How to Find a Quality College for Your Teen
...that Fits Your Financial and Academic Needs
...without Sacrificing Your Retirement

The College MATCH Method!

Parents across the USA are using the
College MATCH Method to:

  • Pick quality colleges likely to provide generous merit so that they don't have to scrap their retirement funds.
  • Come up with a high quality list of colleges you can actually afford
  • END the lie that only 50 colleges out of 1600 are worth attending
  • Avoid paying the sticker price for college (no one does with the right information)

Go from wondering what colleges will accept your teen
(and if you can afford it)
 to choosing from a variety of
amazing affordable college choices! 

Hi, I'm Michelle and for the last 8 years I've helped parents and counselors 
all over the US generate lists of colleges for their teens.

Dear fellow parent


Question…

Do YOU feel terrible that you can’t afford to send your kids to any college they choose…?

Do YOU feel like you let your kid down somehow?

Do YOU think your kid deserves to go into whatever school they can get into-but you have to tell them NO because you can’t afford it…?


If you answered yes to any of these questions…Then you need the easy to use College MATCH Method.


My name is Michelle Kretzschmar.


For the last 8 years I’ve helped thousands of parents and counselors all over the US to generate lists of affordable colleges that perfectly suit the academic needs of their teens…AND their financial needs.

It starts sooner than you think!

Finding affordable colleges is more than just completing the FAFSA. 


And because of changes in reporting requirements, your financial application timeline starts in the sophomore year in high school. 

This College Search System was born out of necessity for me 

When it came time for my homeschooled son to attend college…I spent months looking for the colleges that were the right fit for him and that suited our financial means.


Money was an issue for me and my husband because we had not saved enough for college.


We felt guilty we might not be able to send him to the college on his ‘wish list’ and fearful we might go broke in the process.


Maybe you can relate.


So I started the process of looking up colleges using the various college search websites. You know, the ones where you enter a size range, geography, and something academic related. 


It didn't take me long to realize the college search websites actually make it difficult for you to search for colleges in general and especially by financial considerations.  


And it’s just as difficult to compare them by the same criteria.


So being a data person, I tried something different using my skills.


I downloaded the data directly so I could search and compare colleges the way that made sense for our family.


Instead of looking up one college after another to find out if it met our needs, I created a spreadsheet of colleges that met the general characteristics and minimum requirements we were looking for.


When I looked for colleges that fitted these criteria, not the one the college search websites thought I should use, ideal college matches started to pop up.


While working with the data I realized there is little known information out there that will give you a pretty good idea of which top quality colleges are providing generous merit aid.


This was the beginning of the College MATCH Method.


After applying my unique search method to the college search process, our son received merit scholarships from all 10 colleges he applied to-ranging from $7,500 to $21,000.


I’ve gone on to help hundreds of other parents and college counselors to find the ideal college for their student, that fits their financial situation and is more likely to give merit aid.

College is often the second largest, if not the largest, purchase a family will make

A state flagship university has a sticker price of over $100K for 4 years
and some private colleges are over $250,000. Oh yeah, multiply by number of kids.

There is a better way!

College search websites actually make it difficult for you to find the right college for your teen.


If you’re searching for a suitable college right now -you’re probably familiar with college rankings.


The only trouble is…these are just ‘popularity contests’ where you pay more for the higher ranking schools.


There is no Proof that so called "top tier" schools offer any kind of superior education…except by reputation.


My focus is on data to guide the search because ultimately, there really isn’t any data that proves Princeton provides a better quality education than Vanderbilt or Rice.


College search sites let you search by size, location, major etc.


…but they don’t let you search by criteria that let you figure out what you need to pay…or how to avoid paying the sticker price.


They also don’t allow you to search based on which college is most likely to provide you with merit aid.


I will show how to search colleges...based on which is most likely to give you merit aid.


It helped our daughter narrow her list. It helped her to see differences between schools that she might not have otherwise easily seen or known, or even known to look for. It is a lot easier to see all of the school data presented together in a homogeneous and objective way versus trying to tease it out from various separate sources, especially from the individual school websites which seem more like marketing websites. It was really helpful to be able to sort and use numeric criteria.


It helped us save money, if only because it helped my daughter zero in on a school where she knew her student profile put her in the top quartile, so she was a strong candidate for merit aid which she did end up getting. The merit aid was worth 48K over the 4 years she attended. She’s a senior in college now, and already has a job for when she graduates.


