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  • collegepete 1:24 am on May 25, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Common Application, financial aid   

    What 11th Graders Should Do This Summer 

    It’s almost Memorial Day and that means two things: One – my nostalgic, Jersey-raised wife Jill will officially ‘open’ our pool (as if) and two – it’s time for 11th graders to get serious about applying to college.

    If you have a child in high school, you’re probably already receiving a fair share of college-related ‘literature’.  It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the growing piles of paper, not to mention the constant influx of information and misinformation from every source imaginable about the college application process. And if you think it’s a nuisance now, once your student begins 12th grade, it can get a whole lot worse….  application deadlines (and the accompanying panic) come around very quickly once school starts.  This year, for example, FSU has an October 17 priority deadline. UF’s is November 1, which is also the deadline for students applying Early Action or Early Decision. And for most out of state schools, the regular deadline is January 1 (but you should aim to have your applications submitted well before this crunch deadline as last minute snafus with the technology have been known to happen).

    The most widely accepted college application, known as The Common Application, officially goes live on August 1st, but you can print a draft and get started earlier.  Which is a very good idea.  Not sure where to begin?  Start with the essay and short answer, for sure.  The rest of the application is relatively easy.  You’ll also want to write a resume outlining your extra-curricular activities, awards and honors, community service and volunteer activities, etc., as this info will need to be entered on the application.  One important Progam Note: The Common Application has reinstated the 500 word limit on the long essay, so make every word count!

    If you’re the parent of an 11th grader, here are some other college-related activities you should be considering this summer:

    •     Finalizing Your College List – Though many students reflexively apply to as many as 20 schools, an ideal list is a focused one that includes a balance of reach, target, and safety schools.
    •     Visiting Colleges

    While summer is not the optimal time to visit colleges, it is convenient for families.  Not surprisingly, colleges expect many visitors during summer months, so there will be frequent tours and info sessions.  Visiting is the best way to express interest in a college, which does help in securing the Thick Envelope.

    •     Preparing for Fall Standardized Tests

    The SAT is scheduled for October 6, while the ACT is September 8 and October 27.  These dates are not too late for admissions for Fall 2013.  Summer is a great time to prepare for the SAT/ACT and the SAT Subject Tests.  Get yourself a tutor or private class (call us for a recommendation), or study up on ePrep a great and affordable tool that we provide for our clients.

    •     Putting your finances in order.

    Make sure that you look up the priority filing deadlines for every school on your child’s list.  Awards are first-come, first-served so you want to complete everything ahead of those deadlines.  To that point, Make sure you complete any financial planning or strategic changes now, or well in advance of the end of the year.  This is your look-back year — the government and the colleges will  review your income, assets and circumstances for THIS calendar year to make award determinations for the following Fall.  If you don’t know which assets count for and against you, NOW is the time to get educated.  Once the year ends, you will have fewer options at your disposal.

    Finally, I want to wish you an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend and a safe and relaxing summer.  Except for a 2-week college tour in mid-July,  I will be around and available throughout most of it to assist you with your college planning needs.    Feel free to contact our office with any questions about the recommendations above.

     

  • collegepete 3:11 pm on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , financial aid   

    2012 Admissions Results (and Lessons Learned) 

    First, Congratulations to the Class of 2012!  Our students received a record number of the ‘thick envelopes’ this spring — with acceptances to great schools and scholarship offers in excess of $1.5 million, an average of $30,000 per student – and that’s not counting Bright Futures. When all of the deposits are in (couple of kids still picking between two),  96% of our 12th graders will have been accepted to and received a hefty discount (in most cases) at one of their top choices.  Check below for a list of our Class of 2016 acceptances. You did great, guys – Congratulations!

    Now the not so good news.  While these results are typical for our students, they are far from typical for many college applicants.  The fact is more kids (including more full-paying, international students) are applying to more schools.  This means colleges can be pickier than ever and it made 2012 an insanely competitive year both for college admissions and for funding.   We are seeing some of lowest admit rates (# of applicants admitted v. # who applied) ever reported — and this is not just limited to the most selective colleges.  It’s across the board — and it seems to be disproportionately and more negatively impacting girls (not for nothin’ but there are more women on campus than men).  

