One of the best reasons to apply to colleges that are both a good fit and a place where you have a strong chance of acceptance is that you’re also more likely to get financial aid. Financial aid offices earmark a certain percentage of money every year just to lure academically appealing students. This practice, called preferential packaging, actually turns financial aid into a recruiting tool for colleges.
But once a student is attending that particular college, there’s no guarantee the college will continue to give the same (potentially generous) financial aid for three more years now that there’s no need to lure that student. At worst, this can feel like a bait-and-switch game.
Thankfully, a little research can tell you whether or not that’s likely to happen at a particular college. The National Center for Education Statistics offers a website called College Navigator (which I’ve profiled before) that allows you to search specific colleges for general information, admissions statistics, and most interestingly, some of the most detailed financial aid information you can find.
Compare the offers of financial aid (including the average mix of scholarships, loans, and work study) of incoming freshmen to those of all students in attendance. That will give you a rough estimate of how much, if at all, aid packages tend to change as students progress through this particular college.