completely overwhelmed by the college process - any help or advice??

[mathinokc]

Have you run the Net Price Calculator on the websites of each of the colleges you mention? It's required now and will give you a feel for what the college might cost.

[scout59]

If he's pretty sure about accounting, I know that Wake has a great program (it routinely appear on those lists of schools whose graduates pass the CPA exam in high proportions.) I don't know how his football prospects would be there, though.....

[scmom12]

I've heard good things about U of Richmond for business. Wake may be good and we liked it a lot, but it is very expensive (around $56000 COA) and not known for great aid.
Definitely check the net price calculators.

[mythmom]

I thought you might like this link of the SUNY accounting programs. Binghamton sounds like an incredibly good choice.

SUNY Albany vs Binghamton for accounting, that big of a difference?

[2boysima]

Pitt, Michigan State, another "vote" for Indiana and South Carolina. Might have high enough grades and score for $ at NC State.

[BaussMan]

SteveMA is right about playing college football. They are pretty generous with financial aid for athletes and tend to help them out in other ways (cheap food, job opportunities, etc.). Have your son apply to schools where he can easily get in and will be among the top applicants; schools tend to give out lots of financial aid to their top students. You could also have your son take a gap year and have him work. My family has about the same EFC and I know it's a struggle to pay for school- best of luck!

[MidwestMom17]

Our family EFC also is about $30k -- I feel your pain! With your son's ACT, as mentioned by others, he should get great merit aid -- especially at private and highly selective colleges. Try to find him one that "meets full need" (everything above your EFC). This is typically just a handful of the most selective colleges --but your S has a good chance of getting admitted to those. Be sure to check for an accounting major, though -- some top schools do not have accounting.
Some colleges even list the merit schollies based on ACT/GPA on their websites.
We found that with our EFC, private colleges cost us (net after aid) about the same as our flagship state school.
When your D is in college, your EFC is the same. So if your son is at a "full need" school, your son's aid goes up so that you pay the same for two kids in college as one kid.
For financing your EFC, ask colleges or scour their websites about parent and other loans, and consider home equity loans (on which interest is tax deductible) and plain old private bank loans. Scour websites for your HS and neighboring HSs for schollies and loans. We found a great loan program for our county, funded by a private family foundation -- no interest accruing during college, no principal due until after graduation, low interest rate.
We also did the math on our state's prepaid tuition program, and it was worth it to take out a home equity loan when our D was a junior in HS, to buy some prepaid tuition for her.
And get your son to take the ACT again -- if his score increases, even more $$ available. Before the retest, ask him to study his weakest areas (you can order his Q&A/right answers on his 33 test from ACT/College Board). Math score is easy to increase for high-level math kids if they just refresh themselves on the long-ago easiest math, so they can do those very quickly. If his score doesn't increase, only wasted a morning and test fee. And get your D to take it several times as well. My kids went from a 30 to 34 and 23 to 28 over time. Good luck!

[mythmom]

We found that with two in college at "meets full need" schools, and schools known for good FA, that our net cost did increase. It certainly was double of one, but there was about a 20% increase.

[itsv]

Read the book "The College Solution" (2nd edition) by Lynn O'Shaughnessy. She is excellent on the money issues especially in how to target a school that will give your child merit money. She also advocates that you find good academic and financial fits for your child. Like you said it is ridiculous to have your child apply and get accepted to school which you later find out you cannot afford.

A good way of targeting a school for merit money is to focus on schools where you son falls within the top 25% to 33% of the applicant pool. For this reason it is good to have the matches and safeties on your son's list be those type of schools. Still very good colleges but just willing to give out more merit money. We used this methodology and our son ended up with close to $750K in merit scholarships including 2 full rides. He currently is at Ohio State and loves it and has a full-ride. It looks like your son would qualify for the OSU's buckeye scholarship which would give him $10K a year.

Others have mentioned it but be sure to run your numbers in each schools "net price calculator". This calculator is part of federal legislation which required colleges make a student's true price more transparent. Now all net price calculators are not "created equal" so some may include a merit award in your calculations and others will not.

The other thing to look at is a college's "common data set." This information breaks down admissions information to a great deal. If you look at the section on financial aid and merit scholarships you can learn how generous a school is to incoming freshman. For example Richmond's Common Data Set http://ifx.richmond.edu/pdfs/CDS_Section%20H.pdf says that 100% of financial need was met and that the average award was $39387 of which only $5K was loans. For merit aid which they classify as non-need based awards the school gave out 56 awards which averaged $36800. In contrast Wake Forest gave 49 merit awards to a larger entering freshman class but the award only averaged $16500. http://www.wfu.edu/ir/docs/cds2011wfu.pdf This information would tell you that Wake Forest is not generous with merit money and that your son would get a better deal at Richmond.

Some schools have scholarship calculators such as Baylor which will give you a more accurate picture.

Be sure to look at the financial aid forums and the forums for each individual colleges.

Good luck.

[Mom2M]

Take a look at the book "Paying for College without Going Broke". It really helped DH and I. Lots of good information about how to fill out forms, etc. I picked it up at the local library, then purchased the most recent edition.

Be very aware of application deadlines...they can be different (earlier) for scholarship applications. Be sure the Letters of Recommendation get to the schools in time for consideration, make sure the teachers are aware of the earlier deadline. Have your student write their resume/brag sheet/whatever your school calls it NOW so it is ready to go when school starts.

[tk21769]

Is there an ex-husband in the picture?
If so, keep in mind that many colleges will want to factor his earnings & assets into their financial need assessments, whether he is truly willing and able to contribute or not.
FinAid | Answering Your Questions | Divorce and Financial Aid

n.b.:
"The Federal government does not consider the income and assets of the non-custodial parent in determining a student's financial need. However, it does consider child support received by the custodial parent."

However ...
"Many private colleges do consider the non-custodial parent as a potential source of support, and require a supplemental financial aid form from the non-custodial parent. This affects the awarding of the school's own aid, but not Federal and state aid."

https://profileonline.collegeboard.c...ionServlet.srv
(According to this list, both Richmond and Wake Forest DO require the Noncustodial PROFILE form)

[upstate13]

thanks for the advice everyone!