Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.
Expected family contribution
September 13, 2010
Calculating Your EFC
In my last blog, I talked about why it’s important to know what your EFC or Expected Family Contribution is. Here is the post: What Is Your EFC? Today, I’m going to show you how you can get a preliminary EFC, which is not as hard as you might think. You just need to use an online EFC calculator. Here...
Read More
4
September 12, 2010
What is Your EFC?
Do you know what the term Expected Family Contribution or EFC means? Most of you probably don’t so I’m going to devote the next couple of blog posts to explaining what an Expected Family Contribution or EFC is and why it’s so incredibly important. If you file for financial aid, you will obtain your EFC, but I think you should...
Read More
1
August 16, 2010
Cutting the Cost of College for the Wealthy
I had a mom email me today who has been doing her homework this summer. Specifically, she’s been reading my eBook, Shrinking the Cost of College: 152 Ways to Cut the Price of a Bachelor’s Degree, in the hopes of making college more affordable for her family. After I emailed her back, I thought I’d share what I told her...
Read More
2
June 30, 2010
Looking for Private Colleges That Use the FAFSA
Thought I’d share my response to a message that I received today from a mom, who was interested in finding private colleges that just use the Free Application for Federal Student or FAFSA. Here is Patrice’s question: Is there a way to determine which private colleges use the FAFSA method for financial aid? I would like to focus in on...
Read More
1
June 23, 2010
College Choices for Teens of Divorce
During my last two college blog posts, I’ve examined a couple of college case studies. In yesterday’s post, I looked at some possible colleges choices for Lucienne, a brilliant student out here on the West Coast: College Case Study: Great Colleges for a Smart Girl In the first post, I introduced John, who aced his SAT test, but only recently...
Read More
2
May 28, 2010
Financial Aid: How to Find Out If You Qualify
Today I want to share one of the many financial aid questions that I tackle in my new eBook, Shrinking the Cost of College: 152 Ways to Cut the Cost of a Bachelor’s Degree. This question happens to be one that I believe most families worry about: How do you know if you will qualify for financial aid? Here are...
Read More
0
March 17, 2010
Financial Aid Award: What to Do When You Need More
Can you get a better financial aid award if you are laid off from your job? That’s the question that many parents, including my sister Julie and brother-in-law Mike are grappling with right now. Last night, I got a call from Mike, who recently received a financial aid award letter from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, where my niece Molly...
Read More
2
February 22, 2009
Simpliflying the FAFSA
It’s hardly news that the FAFSA is a pain to fill out. There’s been many calls in Washington to dumb down the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, but nothing has worked yet. The New York Times published a front-page story today on the latest calls to simplify the federal financial aid form. Reformers suggest there are a couple of...
Read More
0