~Susan, Parent, Kansas

 

You need more than your school counselor

  • The national counselor average is 311 students to 1 high school counselor. The recommended number is 250. In some states, the average is approaching 1,000.
  • Most counselors never receive training in college financial aid. Their time is spent on class schedules, test administration, and discipline.
  • They have good reason to avoid talking about paying for college…they don’t want to tell anyone they shouldn’t apply to a college because they can’t afford it.
  • Public school counselors have limited budgets to travel and learn about colleges outside their area.

Using college search websites and the high school counselors can lead to a false sense of security about being in control of the college admissions process and the costs involved of college attendance.


And there’s one more problem to talk about when it comes to finding suitable colleges for your teen... you can't…

Love your spreadsheet. I used it as one of 3 methods to triangulate the estimated gift aid a student will get at any particular school. I especially like the gift aid broken up by Adjusted Gross Income….. great for need-based aid students. I use the financial aid tab more than anything. Lots of the admissions data ties to collegedata.com info which simply validates the accuracy of your database.


Bob Falcon, President and Founder, College Funding Solutions LLC,

Concordville and Malvern, PA. 

Don't let your kid drive the process without knowing the rules

It actually kinda drives me nuts I hear counselors tell parents that they need to let the kids be in charge because parent aren't the ones actually going to college.


Yes, but they are the ones who will be paying for it. 


You wouldn't take your kid to the car dealership to pick out a car without first letting her know what your budget is? 


It's like when you're looking to buy a house, it's nice to go to open houses but when you talk to realtors, the first thing they want to know is how much you have been pre-approved to buy.


Your teen needs to know an essential component of "fit" is affordability.


And while everyone tells you that no one pays the sticker price and you just need to wait to see the financial aid award, that approach is risky.


Why?


Because what happens when the financial aid award isn't enough to make the college affordable?


I want to help you compile a list of colleges that are affordable for you AND will meet your teen's academic needs.


That’s where The MATCH Method comes in.


Here’s why The MATCH Method
can help you find top quality colleges
you can afford where other methods
may have let you down before…

  • Reason #1: Other people/products assume you have saving plans you put in place years ago when your kids were born to pay for their education. I do not assume you have any of that.
  • Reason #2:  Other people/products assume your student will just apply for scholarships. The reality is that scholarships that pay your child’s full tuition are harder to get than getting into Harvard.
  • Reason #3: Other people’s products will tell you how to rearrange your assets so that you’ll qualify for more financial aid which is very unlikely in most cases.
  • Reason #4: Other online courses out there focus only on the financial side of applying to college. What makes mine different is the data behind it. This class is going to show you the exact data indicators you need to look for to find the right college for you.
  • Reason #5: Other classes will emphasize using Net Price Calculators (which I will show you how to use) but that doesn’t help you get through 1600 colleges. My method shows you how to narrow the list to financially viable colleges and then decide which ones actually meet the academic/social fit.
  • Reason #6: The MATCH Method opens up more possibilities for you since we start broad and narrow down the selection.  Everyone else starts narrow and tries to figure out which other colleges to add.

 

The MATCH Method: Breaking it Down

The MATCH Method consist of 5 sections with 17 modules along with a spreadsheet with the latest, most comprehensive listing of colleges available. 

M-MONEY

Why you need to start with money rather than wait to see how much colleges provide in financial aid.

A-ASSESSMENT

Find out how colleges are going to decide how much YOU can afford to pay for college. 

T-TARGET

Learn how to identify which colleges are most likely to provide your teen generous aid.

C-CHOICES

What's important to one family may not be to another. Understand what your preferences mean financially. 

H-HOMEWORK

How to research issues critical to your family and what to do if things don't work out. 

Plus you'll get the tools you need to master the college admissions process...

  • Spreadsheet with critical information to find colleges with merit aid
  • Financial Aid Timeline for the financial aid process starting with the sophomore year.
  • College Application Checklist that will keep track of all deadlines including essay and letters of recommendations. 

..and a time saving collection of lists that will jump-start the targeting process. 

  • Colleges that are BEST BETS for Merit Aid
  • Colleges to avoid since they provide little to no merit aid (unless you're willing to pay full price).
  • Colleges currently sponsoring National Merit Scholarships
  • Colleges the offer some form of test optional.

So How Much?

Families using this method regularly save $10,000 or more a year of off the cost of college. 


I'm not going to tell you how that justifies a price of $999 or $599 so be excited that I'm "only" going to charge you $197. 


And yes, you can enroll in The MATCH Method right now for $197.  


I want you to think about how much your time is worth and how many hours you want to spend figuring this out yourself. 


Between the value of merit scholarships and the value of your time, $197 is a fantastic price. 


