In my last post, I promised to share some resources that can help you evaluate the generosity of colleges and universities. If you missed it, here is that post:

Sniffing Out Financial Aid Awards

Today I’m going to focus on the College Board’s website, which is a quick and easy resource for anyone interested in getting financial aid statistics on any college or university.

To get started, type the name of any school into the College Search box on the College Board’s home page. You will have access to a variety of statistics on the institution. Once you’ve called up a school’s profile, click on the Cost & Financial Aid link to find financial aid stats.

To illustrate what the College Board can provide, I closed my eyes and opened a page in US News & World Report Ultimate College Guide and selected DePauw University, a highly respected liberal arts college in Greencastle, IN. This is what you will see at the top of DePauw’s profile page:

When I clicked on the school’s Cost & Financial Aid link, the first thing I saw was the liberal arts college’s prices. Scary huh? Remember though that the prices are usually meaningless. Most families won’t pay the full tab.

What’s more meaningful are the financial aid statistics that you will see below the published prices:

Comparing Statistics

It’s hard to decide whether DePauw University is a generous school in a vacuum. Compared to Ivy League schools, which meet 100% of every student’s demonstrated financial need, Depauw is not as generous. On average DePauw meets 86% of a student’s financial aid need.  This is not a fare comparison, however, since only the richest and most elite schools offer such amazing financial aid practices.

It makes more sense to compare DePauw with some of it’s peers. For instance, students looking at DePauw might also be interested in other Midwestern liberal arts colleges such as College of Wooster, St. Olaf’s, Beloit, Denison, Grinnell, Illinois Wesleyan, Coe, Lawrence and others. (By the way, I think Midwestern and Southern liberal arts colleges offer great financial value because their prices are typically significantly lower than on the coasts.)

Here is a snapshot of the College of Wooster’s financial aid statistics:

As you can see, Wooster meets a higher percentage of the typical freshmen’s need (90%) It also meets the full need of more freshmen – 250 out of 380 students, who required financial aid. In DePauw’s case, the school met the full financial need of 133 of the 408 freshmen who received financial aid.

It’s important to look at the size of the average financial aid  package. In DePauw’s case it’s $29,279. Obviously you want packages that contain grants, which don’t have to be paid back. The average need-based grant of $25,918 represents a high percentage of the typical aid package, which is good.

Wealthy families, who aren’t going to qualify for need-based aid, must look at the average non-need based aid line, which is higher-ed jargon for merit aid for rich students. The average merit aid at DePauw is $17,134, which is high. The merit award for wealthy students is even higher at Wooster — $20,220.

DePauw didn’t share the average student’s indebtedness at graduation, which is irritating and always raises questions for me about why they are withholding that figure.  The typical student, who borrows at Wooster, left with $25,252 in loans, which is pretty much the national average for all schools.

The best way to get comfortable with working with these sorts of statistics is to try to do research with colleges that you are interested in. So get started.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller and a workbook, Shrinking the Cost of College: Great Ways to Cut the Cost of a Bachelor’s Degree. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Over the weekend, teenagers across the country suffered through the final SAT exam of  2011, which gave me an excuse to share some statistics on the SAT.  If you missed the post, here it is:

8 Statistics You Didn’t Know About the SAT

Today I’m answering a question from a mom, who was prompted to write after reading my SAT post.  She wasn’t sure how to interpret the SAT scores nor how to find them at a couple of resources that I mentioned — the College Board and COLLEGEdata.

College Board

I’m using Beloit College, my son’s school, to illustrate what you can find on the College Board. To locate the scores on the College Board, type in the name of any school in country in the search box on the home page and then click on the SAT, AP, CLEP  link. It’s highlighted in red below.

When you look at published ACT and SAT scores, they are commonly shown in a 50% range. That’s how they are presented in this screenshot of Beloit’s test scores.

