The company I work for is trying to make this process a bit better - it's called RaiseMe: https://raise.me https://raise.me. These name buys are pretty untarget

The company I work for is trying to make this process a bit better - it's called RaiseMe: https://raise.me https://raise.me. These name buys are pretty untargeted, and often include only superficial demographic information. The application and admission process is difficult to navigate and not transparent, and ends up disproportionately impacting the chances for immigrants, minorities, and first-generation college students of finding a good match. Our hypothesis is that by surfacing available aid earlier, in smaller amounts ("microscholarships"), and allowing students to explore less-well-known colleges, and opt-in to having their information shared, engages students throughout their HS career, pushes them to achieve academically, and nets them a college better suited for them. We found this to be the case over the last 5 years, given our 300+ college partners and usage in 3 of 4 US high-schools. Our college partners find spending their acquisition budget with us to access (opted-in) rich student data to find interested students that match their profile results in a greater ROI than spending their budget on spamming students and parents with glossy brochures. (We've also found there to be opportunities to help transfer students navigate the transfer process, and help enrolled undergraduate students from dropping out.) By the way, we're hiring.