By now I hope you have found the video presentation under the CollegeMoneyNow.info tab above. If you haven’t, take a few minutes and explore this idea.

I’m going to write today about the college process itself. Unknown to parents and students, colleges accept far more students than they can admit. For example, if a college wants to admit 500 freshman students for the fall term, they are going to accept about 1500 applicants. That’s because only about 1/3 of the students it admits will actually enroll.

After the school notifies the 1500 accepted applicants, the college will typically use financial aid packages to try to entice the 500 applicants the college really wants.

Each college uses a process to determine not only which student is accepted, but also who will receive financial aid. This is the process by which students are prioritized. Colleges use a scoring system to rate their applicants, and virtually every college has its own system. Some might use a numbered scale from one to ten. Others might use letter grades. But all of them keep score and every application form has different components with is own rating or score. The individual values are used to create a value used by the school to help them focus their efforts.

The score of any one applicant essentially decides the applicant’s fate. If your score is above a certain level, you are automatically accepted. If your score is too low, you are declined. Since the law of large numbers apply, most students are in the middle so their applications go to a committee for a decision. The higher you are on the college’s priority list, the more money they will be willing to pay for you to enroll. This is also the method of keeping track of how thousands of applications that are received each year are used to compare with other years.

“Recruiting to a class” is a term used for maintaining diversity in the student body. This diversity can take many forms, whether its racial, ethnic, geographic, economic or whatever. It depends on a college’s priorities as it relates to their standards and objectives. For example, a college may have a gender balance policy that requires that neither sex can constitute more than 58% of the student body. This standard must be met every year. Another standard may be a percentage of low-need students. If a stated goal in any given year is to increase the number of students from high income/high net worth families, they will recruit or “bid” for these students.

This effort results in the spreading of available financial resources more widely. As a result, a student with lower academic qualifications can receive more gift-aid than other who might be more qualified academically. The steps taken to process the applications is influenced by these policies and priorities when assembling the freshman class.

Decisions are sometimes reversed and then reversed again, all the while trying to build a student mix that the college deems most appropriate. When a student is accepted at six or more colleges, they will receive six award letters. Our process to help a student gain as much “free money” as possible includes to forwarding of these letters to the other colleges to see how they will match the initial award or perhaps do better. In other words, they are asked to make a counter-offer.

Financial aid officers do not like to admit to this bidding process, but when pushed, will admit it exists. Because good students are in such high demand, this tactic often works.

When speaking with a high school student, I stress that it’s important to distinguish yourself from your peer applicants. A “flag” is a positive mark, added to a student’s admission application to indicate he or she is of special interest to the college. Children of alumni get flags; these are known as legacies. The size of their advantage is usually measured by the parent’s generosity to the school. Students with special talents get flags. Under-represented minorities get flags. Typically, once an application is flagged, it enters a different pool of applicants and gets special consideration. Its great to know in advance which schools these might be.

Preferential packaging is a more polite term for buying freshmen. The students who are the most attractive to a college get the best financial aid package, or they receive more grants and free money versus less loans and work-study. Preferential packaging also takes the form of discounts from normal fees and assessments. In a survey by the National Association of College Admission Counselors, 54% of the colleges that responded said they used preferential packaging.

A college often gives its best financial aid package to the students it is attempting to attract. If a school needs or wants you, they can do a lot to earn your attendance. Colleges give their best offers to freshmen to attract them, and their money, for their entire college career. College is Big Business and its our goal to help you succeed in this business.