“Follow The Money” To Find More Generous Colleges
I’m about to start helping my daughter (a junior in college) put together a list of colleges she may be interested in so we can visit them in the coming months. When she starts college, I’ll have two kids in college at the same time. Even though there’s a chance (a very small chance) that having two kids in college at the same time improves the possibility of being eligible for some financial aid, I’m not holding my breath. Instead, I’m going to put my own advice to work and start researching to find colleges that are more likely to be generous with their merit aid.
The data to start my research comes from two sources: IPEDS and the Common Data Set. IPEDS is data the government requires of all postsecondary institutions that receive federal financial aid money under Title IV of the Higher Education Act. The Common Data Set collects data under the collaborative arrangements made between higher education institutions and publishers, namely The College Board, Peterson’s, and U.S. News & World Report (yes — this is part of the data that is used to make up the infamous USN&WR rankings).
These two data sources have information on colleges that will help me “follow the money” to find schools that are more generous with their institutional aid. As I help my daughter create a list of potential schools she will apply to, it’s important to make sure the list includes a good number of schools that have a higher likelihood of offering merit scholarships.
This is the type of research that needs to happen BEFORE my daughter applies, because after the applications are in, it’s too late and she’ll be left to choose from the schools that accept her with or without any merit aid offered. So if we don’t include these schools in the mix now, we’ll be out of luck when admissions decisions come out next spring.
REGISTER NOW for our ROADMAP TO CUTTING COLLEGE COSTS
What Information Should I Research?
Deciding to research is easy, finding the data is not so easy. But here’s the data that will help tell me if a college is generous:
• Average % of Need Met — Colleges report this information, which shows how much of a student’s financial need a college can meet. For example, if a family’s EFC (expected family contribution) is $25,000, but the college costs $60,000, then the student’s need is $35,000. If a college reports they meet 90% of students’ need than the financial aid offer to this student would cover close to 90% of $35,000. This doesn’t mean all the aid will be free — most likely it will be a combination of loans, grants, and work-study.
• % of Students Receiving Merit Aid — This information tells me what percent of students receive merit aid. It’s a good indication for finding a generous college, because if a high percent of the study bodies receive merit aid, the likelihood that my student will get merit aid increases.
• Average Merit Award — Another good piece of information. I’d like to find a school that has a high average merit award number, like something close to $20,000 or more.
• Average Net Price — This is the price that families pay after deducting their EFC and any aid they receive. If I calculate the Average Merit Award, as a percent of the Average Net Price, this gives me a good idea of how generous a school is — the higher the percent is, the more generous the school is.
With all the information above, I can get a good idea of how generous a college is by understanding how many students are receiving merit aid, what size the merit aid offer is, and what percent of the net price the merit aid represent.
Where Can I Find The Information I Need?
So, what’s holding me back from finding these schools? The college search sites don’t make it easy to search based on these specific pieces of information (shocking — right!), nor do they even give you access to all this information in one site.
But fear not, there is a source that can help. Michelle Kretzshmar (of DIYCollegeRankings) realized this problem herself when she was trying to find a college for her son. Since then she’s created a tool with all the essential information a family needs to slice, dice, and chop the information to get a customized list of colleges that meet their student’s criteria — financially, academically, and socially. There is no other publicly available tool that allows users to compare, sort and filter colleges using any of the 50 data fields provided.
Because this is such a valuable tool, Michelle and I have collaborated to create a course to teach parents what they need to know to “follow the money” to schools that will be more likely to be generous and offer their students merit aid.
Roadmap To Cutting College Costs teaches parents how to become smarter, educated consumers of higher education by understanding:
• EFC (Estimated Family Contribution)
• Financial aid terminology
• Government sources for funding college
• Institutional aid from colleges
• and How to identify Useful data for researching more generous colleges
Participants will also receive our invaluable college lists, such as a comprehensive list of full tuition scholarships, schools that meet 100% of financial need, schools that don’t award merit scholarships, and more.
REGISTER NOW for our ROADMAP TO CUTTING COLLEGE COSTS
This article was originally published on Road2College.
By Debbie Schwartz, Founder of Road2College, a media and publishing company dedicated to providing trustworthy information, resources, and an independent voice to help families navigate college admissions and financing.
