Paying for College 101:
Merit Aid, Scholarships,
and What Families Actually Pay
Tuesday, March 24 | 7:00 PM ET | Live on Zoom
The Sticker price is not what most families pay for college.
That $85,000 number you just saw on a school's website? That is not the real price. But knowing what you will actually pay requires understanding a game that most families don't even know is being played.
There are two types of financial aid. Need-based aid is tied to income. Merit aid is tied to strategy. For families earning over $125,000, need-based aid is largely off the table. Merit aid is not.
Did you know that there are highly regarded private colleges where a family earning $150,000 to $200,000 is guaranteed to pay no more than $20,000 per year? Or that there are schools with merit scholarships that can reduce a $60,000 tuition bill by half? These are not obscure schools. They are well-regarded colleges with insider reputations for being generous with merit aid. Strong programs, strong campuses, and outcomes that rival institutions twice the price
Most families never find these schools because nobody told them to look.
Join us for this free webinar to learn how to read the financial aid landscape clearly, which schools offer enticing merit aid, and how to build a college list that works in your family's favor.
In This Free 60-Minute Webinar, You'll Learn:
How financial aid actually works and why sticker price is almost never what families pay
Why families earning over $125K are in a stronger position than they think — if they plan strategically
The Ferraris vs. Toyotas framework: why the most selective schools rarely discount for merit, and which schools do
How undermatching works and why placing your student in the top 25% of an applicant pool can generate significant scholarship offers
Why your student's major can matter more than the name on their diploma and what the data actually shows
What a smart, financially-aware college list looks like in practice, using real examples from Wagner Prep families
You'll leave with a clearer picture of what college will actually cost your family, and a smarter way to think about building the list.
