Dickinson - College Admission Counseling

Merit-Based Financial Aid Explained

Jared Hobson — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 13:45:41 +0000

I recently visited Dickinson College, a selective liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The campus is beautiful, and I enjoyed my visit. While I was there, I took a few moments to explain how merit based financial aid works.

If you’re interested, I also explained need-based financial aid in this post.

If you’d prefer to read my comments, you’ll find them below.

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I’m here right now on the campus of Dickinson College, which is in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and I want to talk a little bit about financial aid. But I want to set the stage by saying Dickinson College is just a gorgeous place. I’m here just kind of outside the library in a little courtyard, the azaleas are in bloom, and students are packed in the library right now studying for finals.

Architecturally speaking, this campus is one of those harmonious campuses, all in gray brick. It’s just absolutely stunning. The landscaping is beautiful. Every facility I’ve gone into so far has been stupendous, superb.

But let’s talk about financial aid. And we’ll talk about merit aid because merit aid is the money you get because you’re a good student. And, at Dickinson, in order to get merit aid you need to be a very good student. Dickinson reserves only a very small portion of its financial aid budget for merit and awarded at the very top.

So, to give you some examples, I picked up this fact sheet outside the admissions office. I’m here on a Saturday; it’s not the best day to come, but it’s what I could do. So, I picked up this fact sheet and for financial aid, first of all, the tuition for 2024-2025 is just over $68,000, just for the tuition alone. About 2/3 of students receive some form of financial aid so 1/3 are paying $68,000, okay?

So, just so you put that in perspective. It also says that they do offer academic scholarships to almost 30% of the student body. Okay, so, 2/3% are paying full price and almost 30% are getting some sort of academic scholarship for their high school labor.

The other thing is that the middle 50% of scores – let’s just take the ACT score because it’s a little easier, sometimes, to remember. Out of 36, the mid 50% is between 30 and 33 in terms of their admitted students who submitted test scores. So, 25% of students who are admitted that submitted an ACT score have a 33 or above.

Now remember, I said almost 30% of students actually get merit-based financial aid. So, in other words – and these are rough numbers – in order to get a merit-based scholarship at Dickinson, you likely need to be in the 32-33 and above ACT range (or equivalent SAT) or have an impressive GPA or other talents.

I mean, that’s not based on your ability to pay, but if you are trying to reduce the price of college by maximizing other people’s money – and in this case, the college’s money – to get scholarships from the college, you need to roughly be in the top 25%.

Now, in several of the other liberal arts colleges that I’ve been visiting on this tour. If you’re in the top 50%, you’re likely to get some sort of merit-based financial aid, but not at Dickinson. You need to be closer to the top of the applicant pool to pull down merit-based aid.

So, it really helps to know who’s getting the money and to do the research and to look at the numbers as you apply. Because if you’re one of those students whose family believes and wants some sort of merit-based aid in order to pay for college, reduce the price. you’re not going to get it at Dickinson unless you are at the very top of their applicant pool – the top 25%.

Again, other colleges that’s not the case. The top 50% of the pool receives some sort of merit-based discount, but Dickinson, well, there’s a reason why there are such wonderful facilities here. So, it’s a great school, it’s beautiful.

I would recommend it. I think academically, it’s quite good, but if you’re looking for a bargain, it’s only going to be a bargain if you’re in the top 25%.

Great College Advice

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post Merit-Based Financial Aid Explained first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The SAT is not Always Needed to Get into College

Jared Hobson — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:07:34 +0000

You don’t have to take the SAT or the ACT to get into a four-year college!
For juniors about to take the March SAT, it’s comforting to know that there are almost 850 four-year colleges known as the “Fair Test Schools” which do not require standardized tests for acceptance.
Instead of looking at the SAT or ACT, these colleges will weigh your GPA and rigor of your classes more heavily. They might also ask to see some of your academic writing.
Some of the more well-known college on the Fair Test list include the following:
American University
Bard
Bates
Bowdoin
Colorado College
Dickinson
Drew
Franklin & Marshall
Hamilton
Hobart & William Smith
Julliard
Juniata
Knox
Lewis & Clark
Middlebury
NYU
Pitzer
Sarah Lawrence
Texas A & M
Union
Wake Forest
WPI
For a complete list of all the four year schools, go to the Fair Test Schools website: Fairtest.org
So if you’re not happy with your SAT scores in March and you just don’t want to take the SAT again consider some of the “Fair Test” schools.

Juliet Giglio
Educational Consultant in Syracuse, NY

The post The SAT is not Always Needed to Get into College first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Need Based Financial Aid and College Admission

Jared Hobson — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:58:05 +0000

Students with high financial need–those whose families have limited income or assets–and who also are accomplished students, may find that they can win excellent financial packages at some private colleges. Students who also have something interesting or unique, who help expand a college’s diversity, who have characteristics that the college seeks, will be those that the college is willing to subsidize with attractive financial aid packages.

If you’re interested in how merit-based financial aid works, have a look at this post.
If you’d prefer to read my comments from the video, you can read below.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
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I’m here on the campus of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and in an earlier video I talked a lot about merit based aid at Dickinson and similar places. I want to take a minute to talk about need based financial aid and how that might work at a place like Dickinson.
As I said earlier, if you want merit based aid you have to be in the top 13% of its applicant pool to pull down some merit based aid. But if you’re looking for need based aid, if you come from a background that is going to bring some diversity to Dickinson, it’s very possible that you could pull down a very generous financial aid package.
To look at some of the statistics here at Dickinson, it’s a pretty homogenous place. Only 3% of students here are African American and 10-12% of America is African American. Hispanics are only 6% and even Asian Americans are underrepresented here. 4% of the American population is Asian American, only 3% of the Dickinson population is Asian American.
So, diversity is-I’m guessing-a very important goal here at Dickinson and if you have a very high academic profile, if you fall into that top 10-25% here at Dickinson and you have a different background-maybe you’re a first generation student and you want to attend a small Liberal Arts college like this, and have the kinds of facilities, and kinds of opportunities that are generally available only to the very wealthy, they’re willing to pay. They’re willing to pay a very good price to get you to come to this campus. So, it’s very important for a student of modest means to not close off the possibility of coming to a place like Dickinson.
Now, you need to understand that Dickinson is relatively homogenous. It’s a pretty white place. But if you are willing to put yourself in that environment, if your priority is on getting a great education at a low price, then a place like Dickinson that has money, that has wealthy people that are subsidizing your education because they want to bring people of diverse backgrounds to their campus, well you may very well win the jackpot here.
Again, if you’re looking for merit aid you need to be at the very top of their pool no matter what your income. But if you have a relatively low income and few assets in order to pay for your college education, but you are a very good student then it is likely that you would get an excellent financial aid package at a place like Dickinson.
So, don’t rule it out. Don’t rule out the private colleges if you’re a good student and come from modest means. So, throw your hat in the ring and see what happens. You never know when you’re going to get a great bargain.

The post Need Based Financial Aid and College Admission first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Need-Based Scholarships and Financial Aid Explained

Jared Hobson — Fri, 13 May 2011 14:47:20 +0000

Yesterday I posted a video explaining merit-based aid. But a large portion of financial aid is awarded to students who need help in paying for a college education. In explaining how need-based aid is awarded, it’s helpful to provide concrete examples. This short video explains how need-based is awarded at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

The post Need-Based Scholarships and Financial Aid Explained first appeared on College Admission Counseling.