    I’m not sharing this stuff to scare you.  I’m trying to motivate you.  You don’t have to be typical.  With proper and advance planning – the right financial guidance, a sound admissions plan, and the proper academic preparation — you can get a GREAT result.  And this is the lesson from 2012, which is the same lesson from prior years: get an early start, or when your student is in 10th grade or 11th grade.  My best success stories start with families who realize they need to plan early.

    In last Saturday’s Miami Herald I discussed some of the steps families should take.  The story,  Battling the High Cost of Higher Ed, discusses college as it is today – not what it once was — and it covers a lot of what you need to know about saving for, getting into and receiving a huge discount for college.  It’s worth a read, but I’ll be providing a whole lot more about what I think might be the most challenging issue of our time at my workshop in Pinecrest next week.  This will be my last class of the school year.

    If you have children and you plan to send them to college, I highly recommend you join us.  If you have a 10th or 11th grader and you haven’t been to one of my workshops yet, then what are you waiting for!? Get a jump start before your summer daze sets in.  Nothing will be pitched. Nothing will be sold. This is purely educational.   Click here to see what I’ll be covering, and to register.

    I hope to see you there.

    Best,
    Peter

    P.S. Please feel free to forward this story to a friend or neighbor with college-bound teens at home… they’ll thank you for it.

    P.P.S. Again, Congratulations everyone on what has turned out to be a record-breaking year!

    Acceptance and Award Results for College Pete’s Class of 2016 (ABC order)
    Allegheny College
    American University
    Boston College
    Boston University
    Bowdoin
    Brandeis
    Brown
    Cornell
    Drexel
    Duke
    Eckerd
    Emory
    FGCU
    FSU
    George Washington
    Georgetown University
    Georgia Tech
    Guilford College
    Harvard
    Hofstra
    Ithaca College
    Juniata College
    Lehigh University
    Marist College
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
    McDaniel College
    Middlebury
    New York University
    Northwestern University
    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
    Rice University
    Stanford University
    Stetson University
    Syracuse
    Tulane
    UCF
    UCLA
    UF
    University of Maryland
    University of Miami
    University of Michigan
    University of PIttsburgh
    University of San Diego
    University of Southern California
    Vanderbilt
    Washington University in St. Louis
    Widener University
    Worcester Polytechnic Institute

    P.P.P.S. GO HEAT!  (and thanks for reading all the way to the bottom).

     

  • collegepete 1:53 pm on April 29, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: financial aid,   

    How to MAKE College Worth It! 

    I’m no futurist, but  last year I published an article asking what was then a rather difficult and controversial question: Was a college education still worth the investment?   I highly recommend that you check out my surprising answer since this year it seems that my question is the query of the hour.   Just last month I published another article discussing why I thought that a Florida education was becoming a bad investment. I hate to sound self-serving, but I suggest you read that piece as well (if you’re from Florida), since this weekend the Herald published a series of opinions about the value (or lack there of) at our esteemed institutions.

    Seems as if you can”t turn on the TV, check your kindle or open a paper (I’m old school) without hearing about the sad state of higher ed, rampant un(der) employment of college grads and the $ Trillion student debt bubble just beggin’ to burst.  If you’ve been reading my stuff for awhile, you know that  this is all very troubling news — BUT it is NOT NEW NEWS! 

    I have been talking about a higher ed crisis among the largely ‘forgotten’ middle class AND providing real solutions to real families like yours for years.  So what’s most troubling me is not that the pundits have finally come to our party.  I’m happy about that.  What’s making me furious is that among the chatter,  all I hear about are interest rate reductions and loan forgiveness  — which are REACTIVE solutions — and do nothing to help families AFFORD college in the first place, which is what they should be talking about!   In my blog and in my practice, we focus on strategies that make college affordable for regular people, sans excessive debt.  My clients and their children find that they can actually enjoy a return on their educational investment!   

    I hate to rant, but this is also the time of year that I get emergency emails and panicked queries from families who say that ‘I know I should have done this last year, but…’ or ‘I’ve been reading your emails for almost 2 years now and my kid is in 12th grade and headed to Top Choice U and I need money’ … or… ‘I wish I knew about you a year ago…“   I got three like this on Friday.  I really can’t help them now, and I absolutely hate knowing that there were strategies that they could have implemented last Fall that would have helped them say ‘yes’ to their child this Spring.   With NEXT school year just around the corner, I have to ask:  Are you going be better prepared for college when it starts for YOUR student?  

