Received a college financial aid or merit award that still leaves the school out of financial reach? You may have options. Learn how to appeal a financial aid package, negotiate for more merit aid, use competing college offers strategically, and determine what to ask for—while approaching the conversation with colleges thoughtfully and honestly.

Is college for joining a fraternity for lifelong bonds and future career connections? Is it to have a diploma from an impressive school that opens the door to the right graduate school? Is it to gain a skill that will land a student a job the day after graduation? With questions like these looming, rare is the student who plans to declare a major in English, philosophy, or history. Nathan Heller’s 2023 “The End of the English Major” in the New Yorker magazine pulls the data: the study of English and history has fallen by a third in US colleges over the last decade. Any student who tells me she wants to study a subject in the humanities usually amends herself quickly: “But I’ll study finance/engineering/computer science so I can have the lifestyle I grew up with.” If I had a nickel for every time I heard that … well, all those nickels would go into my kids’ college funds.