6 Questions You Need to Ask on Your Next College Tour

Chirping birds, beautiful old buildings covered in ivy, large century trees and an eager student chatting and walking backward. This is what many of us experience during our kid’s college tours. I’ve been on many, many tours during the searches for my kids and in addition to the painted picture here, I noticed one other…

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3 ways families can lose financial aid

lose financial aid pockets out

As if it isn’t hard enough to finance college, many families overlook the strings attached to maintain and not lose the financial aid they received freshman year. It’s easy to see how this happens. Families are grateful for any financial aid they get and simply assume it will be the same every year. But there…

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Free college for low-income Minnesota students

Gordon Severson KARE 11 TV

College Inside Track was featured on KARE 11 TV discussing the new Minnesota law that will make college free for low-income students. In the KARE 11 interview, CIT’s Chris Wills said around half of U.S. states have similar programs, some of which cover all state colleges and universities, and others only cover community colleges.  …

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4 mistakes families make that increase the cost of college

While the rising cost is certainly a factor, it is often the decisions that families themselves make that cause them to unnecessarily pay more for college than they should (and potentially increase student debt). As hard as it might be, there are instances where a family needs to recognize a college-related decision will cost them…

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3 things to consider before making your college decision

  May 1 is National College Decision Day, the deadline for students to make deposits to attend the college of their choice. But before you send in that check, here are three important things to consider:   1. Affordability is part of fit   Many students choose their college based on academic and social fit…

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Scholarship reduction – The dirty little college secret

Would you ever consider a scenario where the scholarships your student won actually resulted in a scholarship reduction elsewhere? One of the students we work with, whom we’ll call Caitlyn, was a dream that every parent (and counselor) hopes for: kind, bright, studious and incredibly engaged in the college process. In addition to having nearly…

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3 tips for having the college money talk

In our work of helping families navigate the college process. it continually shocks me how few have not had the “money talk,” either between the parents and/or between parents and child. Given the cost of college today, this is highly irresponsible at best, if not downright dangerous. I haven’t heard of many married couples not…

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4 last-chance financial aid strategies for parents

Now that the FAFSA uses tax return information from two years before a student’s high school graduation year, families of current HS juniors (2022 grads) will use tax information from 2020 when they complete their first FAFSA in the 2021-2022 school year. This is a huge deal because whatever those families are doing (or not…

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