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Talk to your guidance counselor
Talk to your guidance counselor make sure you are taking
the courses you need to meet college admissions requirements.
If appropriate, look into AP courses and/or placement tests.
Student Positioning
Learn how to improve your student positioning to increase your
chances of admissions, as well as improve your chances of receiving
college grants and scholarships. Student positioning can be
as important to your family’s financial bottom-line as parents
filling out financial aid forms correctly.
Determine Required Forms
You need to determine if the CSS PROFILE is required by any
of the colleges in order for you to receive financial aid or
scholarships. Also, find out if any of the colleges you're applying
to require their own financial aid forms in addition to the
FAFSA and CSS PROFILE before they'll award their scholarships
or even student loans. *
Complete Financial Aid Forms Regardless of
Your Income Level
You need to complete the FAFSA, CSS PROFILE and any other required
financial forms regardless of your income or assets in order
to be eligible for many grants and scholarships as well as Federal
low interest student loans. All forms must
be completed accurately, on time and consistent with one another.
Otherwise, the forms could get bumped causing costly
delays and possibly lost aid since financial is awarded
on a first come first served basis.*
Merit Scholarships
You need to determine eligibility for "merit based" scholarships.
In The Top 20%
If financial aid is important to you and you want to increase
your chances of receiving more gift aid, find schools where
your student would be in the top 20%. Students in the top 20%
of the admitting class tend to receive more "free money"
and need less student loan money. *
Colleges That Meet 75% to 100% of Your "Need"
You should apply to colleges that meet 75% to 100% of your "need"
as defined by both federal and institutional methodologies.
Once you've identified schools where you're in the top 20% of
the admitting class, you need to determine each schools historical
success in meeting a family's Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
What percentage of the aid is self-help (loans and work study)
vs. gift aid (scholarships and grants)? Obviously, the higher
your chances of getting money that you won’t ever have to pay
back, the better! *
Includable VS. Non-Includable Assets
Asset strategy is an important part of maximizing the financial
aid you receive. If assets are exposed to either the federal
or institutional methodology it can significantly reduce your
financial aid package. It is imperative to find out which assets
are included and to develop a plan to maximize your opportunities.
Be careful to properly and legally implement the available strategies.
The issues can be very complicated, and any mistakes here could
be very costly. You should consider carefully whether you want
to navigate the college funding process on your own or seek
guidance from a professional college
funding advisor that is current on the comprehensive financial
process.
Develop cash flow scenarios
Many parents temporarily convert short-term debt into long-term
debt and take full advantage of low interest student loans.
These cash flow strategies should take full advantage of tax
deductions, exemptions, credits and exclusions to lower the
cost of your out-of-pocket college expenses. *
Tax Savings
There are powerful tax strategies for reducing college costs
that work for nearly everyone over and above the Lifetime Learning
Credit, Hope Scholarship Credit and student loan interest deduction.
*
Compare Award Letters
You should carefully compare the various award letters you receive
to determine which school gave you the best overall financial
program. this is easier said than done! There are a great number
of factors that make up your total out of pocket expenses. You
must carefully determine your total "out
of pocket" expenses once you have been offered a package.
We help our clients evaluate all of their awards as part of
the CFS Smart Track™ Program.
Accepting the Offer?
Determine if it would be advantageous to enter the appeal process
for reevaluation with the financial aid officer. Be careful!
Appealing may work against you if not done properly and with
just cause. With our experience, we can tell when an offer from
a school is a good one and should be held on to. We can also
tell when it may be worth appealing. If an appeal is appropriate,
we handle the whole process for our
clients.
These college funding strategies are an overview of some of
the strategies used to minimize the out-of-pocket money you
need to invest for your child’s education. Implementing them
could be well worth the substantial time and effort.
If these strategies decrease your college expenses by just $5,000
per year per child, after four years you could be saving well
over $20,000!
Feeling confused or overwhelmed by the financial aid process
and would like some help? Registering for our FREE
College Financial planning workshop is your first step.
* This is a service we
provide to our clients.
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