Among Beloit’s freshmen, 50% scored between 570 and 700 on the critical reading portion of the SAT. This means that 25% scored less than 570 on critical reading and 25% scored better than 700. The maximum score that you can achieve is 800 on each of the three SAT sections. Nationally, the average student scored a 497 on the critical reading section of the SAT.

Sixty seven percent of Beloit freshmen took the ACT and you can see that 50% of the freshmen scored between 24 and 30. That means 25% of Beloit freshmen scored higher than 30 and another quarter scored lower than 24.

The highest ACT score possible is 36. Nationally, the average ACT score  is 21.1. Here’s where you can get a state-by-state breakdown of the average ACT scores for the class of 2011.

COLLEGEdata

What I like about COLLEGEdata is that the website breaks the test scores down even further. It also provides a breakdown of grade point averages. Here are the scores for Beloit’s freshmen:

To find the scores for any school on COLLEGEdata, click Search for Colleges link on the home page. This will lead you to the College Match page, where you can type in the name of a school. Then click on the school’s hyperlink and you will be led to a page that includes a variety of categories including Admission, Money Matters and Academics. You will find the test stats under the Admission category.

Comparing ACT and SAT Scores

For students who have taken or plan to take the ACT and SAT, I’m sharing a table that compares the scores for the two tests. This chart compares the SAT’s critical reading (CR) and math (M) with the ACT composite score. My son only took the SAT, but I wish I had known about this chart when my daughter was trying to decide whether to send her ACT or SAT scores. She sent both even though I later learned that her SAT scores were better.

Is the SAT Necessary?

For those interested in reading some experts’ opinions about the necessity of the SAT, I’d urge you to head over to The New York Times today where there is a spirited debate about the controversial test. Here is the link:  Why Does the SAT Endure?

More on The College Solution:

SAT and ACT: Which is the Better Test?

How Valuable is the ACT?

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller and a workbook, Shrinking the Cost of College: Great Ways to Cut the Cost of a Bachelor’s Degree. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Last week, a mom asked me on my Facebook page what constitutes good SAT scores.

I told her it depends on the caliber of the school. At some colleges a 1600 out of a 2400 score is above average while at other schools, applicants with that kind of score wouldn’t even be seriously considered. At some of the nation’s most prestigious schools, a 2100 could be borderline.

It’s always wise to look at the test score ranges at individual schools. You can find these scores on the College Board, COLLEGEdata and the federal College Navigator, as well as the Princeton Review and Fisk collegiate guide books.

The mother’s question prompted me to share some of the more interesting of the College Board’s latest SAT statistics. Here are eight stats that I bet you didn’t know:

1. The average SAT score earned by high schools students in the class of 2011 was 1500 out of a maximum of 2400 points. The overall score breaks down this way:

Math 514
Critical reading 497
Writing 489

2. Students who completed a core curriculum in high school scored an average of 143 points higher on the SAT than those who didn’t. The College Board defines a core curriculum as including at least four English, three math, three natural sciences and three social sciences/history classes.

3. Nearly 1.65 million high school students from the class of 2011 took the SAT, which is a record.

4. You hear far less about the scores for the SAT subject tests, which are chiefly required for elite colleges and universities. Here are the average scores for the subject tests:

5. The College Board breaks down SAT test performance by states. You can find the report card for your state here: College-Bound Seniors 2011 State Reports.

6. The best indicator of whether a child will succeed in college is his or her high school grade point average. The SAT is a weaker measure and it’s supposed to give colleges an idea of how applicants would perform in their first year of college.

The College Board developed a readiness benchmark that indicates that a score of 1550 (out of a 2400 scale) means students have a 65% likelihood of achieving a B- average or higher during their freshman year. Here is a college readiness graph from the College Board:

7. Forty four percent of test takers in the class of 2011 were minority students, which it the most diverse group of test takers ever. Thirty six percent of test takers were first-generation college goers and 27% don’t speak English exclusively.

8. More than 350,000  low-income students (21% of all test takers) obtained SAT fee waivers so they could take the test for free. If you know someone who could qualify for a fee waiver tell them.

