Find Colleges with the Most Merit Scholarships in 4 Easy Steps

person on stepping stones representing easy steps to finding colleges with the most merit scholarhsips

Person crossing stepping stones representing steps to finding the most merit scholarships(For those looking for colleges with the most merit scholarships, I’m updating this post. Because I’ve updated the spreadsheet several times since I wrote this post, some of the numbers in the text won’t match the results in the graphics. You can see a video demonstration at the end of the post.)    

If you’re looking for colleges that provide the most merit scholarships, start with the information the schools report to the Department of Education. This information states how much money institutions distribute in grants and scholarships and the number of students who receive it. In just four easy steps you can use this data to find colleges most likely to provide generous merit scholarships. These are schools that students with high Expected Family Contributions (EFC) should target for non-need based aid. This is in no way a guarantee. Rather, consider this a way to improve your chances for merit scholarships given the available information. The idea is to use this list as a basis to create the final list of colleges to apply to.

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Who Pays for a College Athlete’s Health Insurance and Medical Care?

health professional examining wrapped knee representing college athletes health care

Doctor with patient asking who pays for college athletic health care.If as a college athlete you don’t expect to make enough money from the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rule to cover your own health insurance, don’t expect the NCAA to be picking up the tab. All college athletes are required by the NCAA to have healthcare insurance. The NCAA does not mandate colleges to pay the healthcare costs for athletes. Should a player be injured, the parent’s insurance is considered the primary insurance for paying for the athlete’s injury costs. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since the term “student-athlete” was created so that colleges wouldn’t be held liable for sports related injuries.

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7 Ways to Make a Perfect College List by Doing What College Admissions Committees Do

Student with notebooks thinking about perfect college lists

student holding notebooks thinking about ways to make a perfect college listWith all the pressure on high school students to create a perfect college list, they really aren’t given the opportunity to develop the skills to do so. It’s the sort of situation that most students will do only once. How often can you “practice” deciding which colleges to apply to? It’s not the same as practicing taking the ACT or SAT. How do you learn to create a list of colleges to apply to?

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How to Start the College Athletic Recruiting Process

foot kicking a football representing how to start college athletic recruiting process

football kickoff representing start of college athletic recruiting processYou’ve heard the saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know?” It’s relevant to college athletic recruiting–when starting out, many families don’t know where to begin or what to ask. So I put together this list of posts for athletes and their families just starting the college athletic recruiting process. After reading these, you should have a basic understanding of college athletic recruiting that will allow you to start asking the right questions.

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The 10 Worst Colleges 2022

A university campus in autumn with vibrant red and orange trees lining a pathway leading to modern academic buildings, noted in some of the worst college rankings.

college campus representing 10 worst collegs

Listing the 10 Worst Colleges is a public service I’m providing as an inoculation against the annual fall media college ranking mania. It is a reminder that rankings are flawed and have their limitations. While they can provide useful information, too few people bother to look beyond the ranking order to evaluate the data used in creating the rankings.
 
To get an idea of what I’m talking about, let’s take a look at the following list of the 10 worst colleges (yes, there are more than 10 because of ties):

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