Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
5 Tips for Winning Scholarships
The girls and I attended a great presentation from Central Scholarship last month. Here are a few of their tips. Don't forget to check out their website for scholarships!
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Thursday, February 7, 2013
Forbes Magazine Insider Tips
This writer looks at scholarships from an investment strategy perspective . . .
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12 Insider Tricks To Pay For College
This story appears in the January 21, 2013 issue of Forbes.
Is this system nuts, or what? College has gotten insanely expensive, and the tuition aid formulas have gotten insanely complicated. But if you don’t figure them out you will be crushed.
Poor, brilliant students get a free ride at Harvard or Princeton. Rich families don’t care about costs. Everyone else–and that would be about 90% of America–has a problem.
The fanciest colleges cost $55,000 a year. Suppose you have three youngsters who will be attending a decade from now. If prices climb as they have over the past decade, you’ll spend $990,000. This has to come out of your take-home pay. So go ask your boss for a $1.5 million bonus.
If that isn’t feasible, learn how to work the system. Below, we outline a dozen techniques that families use to make bachelor’s degrees and graduate degrees more affordable.
Some families find a way to get a price break that isn’t contingent on income. Some outsmart the aid formulas, which, like the tax code, are full of traps for the unwary and rich in opportunities for the well-informed. Did you know that if your child is applying to certain elite schools, including Dartmouth and Duke, you should use extra cash to pay down your mortgage?
Continue reading this article
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Princeton Review's Top Picks in Colleges . . affordability, academics and ease of financial aid . . .worth a read!
The Princeton Review rankings just came out and I'm happy to report that the University of Maryland College Park and University of Maryland Baltimore County came out on top in terms of academics, affordability and financial aid awarded. Other local schools receiving high marks were George Mason, James Madison, and Virginia Tech (my alma mater!) University of Virginia holds the 1st place ranking and the college where my nephews and nieces attend, University of Central Florida, also ranked high. This is a good site to research schools and the layout is very easy to use. The article that follows is taken from their website. But remember, the best school to attend is the one you can afford!
The Best Values in Higher Education
As college costs have risen dramatically in recent decades, it’s understandable that current students—and their parents—want to get their money’s worth. Today’s college shoppers search for schools that can provide an excellent education and, at the same time, minimize costs.
To augment this search, The Princeton Review’s annual “Best Value Colleges” list, published in partnership with USA TODAY, identifies schools with a commitment to both academic quality and affordability.
For the 2013 list—released today—we analyzed more than 30 factors related to academics, cost, and financial aid. We found 150 “Best Values” in higher education and identified the top 10 public and top 10 private colleges among them. (Click here for more info on how we did it.) Our number one public college is the University of Virginia; our number one private college is Swarthmore College.
Note: schools on the list with a high “sticker price” offset costs with generous aid to students with financial need. How much aid? Freshmen at the 75 the public schools in the book received, on average, a grant of $8,900. Freshmen at the 75 private schools in the book received, on average, a grant of $32,500.
Visit PrincetonReview.com for info on each of the “Best Value Colleges” and USATODAY.com for an interactive database of the schools. Also be sure to check out the companion book, The Best Value Colleges: The 150 Best-Buy Schools and What It Takes to Get In. This 450-page guide has detailed profiles of the colleges and advice for applicants on how to get admitted to—financial aid from—the schools.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Avoid these 8 financial aid mistakes
Avoid these 8 financial aid mistakes
(MoneyWatch) This is the time of year when millions of parents and students are grappling with financial aid forms. It's also the time of year when many families make financial aid mistakes.
Here are eight mistakes to avoid when completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which families must fill out to be eligible to get financial assistance at thousands of schools, and the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, which approximately 20 percent of private institutions use.
1. Procrastinating. There is no federal deadline to submit the FAFSA, but state financial aid programs and colleges do impose aid deadlines. Check with schools on your child's list to see what their deadlines are, as well as your state aid program. You can find a link to every state's financial aid programs at the website of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
A growing number of states offer aid on a first-come, first-served basis. It's OK if you have to submit your aid application with estimated tax information. You can use the IRS data retrieval tool to update the FAFSA after you've completed your taxes.
