Get Accepted to College with Scholarships

Get Scholarships with Your College Acceptance Letters

How do you get accepted to your #1 college choice AND be awarded financial aid? By understanding how different types of colleges award both need-based and merit-based aid, you can put together a college application list that increases both your chances of being accepted and receiving a generous aid package. 

Step 1: Get Accepted 

The first order of business is to get accepted to a number of colleges. The potential issue is that the criteria for admissions is very different at different universities. The question of how you get accepted to the Ivy League is not the same as the question of how to get into the University of Wisconsin, which is still different from being accepted to your regional four-year college or a less selective liberal arts college. You first need to understand the admissions requirements for the schools you are targeting and follow these requirements very carefully.  

Bear in mind, however, that at the top-tier universities, there are unstated, subjective factors in the admissions process that are not easy to discern. For example, to get accepted to Harvard or any of the other Ivy League schools, you not only need outstanding grades, test scores, and teacher recommendations: you also need to demonstrate things like motivation, energy, curiosity, leadership ability, and special talents. 

Therefore, as you prepare for college during high school, you need to concentrate on your academic performance. No matter where you want to go to college, you must do well academically. But the more ambitious you are, and the more you want to get accepted to the Ivy League or other top-tier universities, you must also cultivate these subjective characteristics. 

Step 2: Earn Scholarships 

It is more difficult to be admitted while also being awarded a merit aid scholarship. Most universities will reserve their scare scholarship dollars for its top performing students and applicants, focusing first on need-based aid and then non-need-based merit aid. You don’t automatically earn consideration for a college scholarship just for applying.  

The better your high school performance, the higher the odds you’ll win a scholarship. For example, the very selective liberal arts college Washington and Lee will award non-need merit-based scholarships to only a very small percentage of its incoming class (see detail below). It reserves most of its financial aid budget for students with high financial need. So, it you want to be awarded The Johnson Scholarship at Washington and Lee (W&L), you need to be among the cream of the crop within its applicant pool.  

Examples of How Aid is Disbursed 

University of Puget Sound – Less Selective Liberal Arts College (LAC) 

At some less-selective private colleges with a high cost of attendance but lower yields, many of its students receive some type of aid, whether it be need-based or merit-based. For example, at the University of Puget Sound, 100% of the 430 students in the Class of 2028 received some form of financial aid. 64% (277/430) received need-based financial aid and the remaining 36% (153/430) received merit aid. Puget Sound’s tuition is $65,000 for the 2025-2026 academic year with the total cost of attendance (COA) approaching $88,000. The average aid package for students demonstrating need is just over $59,000. The non-need-based award package for those 153 students was $30,400. 

Bucknell University – More Selective LAC 

But, at the more selective Bucknell University, only 50% (493/991) of the Class of 2028 students are getting any sort of financial aid from the institution, while the other 50% of Bucknell students will pay the full price of admission. 41% (407/991) received need-based financial aid and 9% (86/991) received merit aid (excluding 79 athletes). Bucknell’s tuition is $70,000 for the 2025-2026 academic year with the total cost of attendance (COA) just over $88,000. The average aid package for students demonstrating need is just over $52,000. The non-need-based award package for those 86 students was $19,000. 

Washington and Lee – Even More Selective LAC 

At W&L, which has an impressive endowment for a school its size, 61% (287/472) of the Class of 2028 students are receiving financial aid. 57% (269/472) received need-based financial aid and 4% (18/472) received merit aid. W&L’s tuition is $66,800 for the 2025-2026 academic year with the total cost of attendance (COA) just over $86,500. The average aid package for students demonstrating need is just over $68,500. The non-need-based award package is an impressive $60,000, likely due to many of the incoming 18 students being awarded The Johnson Scholarship. 

Source: College Common Data Set reports. 

Get Accepted to the Ivy League With A Scholarship 

How do you get accepted to the Ivy League with a scholarship? Can you get accepted to Harvard with a merit-based scholarship? The answer is: ‘not likely’. The first issue is that unlike W&L, Bucknell or the University of Puget Sound, Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League do not offer merit-based scholarships. Their financial aid budgets are reserved for students who exhibit financial need. 

For Harvard’s Class of 2028, roughly 54,000 high schoolers applied of which only 1,970 students were admitted, an acceptance rate of below 4%. But, Harvard is very generous to the high-need students it accepts. For the Class of 2028, 920 of the 1630 (57%) enrolled students qualified for need-based aid with the average package totaling $74,000. Only 3 students received non-need merit aid of which the average award was only $6,000.  

What’s the conclusion? While Harvard is very generous to students who qualify for need-based aid, only the most exceptional high-need students in the world will be admitted to Harvard.  

What Are the Odds You Will Get Scholarships? 

So, what are your odds of getting accepted with a merit scholarship to an Ivy League university?  

Very small. 

But what are your odds of getting accepted to another college with a scholarship? They could be pretty good, if you are strategic about where you send your applications. 

What Should You Do? 

Understand the scholarship process at different schools 

If you want to get accepted to university with a scholarship, you first need to understand how different schools allocate their scholarship dollars. Use the examples above as reference points while your building your college list. 

What college scholarships do you want? 

Second, you need to make sure what sort of scholarship you are aiming for? Will you be eligible for a need-based aid? If not, you need to hunt for schools that offer merit-based scholarships. 

Where will you most likely get college scholarships? 

Third, you need to look at which schools are more likely to offer YOU a scholarship. You need to carefully assess where you fit in the application pool. If you are going get accepted to university with a scholarship, you need to be realistic about which schools are going to shower you with money. As we have seen, the University of Puget Sound is mostly likely – of the colleges we examined above – to give you a merit-based scholarship. 

Need help with the college admissions process?  

College education is an investment, and college admission to selective schools is very competitive, especially Ivy League and the ever-expanding list of Little Ivies and Public Ivies. So how can you invest your college budget wisely? How can you get accepted to college with scholarships? 

These are questions that the team at Great College Advice can answer. We can help you identify those colleges where you will likely be accepted AND receive a generous aid package. Just contact us on this form and we’ll set up a no-cost, no-obligation meeting so we can learn more about you and discuss how we can help make the college admissions process more successful and less stressful.  

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2022 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.