More from The College Solution:

7 Ways to Boost Your ACT or SAT Scores

SAT and ACT: Which is the Better Test?

Should You Apply to a Reach School?

Winning College Admission Essays

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller and a workbook, Shrinking the Cost of College: Great Ways to Cut the Cost of a Bachelor’s Degree. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

In my last post I talked about the benefits of visiting colleges before applying — particularly at schools where you can collect brownie points for showing up. If you missed it, here it is:

Which Colleges Should I Visit?

Today I’m directing you to a couple of resources that can help you pinpoint whether a school really cares if you show interest in their institution before it receives your application. Here are the two resources:

College Board

COLLEGEdata

Both websites share the admission factors (19 in all) that individual colleges care deeply about and those that aren’t terribly important to the institutions. If a school states that an applicant’s level of interest is very important, I’d highly recommend visiting before mailing the application or at least take other steps that would indicate that this school is high on your list.

I’m showing you two examples of what you can find at these websites. Both sites obtain their admission information from each school’s Common Data Set. If you have never heard of this document, here’s a previous post that I wrote about the Common Data Set: Researching Colleges With the Common Data Set.

COLLEGEdata

Here is an example of what you can find at COLLEGEdata when you click the Admission hyperlink once you’ve called up a school’s profile. This is Cal Tech’s admission factor preferences:

As you can see, Cal Tech doesn’t apparently care if you express interest in its school in advance. What’s most important to this elite science and engineering school is that a student has taken a rigorous course load of classes that would obviously include advanced science and math classes.

College Board

Here’s an example of what you can find at the College Board when you click the Admission hyperlink once you’ve called up a school’s profile. This is the United State’s Naval Academy’s admission factor preferences:

The Naval Academy puts many more admission factors into the very important category – 10 in all. And in contrast to Cal Tech, the Naval Academy considers level of applicant interest to be very important. That makes sense considering it is a military academy.

While COLLEGEdata and College Board use the same admission information for each school, the College Board leaves out the admission factors that a school dumps into the Not Considered category. Other than that, the only difference is the lay out.

Bottom Line:

You can get a sense of what a school is looking for in candidates by examining how they rank their admission factors. Every school is going to have different preferences so be sure to check them out when you are researching schools.

More Reading:

The Real Cost of Attending an Expensive East Coast University

Anatomy of a Stingy College and a Generous One

Financial Aid Chances with a 2.9 GPA

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also write a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch.com and US News.

How do you know if a school is going to be generous to your child?

Here’s a quick answer:  Check the numbers. Or as I like to say, check the financial fingerprint of any school that’s on your teenager’s list.

There are many ways to determine whether a school is generous or not, but today I’m going to focus on the College Board’s resource.  I’ll be focusing on two schools — Occidental College and New York University – to provide a quick lesson in what you can learn from some easy detective work.

I picked Occidental because I wrote about the school in yesterday’s post and because it will serve as an example of a college that provides excellent financial aid.   NYU will serve as an example of a school that provides mediocre financial aid.

You can find the financial statistics of any school by heading to the College Board and typing the name of a school into the College Search box, which is located on the upper left hand side of the home page. Once you arrive at the school’s profile, click on its Cost & Financial Aid link.

Occidental College

When I clicked on Occidental College’s Cost & Financial Aid link, here is what I saw:

The first thing you’ll see is the high cost, which is not a surprise for a highly selective liberal arts college. But as I’ve said many times on this college blog, published prices are meaningless. What I always find much more illuminating is the Financial Aid Statistics that you’ll find if you scroll down the page. Here are Occidental’s stats:

I am always interested in seeing what a school’s average percentage of need met is. In Occidental’s case it’s 100%, which is excellent. Only about four or five dozen schools in the nation can claim to meet the average student’s full demonstrated financial need. I also checked to see how many students who were offered aid had their full need met. As you can see all 340 of the Occidental freshmen fit into this category, which again is great. In addition, the average scholarship or grant for students requiring help is high versus the average loan.

