College Admission and Cost

The truth of college cost is everyone pays different price for the same education. It is like the airline ticket where some bought from priceline, hotwire, direct from airline etc. and pays different price to go same destination in the same flight. At the start of the college search process you need to research what kind of help they can get from colleges and other sources. Because some of the most expensive schools can be most affordable for the right candidate. This blog may help you with the research.

Private schools often cut the price aggressively by providing the institutional awards that include need based and merit based. Look out for the right colleges who provide this awards and prices.

To find the right colleges look at the US News and World Report Ranking, if the colleges in the top 25; they will give need base finance to the bright student with mid to low income. They won't give dime to rich people unless the student is extra ordinary bright, even so Elite Colleges  gives token grant. Rich people don't care either to go for those elite colleges. This elite colleges need people who pay the full prices.  For now I consider rich people are those whose  EFC is 40k or above i.e. not qualified for the need base aid. EFC is an amount of dollar amount that college expect you to pay.

For Poor students to get into elite colleges are extremely difficult as they really want bright student to pay those need based aid. Elite Public institution the rate is higher than private for the poor bright students.

Many other private school want to attract affluent families by offering them merit-based scholarship to all level of people.Top 5% rich people are already went to those elite school due to wow factor, so now left is rest 95% category. This private colleges want to subsidize the education to the modest families, who otherwise will consider the other state colleges. By providing some merit based money they are still paying more than rest of the students.


This private schools located in a prime cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC etc pay less merit based aid compared to the school in suburb region. So if you want considerable amount of merit based money then stay away from those cities.


Every school want to bump up their ranking so they want to attract good kids by providing some aids. So more down you go to the ranking more money you will get.

If you are wealthy and you cannot afford to pay full price or don't want to pay full price, you should look for colleges that has lower ranking, which can reward you with merit based scholarship. The best way to find how much merit reward you will get is to look into the net price calculator. Many colleges based on GPA and SAT/ACT score able to tell you how much merit aid you can get. FYI - When the calculator takes to the college board it does not show merit amount.


The best way to get money from the private school is look outside of your state. Private Colleges are keen to get out of the state student and happy to give merit award. Look for the college is subrurn rather than city. It is supply and demand everyone want to go to LA, Boston, NY, Chicago etc, so the colleges in those cities will not give  you merit based scholarship.

Lastly, look for the liberal colleges rather than big universities.