Paying for College
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…
Read MoreInsider 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,…
Read MoreInsider 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…
Read MoreFederal 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…
Read More5 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…
Read MoreInsider tips for the week of April 10, 2017
3 ways to talk to your child about paying for college – The Washington Post shares helpful conversation starters for the difficult, yet important, money talk with your student. A hidden college cost you probably didn’t think about – The Hechinger Report shines the light on a little-known reason why the…
Read MoreInsider tips for the week of Mar. 13, 2017
College’s hidden costs: What the admissions office won’t tell you – The father of a college freshman shares with the Washington Post costs families incur beyond tuition, room and board. He admits they thought they thought they knew what the costs would be but were “dead wrong.” An important read for all parents. …
Read MoreInsider tips for the week of Dec. 26, 2016
What to do when you haven’t saved much for college – The Washington Post has an excellent summary of financial options families have for college. Take 5 min. to familiarize yourself with ways to make it more affordable. How college is different than high school – Southern Methodist University put together a handy chart…
Read MoreInsider tips for the week of Nov. 21, 2016
Below are our insider tips to help your family with the complicated college process: 4 financial aid questions that can cost you money – In a well-done article for Money Magazine, Kim Clark explains how colleges set their own rules for handing out their scholarships and how differences in two financial aid forms may or…
Read MoreShortcut to finding out how much the gov’t expects you to pay for college
College is a strange purchase, one of the few where you don’t know the final price until after you’ve done all the work. Imagine shopping for a home the way most people shop for college. You’d spend months driving (or flying) all over looking at houses that were in a certain neighborhood or had certain amenities.…
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