Our family doesn’t have financial need therefore we knew moving in that affording university was all upon us, and that we acted accordingly.
For background, my daughter got her final acceptance. She's 13 for 13, with great merit.
She was accepted to 3 “hidden ivies” and something “public ivy.”
I honestly think the way we proceeded is the reason things went well, and I wish to share what we learned along the way when it comes to chasing merit money, just in case it can benefit anyone else.
How Chasing Merit Might help Middle Class Families Finance College
Buyers and Sellers
Jeff Selingo’s advice was vital and guided what we did. His book, Who Gets In and Why is full of great info.
His site is rich in resources. He’s done a number of live videos with Road2College and the “Buyers and Sellers” concept is something everyone should learn.
Schools which are “Sellers” aren’t going to give much, if any, merit, regardless of how great your son or daughter is. People will pay the full price to be able to place the name of those schools on a bumper sticker on their own car.
It’s a fact, which information is available. “Buyers” are far more likely to award merit aid, and there are great buyer schools out there.
With no financial need, we took all the “Seller” schools off the list.
It's not worth the time and effort when you are aware the merit aid won’t be there.
Finding the Right Fit
Your student’s great stats can get great merit money, however, you have to find the best school for those stats. Net price calculators are not enough.
You have to dig deep into the Common Data Set for schools. (Just about all schools ask them to, just Google the school name and “Common Data Set.”)
The information the most popular Data Set provides is amazing. You'll find the schools where your student’s stats are in the top 25 % in a Buyer school, and that’s in which the money is.
Fit is something Never imagined of when it comes to merit and acceptance until reading Selingo’s book.
Schools want kids to simply accept their offer and to stay all years. It can make their ratings and stats look better.
I think this is a part of why my daughter accomplished it well. She’s a quirky, artsy, LGBT+ theater kid with rainbow-colored hair. We obviously wanted her at a school where she’d find her people.
But as it happens schools also want that suit, because again, should you stay and therefore are happy the college has better stats. (And hopefully happy alumni will donate down the road.)
My instinct is, had my daughter put on a conservative school that was Greek-life and athletics focused, she'd not have access to been a perfect candidate because it’s pretty obvious she wouldn’t be happy.
The school would possibly take into account that she might not accept their offer or would enroll and not stay, which hurts the schools rankings. We followed all of the social media pages for schools, their clubs, housing, and dining, and would take a look at pictures these were tagged in by students.
This really helped give an idea of what students “fit” at what schools.
Do Your Research
All of the details are available. It breaks my heart to see all of the posts of scholars engaging in dream schools, with zero chance of it working financially, even when stretched.
Often they're schools that are known Sellers that simply don’t give merit. Sure, miracles can happen, but there are plenty of great schools with merit scholarships available, so we focused on them.
Check out the data on the attending college Insights and the Road2College website. The time are there-go look for them before applications go out.
[Find colleges that suit your preferences with our easy-to-use, online College Insights Tool. Filter, sort, and compare the results for information about merit scholarships, test optional, early decision, early action, need-based aid, and much more.]
Colleges That Make any difference (both book by Loren Pope and website) is a great resource. There are plenty of great finds.
Those smaller private schools give away some big bucks. All of a sudden the tuition of the $75,000-a-year private school could be reduced towards the cost of your $25,000-a-year in-state option.
And again, that info is out there.
Make sure you've safety schools! With no appear your student’s stats are, consider any school with an acceptance rate below 25 % a reach.
Remember, these schools can fill each and every seat in their class having a valedictorian who made a scientific breakthrough while playing four varsity sports and being president of six clubs, and volunteering 2,000 hours annually in between.
At some schools, even the most shockingly amazing students are merely standard.
If merit is an important part from the equation for your family, hopefully this post is helpful in a way.
Again, we didn’t have financial need , so that was not part of the equation; we knew merit was the only money we’d see.
I’m afraid I can’t suggest which schools you should look at, because here’s the one thing, you need to make the work specific to your child.
I’m more than happy to share my resources, experience, and what helped us, and if you are like doing so you should use the resources and advice I shared, but nobody, aside from perhaps a college counselor, can perform this work for you personally and discover the colleges your son or daughter might have success with.
It took us many hours over almost a year to come up with my daughter’s plan.
Nobody can give you that info for your child off the cuff. You've got to perform the work. However the return in your effort and time can be substantial.
Good luck!