Need College Scholarship Money? Apply To Your Best-Fit Colleges!

The Power of Best-Fit Affects More Than Admission

For a small number of colleges – those in the Ivy League, Stanford, and similar big names – college money is given only to students with demonstrated financial need. At the other private colleges in the U.S., however, students can increase their chance of scholarship money by applying to their best-fit colleges.

I say this with confidence, on the basis of approximately 50 thousand admission results from colleges over the past 17 years that I have advised college-bound students. In a recent year when 10 students with nearly identical academic credentials and financial need (measured by the FAFSA) were admitted to the same private college, the 4 students who had selected the college for best fit were offered 50% more money compared to the others. This is just one vivid example of why I advise that students and families who are scrambling to deal with college expenses think twice before randomly submitting college applications.