Paying for college today can be stressful. Reading all the posts from parents on Facebook underscores the fact that college is expensive and parents are trying to pay for it without borrowing or graduating with massive student loan debt.
According to the Education Data Initiative:
Student loan debt in the United States totals $1.766 trillion.
Continue reading Avoid High Student Loan Debt with these Financial Strategies
Financial aid is on the minds of every soon-to-be college student and their families. Will you qualify? How much will you receive? How do you apply? How do the colleges disperse the aid? No matter where you are in the college application process, you should avoid these six financial aid mistakes that could cost you thousands.
Continue reading 6 Financial Aid Mistakes
Those two little words, “financial aid” can be music to a parent’s ears. I know they were to mine. But I had no idea the different types of aid available or the varying awards that colleges can make when they offer admission.
I was surprised to find that private colleges tend to be generous with their merit aid because they have institutional funds available; while public universities will offer less aid because of their strict budgets and large student populations. That’s why private colleges can often cost less than a public university even though their price tags are higher.
When my daughter applied to college we knew we were going to need help paying for it. Since we were not in the financial category that would receive federal grants, we hoped for other types of aid in the form of college grants and scholarships. Some of the colleges she applied to were private universities and some were public. When accepted, she received varying degrees of financial aid awards from the different colleges, both public and private.
One state university offered her aid in the form of student loans, but no grants or scholarships. Another private college offered her a full-ride in the form of a four year scholarship meeting 100 percent of the financial need. Her first choice college, a private university, offered her student loans, work study and parent loans, which did not meet the balance of our EFC (Expected Family Contribution). This is called “gapping” and colleges often do this to students who are accepted but do not qualify for merit aid. The college she chose offered a combination of awards: college grants, honor scholarships, student loans, and work study that met the difference between the cost of the college and our EFC. It wasn’t the full-ride or her first choice, but it was her second choice and was a perfect fit for her.
Continue reading Understanding College Financial Aid
Over 1.7 million scholarships are awarded annually; however, only 7% of college students will receive a scholarship. On average, first-time undergraduates who receive government grants and scholarships at a 4-year college receive about $14,890 annually. On average, a student who receives a scholarship or grant at a private 4-year college will receive $8,005 more than a student in a public 4-year college.
That sounds depressing and you might ask what are my odds of winning a scholarship, but all hope is not lost. Many students and their families have applied for scholarships and used them to pay for college. But, you need to know the facts.
Continue reading What Are the Odds of Winning a Scholarship?
I have had some serious conversations recently with a parent and student who applied to college, was accepted, and was shocked at the cost. The parent didn’t want to disappoint her daughter. The daughter wanted desperately to go to an out of state college that would cost over $50,000 per year with no financial aid.
After speaking with the daughter at length, she decided to defer for a year, work, save her money and apply for scholarships. Taking out loan was not appealing to either of them and I completely agreed.
Parents and students should consider college funding even before their student applies to college. The inevitable result is the parents and students borrowing to pay and usually borrowing more than they can repay after graduation.
Continue reading Borrowing More for College Than You Can Repay
It’s exhausting searching and scouring the internet for the right information when it comes to helping your student prepare for college. But what if you could use ONLY ONE RESOURCE and find everything you ever wanted to know about college prep? Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Here it is. I’ve done the research, examined the links and their resources, and compiled a list of 100+ college prep resources for you. (If you know of others, please leave them in the comments and I will add them to the list!)
Continue reading 100+ College Prep Resources
I’ll admit (willingly) that I like to offer my unsolicited advice to my children, often in the form of southern truisms (I grew up in the south and was raised by a family of southerners). Even though they are grown, I feel the need to continue to parent. As they did when they were younger, they smile, listen, and then do things their own way. It’s a type of dance parents and kids do with one another.
The hardest part of the college admissions process for a parent is finding a balance in your parenting. You want to encourage them, guide them and help them make the right choices. But when you push too hard, nag and set guidelines that interfere with their independence and individual choices you create a stressful and frustrating college preparation experience. This is a monumental step in your child’s life and you don’t want to taint it with fighting, frustration and family discourse.
Following are 5 tips for parents of college-bound teens (based around good old southern truisms) to keep peace in the home and reduce the stress related to the college admissions process:
Continue reading Southern Truisms for the College Admissions Process
Those two little words — “financial aid” — can be music to a parent’s ears. I know they were to me!
What I didn’t know as I began the college application process with my daughter was that there are a number of different types of aid available. Not only that, but the awards colleges offer when they offer admission can vary tremendously.
I was surprised to find that many private colleges can be generous with merit aid because they have institutional funds to distribute as well as federal dollars, while public universities with tight budgets may offer less aid. This can result in a private college with a higher “sticker price” costing less to attend than a public university.
Back to the example of my daughter, who applied to a mix of public and private universities. We knew we would need help financing her education, so when she applied to college she also applied for financial aid and we completed two online forms: the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE (administered by the College Board and required by many private schools and some flagship state universities).
Continue reading Different Types of Financial Aid
It’s a joyful day for your high school senior when an offer of college admission arrives, and the joy is magnified by a financial aid award.
Award letters arrive along with (or soon after) acceptance letters. I remember the first time I saw one, my daughter’s senior year. Quite honestly, it was Greek to me.
How were we supposed to compare the offers? The letters included the same basic categories — loans, work-study, grants and scholarships — but without understanding what each category meant it was hard to tell whether or not the college was meeting all of our financial need (Total Cost of Attendance minus our Expected Family Contribution, or EFC). Every college was different and every award letter was different!
Continue reading Breaking Down the Award Letters
For college-bound students, scholarships can fill in the gap between what you can afford and the cost of the school. Most students believe college scholarships are a pipe dream if they aren’t athletes or 4.0 students. But nothing could be further from the truth. There are thousands of scholarships available for the taking. You just need to find them.
There are six key places to look. But remember: Finding them is half the battle. You have to put in the effort to apply and be vigilant in paying attention to requirements and deadlines.
Continue reading 6 Ways to Search for College Scholarships