delusional category. I generally give people the benefit of the doubt but I can’t help but think this has more to do with preferring to spend money now rather than saving for later. Oh, FYI, financial aid doesn’t work that way.

The second is really a misconception that I can’t fault parents for having-scholarships will pay for college. By the senior year in high school, there’s every reason for parents to believe that their bright, high achieving seniors will be able to pay for college if they just apply for enough scholarships. There are easily a dozen different websites just to search for millions of scholarships worth billions of dollars.

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