“How do I get scholarships for college”? That’s certainly the million-dollar question. And if I had the perfect answer, I’d probably be WORTH a million dollars!
What I do know, is that it’s best to go where the money is, and that’s at the college itself! It’s also the easiest place to begin, for a few reasons.
Unlike local outside scholarship sources or scholarship websites, the student needs only to submit their college admission application by the priority or scholarship deadline to be considered. Additionally, some colleges have their own scholarship database which becomes available to students once they apply.
But knowing the best source is one thing. Figuring out which colleges are most likely to provide merit money and how it’s awarded is “a whole ‘nother Oprah”.
Luckily, Lynn O’Shaughnessy, Jeff Selingo and Ron Lieber are three experts who have made it their mission to make the process more transparent. Their top two takeaways are:
The best way to get merit scholarships is by applying to colleges where your academic profile exceeds that of the college
The more well-known the “brand” and the higher demand to get in (low admit rate), the less chance of receiving scholarships that are merit-based.
This explains how private colleges with “sticker prices” well above a local public university can end up costing the same or even less. It also shows how leveraging a student’s academic profile against that of the college can result in a tuition discount. Take “Sarah”, an academically strong student with an overall unweighted GPA of 4.0. By checking out TCU’s scholarship award chart she can see that her overall GPA is higher than the average for most of the award levels and could even put her in the running for the Chancellor’s Scholarship (full tuition for four years). As compared to the time and effort involved in searching for scholarships on websites like these, it is much less work for much higher potential gain.
Folks like Mark Salisbury and Jeff Levy, among many others, are trying to make this process even more transparent. He and his wife, Kim have taken their 25 years in higher education and put their knowledge, expertise and passion to work to develop TuitionFit, a tool to help families get “real college price transparency” and be able to know and understand how to maximize a student’s academic merit” in exchange for tuition discounts. Jeff Levy and Jennie Kent of Big J Consulting spend hours gathering data on the percentage of merit aid awarded by colleges and the average amounts and compile into a chart for all to download off their website!
Which brings us to “prestige” and “branding” and how that works against tuition discounting.
In my opinion, one of the biggest misconceptions is that the colleges that have high admit rates or generous merit awards are somehow “less than” academically, which is exactly what the “Top 25 USNWR” colleges want you to believe.
Both Jeff Selingo and Ron Lieber talk about how a college’s prestige is much more a factor of branding and marketing. Colleges hire companies and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to perpetuate this message. As the demand for the college increases, the admit rates get lower and the average academic profile of their students goes up, which means the college doesn’t need to offer merit scholarships. It’s simply supply and demand, or as Jeff Selingo calls it “Buyers vs Sellers”. You’ll see that as you peruse this chart and notice the difference in percent merit aid awarded by College of Wooster and Colorado College.
This article does a great job of presenting this concept and the effect it has on college admissions. It also clearly illustrates how an academically strong student who has spent time researching what type of experience they want and the factors that will provide that beyond the “name” can leverage that into a scholarship/tuition discount. All students need to do is go beyond the “brand name” and spend more time exploring a wider variety of colleges like these to see what they have to offer and the similarities that there are in terms of resources, academics and experiences.
A quote on Wellesley’s website, “College is a match to be made, not a prize to be won”, beautifully (and ironically) reminds students and families that it’s not just about where you get in, it’s what you do once you get there. The more a student knows what’s important to them and why, the more they increase the number and type of colleges that can fulfill their overall goals. It’s also one of the best ways to have their hard work and academic achievements in high school literally “pay off” in terms of financial rewards for them versus increasing the perceived “brand” or prestige of the college.