4 essential FAFSA tips

The FAFSA is now available for families of HS seniors and college students starting October 1 and will use tax info from 2 years prior to the term being applied for (2016 tax year info for students starting college in Fall 2018), which was a change made last year. We see families commonly make significant…

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7 insider tips for picking your best college

CIT’s Cozy Wittman was a featured guest on the “Financial Symmetry” podcast hosted by Mike Eklund and Chad Smith. Cozy shares how so much has changed over the past 30 years, between college prices skyrocketing up to 500 percent, and the vast amount of options now available. She emphasizes that the game has changed and…

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Insider tips for the week of August 21, 2017

5 tips to pay less for college – A great read worth a couple minutes from Jeanmarie Keller. I especially like #4 – build your list of colleges based on your situation and the college’s financial aid policies. Just because you need financial aid doesn’t mean the college has to give it to you.  …

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Insider tips for the week of July 24, 2017

The #1 college shock, according to other families – What’s the biggest financial surprise awaiting families of college-bound students? Check out the answer from a Money Magazine/Barnes & Noble college survey.         6 questions you need to ask on your college tours – With many families using summer break to visit colleges,…

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Insider tips for the week of June 26, 2017

How to make sense of college rankings – An important read from the NY Times for every family engaging in the college process. My favorite takeaway: “It isn’t like Consumer Reports…the interaction between a student and an institution is not the same as the interaction between a student and a refrigerator.”     4 ways…

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Federal student loan rates go up for 2017-18

For families that take out federal student loans, college just got a bit more expensive. Starting July 1, 2017, federal loan interest rates are going up for loans taken out to pay for the 2017-18 academic year:   Undergrads will pay a rate of 4.45%, up from the current 3.76% Graduate students will pay a rate…

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Insider tips for the week of June 5, 2017

What you don’t know about financial aid (but should) – An important 8 min. read from the NY Times. Takeaways include colleges are free to come up with their own ways of defining a family’s ability to pay, don’t check the box on the Common Application if you intend to apply for financial aid b/c…

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MSCA 2017 slide show

Click the following link to access the slide show from the 2017 Minnesota School Counselors Association Conference: CIT MSCA 2017 power point

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Insider tips for the week of May 1, 2017

4 questions every family should answer – Jodi Okun shares the questions every family should answer about college, including my favorite, “Who will be repaying the loans?” The parents assume the student will make payments, while the student may assume the parents will make payments. Everyone is surprised after graduation when the payment due notices…

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5 tips for negotiating with colleges

For many colleges, May 1 is National College Decision Day, the deadline for families to make deposits to attend the college of their choice.   But before families make their final decision and begin forking over lots of money to attend college, they should know it is possible to negotiate with colleges to get a…

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