Paying for college

cptofthehouse
Mon, 16 Jun 2014 15:29:29 +0000

Do you have ANY idea what your family income and assets are? If you know your parents are making, say $200K a year, and you live in a house that has a net market value of about a half million, and you know there are stock accounts, savings, etc outside of pension, IRA accounts, the chances are pretty danged good that you are not going qualify for much, if any need based aid even if your parents cooperate and fill out all of the forms required.

Figure out what you can pay each year. My son, for example, had about $20K saved, knew he could earn about $5K a year over the summer and school year working, and also knew he had the Direct loans at his disposal that start at $5500 a year as a freshman. So right there, he knew he had about $15K a year that he could pay on top of what we were willing to contribute. He also knew that there was no way he’d qualify for financial aid, but he still threw in a couple of schools that were up there in cost just to see what would pan out He also was very quick to throw them off the table when he was accepted with no aid or merit at all and would have to come up with $60K+ each year.

By all means, look at the colleges that offer substantial amounts of merit aid. Again, focus on those where the chances are better that you could get the cost down to what is affordable. Duke, for example, though a great school with great fin aid is not going to be a likely option for you if your family will not qualify for much or any aid from them. Yes they have some great merit awards but give out only a handful and the calibre you have to be to get any is really being top school material. You can give it a try, but be fully aware that it is not to happen,whereas if you look at a school with guaranteed awards or where you are up there in the admissions pool and that school has big enough awards to make it possible, you are more likely to have some real possibilities come spring.

Your first list of schools should be those that are local and public Find out from your GC which schools have been “good” to grads from your HS and give out some nice awards. Look at the costs for your state schools, and see what the likelihood is for you to be able to afford which ones of those.