The College Solutions Blog

September 29, 2014

It’s always wonderful when grandparents can help with college costs. Grandparents, however, have to be careful about how they pitch in if their grandchildren have a shot at receiving need-based financial aid. Friends of mine experienced first hand how grandparent generosity can backfire. Their story is an extreme example, but there are lessons here for other families as well. When the...

September 29, 2014

In this video, I interviewed Paula Bishop, a CPA in Bellevue, WA and national financial aid expert, about how divorce and separation impact financial aid. Once you’ve seen the video, click the link below to see how the rules regarding divorce and financial aid played out for a California family that did not approach the college search strategically. And then read the...

September 29, 2014

Conventional wisdom suggests that a family’s assets will always jeopardize a student’s chances for financial aid. That is just plain wrong. Mark Kantrowitz, one of the nation’s most respected financial aid experts, has estimated that only seven percent of families who file for financial aid see their aid eligibility decline because of their investment assets. The reason why relatively few...

September 29, 2014

The CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE is the College Board’s financial aid application that 229 mostly private colleges and universities use for their undergraduate admissions. The following state institutions also require families to submit the PROFILE: College of William and Mary Georgia Institute of Technology University of Michigan, Ann Arbor University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill University of Virginia, Charlottesville Here is the list...

September 29, 2014

I wish that I could reassure you that completing the FAFSA is easy, but it won’t be for many parents. Even more disconcerting is that parents make mistakes all the time and don’t even realize it. Some of the mistakes in this lesson may seem obvious, but others will probably surprise you.  Here are common FAFSA mistakes to avoid: 1....

September 29, 2014

Here are resources that can help you complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA): 1. Use FAFSA on the Web. The federal government can help with questions about the FAFSA, which families must complete to be eligible for need-based aid and federal college loans. The FAFSA hotline number is (800) 433-3243. You can also obtain help via email. When you are working on...

September 29, 2014

In this lesson, I’m focusing on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) because families, regardless of the type of school their children want to attend, must complete this application to qualify for need-based aid and to take out federal loans. The FAFSA is the federal financial aid form that roughly 20 million financial aid applicants complete every year. Here is...

September 29, 2014

This lesson summarizes the key take-away points regarding Expected Family Contributions. This lesson can also be downloaded via your resource guide, EFC Primer: What You Need to Know About Expected Family Contributions. 1. An Expected Family Contribution is a dollar figure that represents what financial aid formulas believe you should be able to pay for one year of a child’s college education....

September 29, 2014

http://youtu.be/X3tIErXTt0Y In the video in this lesson, I explain how you can use an online Expected Family Contribution calculator. Use the Right EFC Calculator The easiest way to obtain an advance look at your Expected Family Contribution is to use the EFC calculator at the College Board’s website. One of the first questions that you will encounter when using the College...

September 29, 2014

My oldest friend once asked me to help her bright daughter with her college search. I said sure. And then I told Mary what I absolutely needed from her before we checked out a single college. I needed to know what her household’s Expected Family Contribution was. A family’s EFC, which is expressed as a dollar figure, represents what a financial aid...