The College Solutions Blog

January 23, 2012

It’s FAFSA season so I’m going to devote at least a couple of college blog posts this week to financial aid forms. The post today was actually written by Michael Szarek, an independent college counselor with Counseling for the Rest of Us in New Jersey. If you have any questions about the FAFSA or CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, just share them with...

January 9, 2012

I have been writing college blog posts recently about teenagers who have arguably been applying to the wrong colleges. (Scroll to the bottom to see my three previous posts.) All my posts have involved families who required financial aid, but today I’m sharing the plight of a father who is too wealthy to receive need-based help. Anxious Dad’s Email Here...

January 4, 2012

I’ve been writing posts for my college blog recently about the W-R-O-N-G way to assemble a college list. If you missed them, here are my the posts: Another Dreadful College List Applying to the Wrong Universities Assembling a solid list of schools to apply to is critically important, but I’d argue that the vast majority of teenagers do a lousy...

December 30, 2011

FAFSA season begins on Sunday. New Year’s Day is always the first day that parents can file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. While it’s been simplified in recent years, the FAFSA still isn’t what I’d call a user friendly document and it’s easy to make mistakes. Paula Bishop, a CPA friend of mine in Bellevue, WA., who fills...

December 15, 2011

There are many websites that you can research the financial aid practices of individual schools. Today I’m going to focus on an especially helpful site — the federal College Navigator. The College Navigator is not flashy, but it contains incredible tools that tap into the US Department of Education’s vast college database. The College Navigator provides information on individual schools...

December 13, 2011

In my last post, I promised to share some resources that can help you evaluate the generosity of colleges and universities. If you missed it, here is that post: Sniffing Out Financial Aid Awards Today I’m going to focus on the College Board’s website, which is a quick and easy resource for anyone interested in getting financial aid statistics on...

December 12, 2011

This week I’m going to focus on some financial aid nuts and bolts. I want to address one of the questions that puzzle families the most:  Will a college award my child any money? Most parents have no clue how to answer this question. In fact, they usually don’t find out if a college is willing to kick in some...

December 8, 2011

If your child will be heading to college next fall, now is the time to prepare for applying for financial aid. Your first step is to know what type of financial aid applications you will have to complete. Students won’t be eligible for financial aid unless they complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA. Filling out the...

December 7, 2011

It’s the time of year when families of high school seniors start worrying about their home equity and financial aid. That’s why I decided to share an email that I received from a father who was interested in using the services of a CPA who says he could hide his home equity from financial aid formulas. Here is the salient...

December 1, 2011

This is the time of year when parents begin agonizing about whether they should apply for financial aid. They wonder if filling out the FAFSA and, if applicable, the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, will hurt their chances of getting admitted. If you think you’re going to require financial aid, you should always apply for assistance. For the majority of students, their...