2. Failing to check for errors. When a parent or student makes mistakes on a financial aid form, it's highly likely that the household won't generate the right "expected family contribution." The information that a family shares on the FAFSA and the PROFILE calculates their EFC, which is a dollar figure that represents the minimum amount that a family can expect to pay for one year of school.
This might seem like a no-brainer, but parents don't always bother to correct FAFSA mistakes even when it can hurt them financially. Last year, more than 750,000 students notified about FAFSA errors by the U.S. Department of Education failed to revise their aid applications, which potentially cost them money.
3. Including retirement assets. Don't include retirement assets on your FAFSA. I wish the aid application was clearer on this point. The FAFSA only wants you to divulge your non-retirement assets. If you include your IRA or 401(k) assets on the FAFSA, it could squash your chances for need-based aid.
4. Providing the wrong tax figures. Parents should list the federal income tax that they paid or will pay based on their 2012 federal tax return -- not the tax withholdings on their W-2 forms. The advice is the same for the students themselves.
5. Avoid blank answers. If the answer to a question is zero or not applicable, write "0" or "Not Applicable" on the online form. Leaving blank answers can cause miscalculations.
6. Don't inflate your education. Some institutions will award applicants brownie points if they are first-generation college students. If parents didn't graduate from college, select "high school" as the highest education attainment.
7. Failing to seek help. If you are overwhelmed by the process, seek help. You'll learn where you can turn for assistance by clicking on my recent post on FAFSA resources.
8. Failing to appeal a financial aid award. Schools don't broadcast this fact, but it is possible to successfully appeal disappointing financial aid awards. If the aid package your child receives is underwhelming, you can ask a college to reconsider the award. Just don't approach the school and announce that you want to "negotiate." Be diplomatic.
© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
Here are eight mistakes to avoid when completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which families must fill out to be eligible to get financial assistance at thousands of schools, and the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, which approximately 20 percent of private institutions use.
1. Procrastinating. There is no federal deadline to submit the FAFSA, but state financial aid programs and colleges do impose aid deadlines. Check with schools on your child's list to see what their deadlines are, as well as your state aid program. You can find a link to every state's financial aid programs at the website of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
A growing number of states offer aid on a first-come, first-served basis. It's OK if you have to submit your aid application with estimated tax information. You can use the IRS data retrieval tool to update the FAFSA after you've completed your taxes.
2. Failing to check for errors. When a parent or student makes mistakes on a financial aid form, it's highly likely that the household won't generate the right "expected family contribution." The information that a family shares on the FAFSA and the PROFILE calculates their EFC, which is a dollar figure that represents the minimum amount that a family can expect to pay for one year of school.
This might seem like a no-brainer, but parents don't always bother to correct FAFSA mistakes even when it can hurt them financially. Last year, more than 750,000 students notified about FAFSA errors by the U.S. Department of Education failed to revise their aid applications, which potentially cost them money.
3. Including retirement assets. Don't include retirement assets on your FAFSA. I wish the aid application was clearer on this point. The FAFSA only wants you to divulge your non-retirement assets. If you include your IRA or 401(k) assets on the FAFSA, it could squash your chances for need-based aid.
4. Providing the wrong tax figures. Parents should list the federal income tax that they paid or will pay based on their 2012 federal tax return -- not the tax withholdings on their W-2 forms. The advice is the same for the students themselves.
5. Avoid blank answers. If the answer to a question is zero or not applicable, write "0" or "Not Applicable" on the online form. Leaving blank answers can cause miscalculations.
6. Don't inflate your education. Some institutions will award applicants brownie points if they are first-generation college students. If parents didn't graduate from college, select "high school" as the highest education attainment.
7. Failing to seek help. If you are overwhelmed by the process, seek help. You'll learn where you can turn for assistance by clicking on my recent post on FAFSA resources.
8. Failing to appeal a financial aid award. Schools don't broadcast this fact, but it is possible to successfully appeal disappointing financial aid awards. If the aid package your child receives is underwhelming, you can ask a college to reconsider the award. Just don't approach the school and announce that you want to "negotiate." Be diplomatic.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Time to put down the remote . . .
To my college aged friends (and their parents!)
Do a little searching through this site for ideas and talk to your friends and their parents . . . AND do you know the name of your financial aid advisor at your school? He/She should be your new BFF!
Happy searching and Happy New Year . . . let me know how it's going!
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