Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, Elon University in North Carolina, Christopher Newport University in Virginia - do these sound like the best names in higher education, places you could happily give a pass to Harvard or Yale for? If you wouldn't dream of it, you actually should. These are centers of higher education that rank low as status symbols and certainly don't have the kind of wealth as the Ivy Leaguers or even the universal appeal that gives them the pick of the year's graduation class. But make no mistake, these are some of the best colleges America has to offer. How do they get the attention of the kind of student they would really like to have apply with them? They kind of bribe you with financial aid for college course.
It isn't easy for a college the calculation it needs to make to determine exactly how much money it needs to offer in aidto attract students and keep their interest for the full course, without offering too much and putting itself in jeopardy financially. Understandably enough, the colleges don't really see any of this as a bribe really; they just prefer to call this college enrollment management. All they want is a completely superior student body that brings a variety of skills into their midst. For this, they will even offer wealthy candidates really generous financial aid for college.
The thinking is that the college needs you the student just as much as you need it. Just think about how it affects a sports team to have a star athlete in their midst. A star athlete somehow inspires the whole team to play much better than they otherwise would. A college is capable of taking its students very far. But a college is only as good as its student body; having superlative students in their midst introduces great examples to set for the rest of the students. The entire college benefits. Some of these schools to begin with, started off with very narrow areas of specialization. Ursinus in Pennsylvania for example had its pre-med course that it was quite famous for to begin with. To bring in outstanding students one way or the other, the college widened its scope and began academic degrees in all kinds of other specializations. Including ones in the law and in the liberal arts.
Financial aid for college, for the whole course costs money; how do they afford it? At first they couldn't. They defined their grants policy entirely by how in need the applicants were. They quickly found out that this meant that they would have so little money, but they couldn't stay in business. They changed their approach then to granting a degree of aid to the applicants with the the most outstanding academic records. This way, they got a good number of outstanding students who were able to pay, who came because they were attracted by the quality of the education provided, but also by the size of the financial aid for college they received. Students who do better than 1300 in their SATs get the highest rank. Those who score above 1000 on their SATs get the the next tier; they all get grant packages in line with their academic achievements. Top-tier students receive perhaps $35,000 in aid; the second tier students get three-quarters that.
Most of these colleges still use the FAFSA method to calculate what percentage of the tuition expenses they pay; others use the CSS profile. A family that is cash poor but owns a home, will find that the FAFSA method is kinder. The moral of the lesson - try some of the undiscovered gems of the higher education. It could reward you not only in a better education, but it could spare you untold trouble with an unaffordable tuition.
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