General – Page 8 – Do It Yourself College Rankings

12 Days of Christmas 2021: Day 4

12/24/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

4 ways on how to search for colleges and avoid mistakes.

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(I’m taking a break from regular blogging and newsletters during the holidays. Hope you enjoy the DIY College Rankings version of the 12 Days of Christmas.)

On the fourth day of Christmas, DIY College Rankings wrote to me:

How to search and what to avoid.

4 Easy Steps to Find 254 Colleges for Potential Merit Scholarships

An average net price of over $30,000 suggests that regardless of the amount of aid being awarded, the school is still likely to be expensive.

4 College Recruiting Mistakes to Avoid When You’re the Best Player on Your Team

It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that you can judge your ability because you have played other teams and haven’t seen anyone as good as you.

4 Reasons People Don’t Pick Affordable Colleges

Attending affordable colleges comes with some trade-offs that not all families are willing to make.

12 Days of Christmas 2021: Day 3

12/23/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

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(I’m taking a break from regular blogging and newsletters during the holidays. Hope you enjoy the DIY College Rankings version of the 12 Days of Christmas.)

On the third day of Christmas, DIY College Rankings wrote to me:

Three wake-up calls about college financial aid and recruiting.

3 Hard Truths About Financial Aid

For the majority of families, the EFC is going to be much higher than they anticipated.

3 Reasons Why Your Kid’s Good Grades Won’t Pay for College

Yes, your teen may have great grades and test scores. But are they substantially better than everyone else’s that attends the colleges she’s applying to?

12 Days of Christmas 2021: Day 2

12/22/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

Christmas Day 2 college lists to help you save money on college

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(I’m taking a break from regular blogging and newsletters during the holidays. Hope you enjoy the DIY College Rankings version of the 12 Days of Christmas.)

On the second day of Christmas, DIY College Rankings wrote to me:

Two lists worth taking the time to review before creating your college list if you want to save money.

Harvard Scholarships: No Such Thing

This post is actually about Colleges that don’t Offer Merit Scholarships, Harvard is just the example. Skip down to the middle of the post to see a list of 84 colleges that provide little to no merit aid. And not all of them meet full need.

12 Days of Christmas 2021: Day 1

12/21/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

1st day of DIY College Rankings Christmas

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(I’m taking a break from regular blogging and newsletters during the holidays. Hope you enjoy the DIY College Rankings version of the 12 Days of Christmas.)

On the first day of Christmas, DIY College Rankings wrote to me:

In case you missed it this past year, one must read.

15 Things Parents of High School Freshmen Must Know NOW About Getting Into and Paying for College!

If I had only one post people read from my website, I would pick this one. Ideally, it would be read by parents when their kids are freshman. The earlier parents are aware of the realities of paying for college, the more likely they will be able to orient the college admissions process to maximizing their potential financial aid. After all, you can’t get financial aid from colleges you never apply to.

10 Essential Clues Students Miss When Researching Colleges

05/03/202209/21/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

Sherlock Holmes representing researching colleges

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Unless you’re willing to just pick one set of college rankings and use it to decide between colleges, at some point you’re going to have to dig deeper and actually start researching colleges. The fact is that once you get past adding or removing colleges from your list based on things like size, majors, and locations, most students will still need to narrow down their lists. There’s no magic formula for deciding between schools–what’s important to one student won’t be for another. And given the cost of college, students should commit to researching them further to find their differences. But how do you research a college?

It Takes More Than Rankings to Find Good Colleges

08/24/202108/24/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

Person looking out of computer screen for good colleges

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Why? Because it all depends on how you define good colleges.

And that’s the problem. How do you know what makes a college “good?” Are good colleges the ones where the good students go? After all, the colleges that admit only a small percentage of students with high GPAs and college test scores are the ones that show up at the top of the college rankings. But does that mean the school is good because it admits good students or do good students go there because it is a good college?

8 Things Parents Paying for College Must Know

05/03/202208/17/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

Student happy because parents paying for college

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When my son was small and I would tell him to do something, he would ask why and I would tell him because “it’s in the parent’s manual.” He got really curious about that manual. Where was it? (I wasn’t allowed to tell him.) When did we get it? (At the hospital, of course, you don’t think they would let us leave without it?) Was there a kid’s manual? (You mean you lost yours?)

7 Things You Need to Know When Looking for Private Scholarships

08/10/202108/10/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

A maze with money at the center and the text, "7 Things You Need to Know When Looking for College Scholarships" at the bottom, highlighting insights into securing private scholarships.

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With all of the college scholarship search websites available, it would seem that getting a private scholarship to pay for school has never been easier. Unigo’s scholarship match offers to match students to 3.6 million college scholarships and grants worth over $24 billion. And Scholarships.com tells you that there are over 3.7 million scholarships worth $19 billion just waiting for you. How hard can it be to get a scholarship?

8 Steps to Study for Free in Germany

08/05/202108/05/2021 by KC Raj

students researching how to study for free in Germany

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(By KC Raj of KCR Consultants) Since 2016, the number of students from the United States studying in Germany has increased by 17%. Many international students choose to study in Germany to take advantage of its excellent universities and quality of life. However, even more appealing is that students can attend college for free in Germany.