Click the Enroll Now button to register right now and let’s get started.

What People Are Saying

"He got several aid offers over $100k - although some of those offers left us paying $160k over 4 yrs. He ultimately received 3 strong offers from good schools.  He has not committed to one yet, but the projected total cost (tuition fees room board books travel incidentals etc) of the bachelors would be $65k (out of state public), $90k (out of state public) or $120k (private)."

Russell Austin
- Parent, Texas

"I love your product. I did use it to research colleges when my son was in high school. I loved the way I could manipulate the spreadsheet to find colleges based on my choice of characteristics. I loved the abundance of different data on the hundreds and hundreds of colleges. I spent hours using it to find out specific information about my son's possible choices for college. Ultimately, it made us more knowledgeable when it came time to make the decision."

Jennifer Damashek
- Parent, Virginia

"Because of you, I had a good idea of the scholarships my daughter could earn. So far she got into UVM with and 18K Presidential scholarship, which is what the NPC predicted when I ran it on UVM website. She also got admitted to Sarah Lawrence College with 12K per semester. Thanks for your website, your course, and all your help!"

Karen Gruen
- Parent, Pennsylvania
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Don't Think You Need to Bother?

I'm Pretty Sure I Can Do This On My Own


Well, since I already told you I had to figure this out on my own, I can't really tell you that you can't. Just remember how much time I put into learning things, often the hard way, and ask yourself how much is it worth to you to avoid hours of research and costly mistakes. 

 You're Charging Too Much


The MATCH Method lays out all the information in a step by step process for you to create a college list that will generate maximum merit scholarships opportunities. If you want to spend more time actually targeting colleges for $20,000 merit scholarships rather than figuring out how to do it, $197 is an incredible bargain.  

Our High School Counselor is Great!


If you've already sat down with the counselor and discussed strategies targeting which colleges out of 1,600 most likely to provide your student with merit aid based on your EFC then congratulations! You struck the counselor jackpot and don't need the course. Otherwise, you may find yourself needing to hit a real jackpot to pay for college.

 But if you can use some help...


If you want to do it yourself, please do so, merit scholarships can save your family $10K to $30K off a year of college! If you don't want to waste time trying to figure out what you need to do, what's important, and make sure you're using the best information available, then enroll in my MATCH course.



A Few More Testimonials to Prove it Works for Real People

"It was nice to have all the information I wanted in one place, and I wish I had this before all the other work!  It also had helpful information (such as awards offered by income range) that I did not have laid out on my spreadsheet.  It also confirmed our plan was legitimate: to go for schools where my daughter was in the top 20-25% of applicants for merit money, as we do not qualify for financial aid.    She applied to nine schools, and this spreadsheet DID help us to see which were better to focus on as far as merit aid was concerned.  We were lucky that her top choice gave her the most merit money :-)."

Jennifer Chinnis
- Parent, Texas

But overarching most useful part of the class was your premise that we the parents who are paying the bills CAN be in charge of this process (and that kids CAN get a bachelors and come out without a ton of debt). I know that sounds silly but at some point one of you said that parents should come up with their budget, explore colleges, then present to the child which ones were possible choices NOT the other way around. And your main point also was very useful- that getting 'free money' from colleges in the form of merit aid is where its at, NOT wasting a ton of time trying to piece together $250 scholarships here and there from private sources."

Theresa
- Parent, New Jersey

"My daughter cast a very wide net (incentivized by her college counselor) with private schools she applied to (12 total). The selection was based on demographics, size and 4 year graduation rate.  She was accepted to all of the schools to which she applied and received a wide and varied degree of offers.  She ultimately chose a school that offered her a hefty scholarship and guaranteed a 4 year graduation (under certain criteria).  I am not sure this school would have even been on her radar if it wasn’t for the class. So, yes I think the class clearly made a difference in how much we ultimately will spend on her college. "

Mary Patno
- Parent, Wyoming

As a homeschooler, I’m my child’s guidance counselor, so I feel a lot of pressure to be sure I am “in the loop” on the college application process. I’ve spent a lot of time scouring many websites and resources trying to find this sort of information on my own. I was very pleased with the amount of new material that was presented as well as new ways to look at material I had seen before.

Karen Dutton
- Mother of a High School Sophomore

"Thank you for such an information packed class and with helping us build a list of schools for my son. Honestly, I signed up last minute on a whim thinking "well, I'll take a gamble that this will be worth the price". And was it! I just loved the way everything was explained in an easy to understand manner."

T. M.
-Mother of High School Sophomore, New Jersey

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