Selecting Schools Strategically

There is a lesson to be learned from Matt’s travails, and here it is: Teenagers should develop lists of schools that represent good academic and financial fits. Teenagers who do this increase their chances of ending up with a fistful of acceptance letters from schools that are willing to cut the price for them.

So how do students pull this off? When looking for matches, teenagers should typically aim for colleges where they would be in the top 25% to 33% of the applicants. This is especially important if they require financial aid or merit scholarships to attend a school.

Why is being in the top third or so of applicants important? Because schools don’t possess unlimited resources to offer scholarships to everyone, so they strategically ration their grants. The students whom an institution is nuts about are the ones more likely to be rewarded, and that’s true for students of all income levels. Schools are typically willing to cut the price for top applicants, but they may have no desire or ability to make their degrees financially doable for teenagers whose academic profiles aren’t as impressive.