What does the College Free Money Finder do?
The purpose of the College Free Money Finder is to bring together a large amount of research that is usually spread across the internet and difficult to access. In addition, it’s very difficult to compare schools yourself since a lot of data is listed by school, rather than in a single spreadsheet format.
The College Free Money Finder eliminates those concerns! With a bit of data about your student and family situation, we can show you a list of schools ranked for generosity.
Does this tool show need-based generosity or merit aid generosity?
Both! You can rank your results based on need-based aid, merit aid, or both. You’ll get a list of schools as well as a list of merit scholarships each school offers.
What information do I need?
The College Free Money Finder asks for your student’s academic information, location preferences, and specific program or club interests. For instance, you can list if your student will be pursuing STEM, art, or other specialty interests.
What do my results tell me?
Your results have three tabs you can view. First, you can see the schools your student was matched with through the selection criteria you use. You’ll see a brief overview of the admissions and 4-year graduation rates, as well as how many scholarships you might qualify for from that school.
You can sort schools by generosity, percent of financial need met, average need award, percent of students receiving merit, average merit award, and average net price.
You can also look just at the scholarships. Each one will list the school it comes from, the requirements, and whether the scholarship is renewable. You can sort scholarships by amount, school, deadline, whether they are renewable, and whether or not they are competitive.
Finally, you can select “details,” which gives you more detailed information about each school. You can sort this detailed view by the same measures as the brief school view.
How do I get help if I don’t understand a column?
Hover your mouse over the header you’re curious about. A pop-up balloon will come up showing you more information about that statistic.
I can’t see the whole form as I’m filling out my information. What do I do?
Try “zooming out” in your browser. You can do this by hitting ctrl and -, or command and -. You can also go up to menu of your browser and change the zoom level there.
Who do I contact if I can’t fill out fields or there is an error?
Having problems? We’d love to help! Email info@road2college.com and we’ll walk you through it!