White Picket College

Non-need based scholarships are becoming increasingly important as the government continues to only dole out need-based aid to low income families.  Additionally, the colleges continue to provide college scholarship money for low income students as well.  So how does an upper middle class (UMC) parent afford college for her/his child?

We discuss the different strategies the UMC can take on White Picket College, but now we’re about to reiterate information that we already had posted.  In the July 12, 2010 blog post on WPC, we discussed the Top 100 Colleges for Non-Need Based Financial Aid.  We’d like to take this opportunity to present this list one more time.  Why?  Because it is so vitally important to adding to your and your child’s college list.

We’ve noticed the lack of Ivy League schools on this list, and we feel that may disappoint some UMC parents and students; however, there are some extremely competitive schools that make the list as well.  For instance, some of these schools include Southern Methodist University, Baylor University, University of Rochester and Tulane.  These are top tier universities, though they may not have the coveted Ivy name.

The best way to utilize this list is to print it out for safekeeping.  Why?  You never know when a link may disappear on the Internet.  It happens all the time.  In fact, we printed out the list too.  Print out the list and research the schools that interest you or your child.  Then decide on a few schools to apply to either as first choices or as backup options.  A few meaning three, but you can choose more, say five schools of your liking.

It’s important to keep this list in mind when applying to schools because the more the WPC team talks to UMC parents, the more we see the same situation happening over and over: the Ivy League does not give the educational financial aid the UMC needs.  Ivy League schools give most of their aid to low income to lower middle class students.  This is the unfortunate fact.

For us at WPC, it was quite frankly a hard fact to accept, but once we realized how the Ivy League operates, we decided to change our game plan.  So should you.  Look toward other prestigious institutions.  There are so many of them out there: Stanford, Notre Dame, MIT, Howard, etc.  Look to Swathmore, a school that always ranks high on lists for giving the best financial aid packages to its students.  There are plenty of excellent universities out there that provide non-need based scholarships to incoming students.

Please click below to see the list:

Best Colleges 2010 for Non-Need Based Financial Aid

Also, check out these articles from White Picket College:

Scholarship Tips

Non-Need Based Scholarships from White Picket College

Tax & Finance Help

© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class