Getting caught up in numbers
This time every year, news outlets begin to focus on high school students who have been accepted at some incredible number of colleges, and who have received millions of dollars in scholarships. Last year it was a student from New Orleans who was accepted to 175 colleges and received over $9 million in scholarships.
Now, I'm not making a judgment about whether or not these results are worth celebrating. But I do think they need context. Obviously, only top students will be offered admission at Ivy League and other highly selective colleges and universities. But the sheer number of colleges offering admission doesn't really tell us very much. Many colleges have no application fee and do not require supplemental essays, so students can submit an application with no additional effort beyond the work they've already done for their Common App. Colleges do this when they are trying to boost their total number of applications received and reduce their acceptance rates, which are then factored into college rankings.
The scholarship money also doesn't tell us much. Many colleges offer merit-based financial aid. Let's suppose you've applied to a college with a $70,000 tuition sticker price, and that college offers a $40,000-per-year merit scholarship worth $160,000 total. Let's say you get seven colleges to make similar offers. That's over a million dollars in scholarships! But that's not all money you can use, since you're not going to attend all those colleges. And it's also not free money you can spend. It's a discount that brings down college costs into a range that, one hopes, your family can afford to pay.
In reality, most (93%) of the big chunks of scholarship money will come in the form of either need-based financial aid or merit-based scholarships from the colleges where you're applying. Only 7% of scholarship dollars come from private scholarships. Should you still apply for private scholarships? If you're qualified and competitive, absolutely! But unless you are a top student, you're unlikely to receive massive private scholarships. You might be better off angling for merit scholarships at schools where you'd be an above-average student. #ieca #iec