For wealthy students who wouldn’t qualify for any need-based aid, this school also awards scholarships – non-need based aid — with the average being $9,580.

I also am always curious about the indebtedness of graduating seniors. Once again, Occidental excels in this area. The average Occidental student, who borrows for college, graduates with debt of $17,561, which is far below the national average of $24,000.

New York University

Just like Occidental, NYU is a very expensive school, but let’s see what kind of financial-aid break NYU gives its students.

After looking at NYU’s financial aid stats, it’s easy to conclude that this a stingy school.

You can see that NYU only meets 69% of the typical student’s financial need. This percentage is far, far below many highly selective and elite schools. What’s just as disturbing is what the school does not reveal. I am always suspicious when a school doesn’t divulge what the average indebtedness of its students is at graduation. I looked at another document – NYU’s Common Data Set from the 2008-2009 school year that says that the average indebtedness of the typical NYU student is $34,850. That is extremely high.

What’s also concerning is that NYU doesn’t reveal the number of students who have their full financial need met. I think you can guess why the school keeps this number a secret.

Bottom Line:

When you are drawing up a list of college, make sure the colleges are not only academic fits, but financial ones too. College costs far too much to not understand what kind of financial commitment you will face.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch.com and US News & World Report. Follow her on Twitter.

Financial Aid Nuts and Bolts

Today I’m going to focus on the College Board’s website, which is a quick and easy resource for anyone interested in getting financial aid statistics on any college or university.

To get started, type the name of any school into the College Search box on the College Board’s home page. You will have access to a variety of statistics on the institution. Click on Cost & Financial Aid to find financial aid stats.

To illustrate what the College Board can provide, I closed my eyes and opened a page in US News & World Report Ultimate College Guide and selected DePauw University, a highly respected liberal arts college in Greencastle, IN,

Here’s what I found out about DePauw when I clicked on the school’s Cost & Financial Aid.

Annual College Costs

• Tuition and fees:   $34,865
• Room and board:  $9,180
• Books and supplies: $750
• Estimated personal expenses: $1,000
• Transportation expense: $300

Financial Aid Statistics

• Full-time freshmen enrollment: 717
• Number who applied for need-based aid: 518
• Number who were offered aid: 408
• Number who had full need met: 133
• Average percent of need met:  90%
• Average financial aid package: $29,279
• Average need-based loan: $2,905
• Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $25,918
• Average non-need based aid: $17,134
• Average indebtedness at graduation : Not reported

Financial aid distribution

Percent of total undergraduate aid awarded as:

• Scholarships/grants: Not reported
• Loans/jobs: Not reported

Non-need based aid determined by:

• Music/drama
• Minority status
• Alumni affiliation
• Academics
• ROTC
• Leadership

What the Statistics Mean

Looking at DePauw University’s stats, I can conclude that this is a generous school. On average it meets 90% of a student’s financial aid need. There are probably only four dozen or so schools in the entire country that can meet 100% of their students’ financial need. In DePauw’s case, the school met the full financial need of 133 of the 408 freshmen who received financial aid.

It’s important to look at how much of the average financial aid  package — $29,279 — is in grants rather than loans. Obviously you want packages that contain grants, which don’t have to be paid back. The average need-based grant of $25,918 represents a high percentage of the typical aid package, which is good.

Wealthy families, who aren’t going to qualify for need-based aid, must look at the “average non-need based aid” line, which is higher-ed jargon for merit aid. The average merit aid is $17,134, which is high.

The school didn’t share the average indebtedness at graduation, which is irritating. It also didn’t report the breakdown of loans/jobs and scholarships/grants, which is also aggravating.

Finally, the school shares what sort of things it values when awarding merit scholarships.

The best way to get comfortable with working with these sorts of statistics is to try to do research with colleges that you are interested in. So get started.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of a workBook, Shrinking the Cost of College: 152 Ways to Cut the Cost of a Bachelor’s Degree. She also writes a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch. Follow her on Twitter.