This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Rock - You - Hard Place...

Is exactly how many parents and college bound high school students feel when it comes to selecting and paying for college. They feel stuck between picking the in-state college they think they can afford, and the college they’d rather have their child apply to and attend, but think they can’t afford. So what do they do? They only look at the in-state colleges and just rule out any out-of-state and brand name colleges that they “think” they’d never be able to afford. But, in most cases, yes I said most cases; it doesn’t have to be that way. You can turn the ROCK — YOU — HARD PLACE into SANDY BEACH — YOU — ENDLESS HORIZONS.

I will keep saying this in the goCAMPUSing G-Blog, over and over again, like a broken record, until everybody understands - colleges are businesses, in business to get your business. I don’t care if they’re a state college, a for-profit college, a non-profit college, a tiny college, a huge mega college, or anyone of the Ivy League colleges; they are ALL in business to make money. Make no mistake about it. What’s their product? Graduated students – manufactured from your kids. The better the graduates a college produces, the higher the demand the college becomes, and the more money they make.

And this is where YOU have an edge. The colleges desperately need high quality raw materials and this is where YOU can make the Rock and the Hard Place crumble into a sandy beach. Your child is the “raw material” that the college needs and will do its best to shape, develop and educate to make the greatest product they can. Colleges are looking for the very best, highest quality “raw materials” to manufacture the very best graduates from which a college can boast are now star professional athletes, successful business people, acclaimed doctors, lawyers, scientists, authors, or a Nobel Prize winners. Think of the college process like any other business - take the auto industry; the automakers that make the best cars, or niche cars, or most luxurious cars, have a market of tens of thousands of people willing to buy their cars. Cheap and poor quality cars not so much. The same business model holds true for colleges, the students they graduate determines the demand and the tuition people will pay for that education.

Find out what's happening in New Hyde Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Remember, viva la difference. Don’t simply rely on a good or even a great academic history. A 4.0 GPA says a lot about academic quality, and perfect SAT & ACT scores definitely say: “Grade A” raw materials. However, to be totally honest, these days there are hundreds, if not thousands of students applying to colleges with those perfect stats and much more on their high school resume. So, once you determine what colleges you are interested in applying to and what they are looking for; starting as a freshman, you can build, tailor and adjust your high school career to produce an applicant profile that makes an almost irresistible college candidate.

When a college decides they need a certain student, the published tuition goes out the window and really becomes more of a starting point to negotiate the financial package and awards. It should be important to note that most students applying to in-state colleges don’t have much negotiating room, because most in-state colleges are inundated with thousands of applicants, who still think they’re stuck with no other financial choice. So many in-state colleges see an endless supply of “raw materials” that are willing to pay full freight. But, for those of you who have opened your eyes to think of outside your state, private, niche and brand name colleges, you will discover that just being a college applicant from Montana or Idaho can be a desirable “raw material” to an east coast college. If you’re from North Dakota or Guam going to just about any east coast college is almost a slam dunk.

Find out what's happening in New Hyde Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Bottom line. Breakout from just thinking in-state colleges are the only financially acceptable choice. Colleges all across the United States may want to make a deal and they might just have their eye on you!

goCAMPUSing, Inc. America’s Premier College Tour Company. Each goCAMPUSing college tour is like a mini college prep course on wheels. goCAMPUSing College Advisors ride along on every trip to point out the nuances of each college/university visited, talk about aspects of each college and how they compare to other colleges not seen on the tour, plus answer student’s questions, discuss the college selection and admissions process, discuss SAT & ACT testing & test scores, and much more. So check out our upcoming fall tour at: http://www.gocampusing.com/documents/campusTours.html#tour and LIKE us on Facebook. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?