How to increase your financial aid

Getting more financial aid from colleges can be done in a couple of ways:

1. Come from a family with less income and less wealth.

2. Make yourself more marketable to colleges.

Generally, it is hard to do #1, and while that would likely increase your financial aid, that is hardly beneficial for many other reasons!

Making yourself more marketable to colleges is always a good idea. Colleges want to admit students that have great grades, noteworthy test scores, and all sorts of extracurricular activities. Of course, by the time you have applied to college, a lot of these have already been locked into place. So, what can you do during of after the application process? Here are two plans that have been proven to work:

1. Apply to many colleges. It is simple math: all else equal, the more colleges to which you apply, the more acceptances you may receive. And this means makes you more attractive to colleges. You see, once colleges accept a student, they don't want to lose that student. They care quite a bit about what is called their "yield rate" which is the percentage of admitted students that actually enroll. And you know what they hate more than losing a student? Losing a student to a main competitor because of a few thousand dollars in aid. So, how many colleges should you apply to? That answer is different for every student. But, what is true is that most students are not applying to enough colleges presently.

2. Once you get your financial aid offers, negotiate for more! Most students and families do not know that they can do this or are afraid to try. And therefore, they are leaving money on the table. Don't be one of them! Let's chat and come up with a plan of attack for putting more aid in your pocket and keeping more money in your and your parents' bank account.