Playbooks
Start with what makes your student different.
Pick the guide that sounds most like your family. It will show the school and scholarship questions that deserve your attention first.
Choose a student guide
- Merit Aid Strategy for STEM StudentsSTEM students can stack institutional automatic awards with departmental scholarships for engineering, CS, and science majors.
- Merit Aid Strategy for AthletesAthletes need to understand roster money, academic merit, outside scholarships, and how NCAA rules interact with college aid.
- Merit Aid Strategy for Homeschool StudentsHomeschool families need merit files that translate transcripts, rigor, recommendations, and testing into college-readable proof.
- Merit Aid Strategy for First-Generation StudentsFirst-generation students can combine institutional access programs, automatic merit, and outside awards without missing deadlines.
- Merit Aid Strategy for Low-Income StudentsLow-income families need to compare full-need schools, grant-first policies, Pell eligibility, and merit that does not displace aid.
- Merit Aid Strategy for Military FamiliesMilitary families can coordinate GI Bill benefits, Yellow Ribbon funds, residency rules, institutional merit, and outside awards.
- Merit Aid Strategy for Performing Arts StudentsPerforming arts students need to line up auditions, talent awards, academic merit, and school-specific renewal rules.
- Merit Aid Strategy for Humanities StudentsHumanities students can find honors college money, writing awards, departmental scholarships, and merit-friendly liberal arts options.
- Merit Aid Strategy for Transfer StudentsTransfer students need to know which schools reserve merit for transfers and which awards disappear after freshman admission.