The College Solutions Blog

January 18, 2013

I’m answering a quick financial aid question that I received on my Facebook page. Plenty of parents are asking the same question. Lynn O’Shaughnessy Mom’s Question: My son applied Early Action to a number of colleges and has gotten into a variety of them with varying amounts of merit aid. Even with this aid, the schools are still very expensive....

January 14, 2013

Today I’m answering a question from a father, who is puzzled by the Expected Family Contribution figure he generated when using an EFC calculator. I think my answer to him will be helpful for just about anybody who will eventually be filing for financial aid. If you don’t understand what the term EFC is, please read this post first:  What...

January 11, 2013

I’ve been asking visitors to my college blog and Facebook page this week to send me questions regarding the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE. I am sharing some of their questions and my answers today because I know other people are just as puzzled about aspects of these two financial aid applications. If you...

January 9, 2013

Now that we’re officially into the 2013-2014 FAFSA season, I wanted to answer some questions on my college blog that I’ve gotten about financial aid forms. If you have your own questions, please leave them in the comment box below. Lynn O’Shaughnessy Mom’s question: Try as I might I still can’t get my hands around the whole financial aid picture. ...

January 7, 2013

It’s extremely easy to make financial aid mistakes. Paula Bishop, a CPA friend of mine in Bellevue, WA., who has filled out countless financial aid forms for clients, tells me that she’s never seen any parent complete a  application without at least one mistake.  Now that’s depressing and it can also be costly if you insert even one error in...

November 14, 2012

My last post focused on whether families should indicate on a college application whether they will seek financial aid. Here’s my position: if you need financial aid to attend college, you should apply for aid. In case you missed it, here is the post: Why Failing to Apply for Financial Aid Can Be a Mistake My post prompted a mom...

November 12, 2012

Here’s a variation of a question that I always get at this time of year: Someone told me yesterday that it’s better to answer “No” to the “Do you intend to apply for need based financial aid” question on the Common Application.  My son has already submitted his applications and he answered “yes” to that question as we are not...

November 6, 2012

Do you know what your Expected Family Contribution is? If you don’t, you should make it a priority to obtain this number. I’d argue that families need to know what their preliminary EFC is before they begin looking at colleges. Unfortunately, most families don’t have a clue about what their EFC is until their children are seniors in high school...

November 2, 2012

Many parents worry that their college savings accounts will kill their chances for financial aid. If that’s what you’re stressing about, here’s my advice: take a deep breath! Most families who save for college are not hurt in student financial aid considerations. Why Your Savings Won’t Hurt Financial Aid Chances Here are the two biggest reasons why saving money often...

October 31, 2012

Just how prepared are high school counselors to do their jobs? The College Board has released a new report that suggests that counselors don’t believe they received adequate training to perform their jobs at the level they would like. I am mentioning this study because it focuses on an area that I feel passionately about. Many high school counselors are...