    You definitely can be.

    Are there real concerns about our turning into an over-educated, under-employed and deeply in-debted people?  Yes there are.   But there are also real personal strategies that you can implement to help you avoid that fate.  But you have to take action.   Don’t let the summer go by without learning the difference between what a college education costs and what a college education should cost YOU (hint:  it’s almost never the sticker prices you see on school websites).   Find out now — not after your child has fallen in love with a photo of autumn foliage on a brochure or the school mascot –how  to research and select schools that are the right fit for your student and the right price for your family.  If you don’t know where to start, come to one of my classes or download my free resource guide… or at the very minimum, search my blog for the articles I referenced above.  And, if you have already come to one of my classes, it’s time to get off the fence and give us a call today, while we can do something to make college more affordable… well before the bill is in hand, and you’re in crisis mode and you’re options are limited.

    Best,
    Peter

     

  • collegepete 10:50 pm on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: financial aid, grant   

    The Most Stressful Month for Parents of College-bound Students 

    There is no question, April is the most stressful month for parents of college-bound students.

    April is when many families make decisions on where their 12th graders will attend school in the fall.  These decisions are easy for some, but for others they must belabor, weigh and evaluate, struggle and wrestle with the financial aid packages that different schools offer, wondering if they can extract an additional few bucks from Top Choice U, or if they can actually afford to send Junior to that more expensive college.  I had one mother remind me how much fun February was, when her kid was getting admitted to nearly every school on her list, but only two months later April grew painfully stressful when those same schools sent preliminary financial aid offers and she was faced with paying nearly 30K minimum per year for Missy’s education.

    But April is not just stressful for parents; it’s also stressful for financial aid officers.

    This is the time of year when financial aid awards are appealed, rejected, negotiated and revised, when financial aid officers hiding behind their ivy-covered brick walls frequently tell families what isn’t true – that this is their final offer, this is the best they can do, take it or leave it, “we’re not a lending agency”, only to turn around days or weeks later and do the opposite – increase their offer to students, enticing them to say yes by May 1 with a $7K bump in their University Grant.

    One mother told me she threw out all paperwork from a Very Selective, Northeastern private university after the financial aid officer rudely told her, “we’re not a lending agency”, refusing to raise their financial aid offer and diffusing all hope that Mom could pay for this school.  Yet only days later little Missy received an email from the school that they were increasing her grant by over $7,000!

    Financial aid officers are people, with varying levels of patience, tolerance, and happiness.  At this time of year it shouldn’t surprise parents when they receive a curt, rude, or helpless response from a request on the phone for more assistance.  The financial aid office is dealing with thousands of phone calls, letters, faxes and emails, big dollars (millions!) are at stake, and there are processes that each school has in place to deal with the many requests they receive.  Your ad hoc phone call on a Tuesday afternoon disrupts their process, wastes their time, and sometimes, when the urge for a 5 Hour Energy drink is raging, you’ll get a cranky response from the droopy person on the other end of the line.  But if you play your cards right and understand how the appeals process works, you can see the rewards, in this case more money for your student.

    A second mother saw her daughter’s award from a New York college increase by $4,400 per year after writing a written appeal explaining their circumstances, while another saw a bump of $9K from a Boston school after doing the same.  I could go on.

    If you have seen me at one of my live workshops, you may recall my repeated insistence, “College is a business.  Even if they are not-for-profit, they want to make money”.  Indeed, it is a business.  And in every business there is a negotiation going on for goods and services at some level of the value chain.  With colleges, that negotiation takes place over the price you pay for your student to attend.  Colleges don’t like to “negotiate”, and you shouldn’t use that word when dealing with the financial aid office, but in many cases that’s exactly what is happening.

    Parents of 11th and 10th graders should pay close attention, because the positioning doesn’t happen at the last minute, or on April 1, when schools send out letters.  Parents need to prepare in advance, when their students are in 9th, 10th, or 11th grade, by understanding the rules of the game and play within those rules so that you get the best financial package for your student.  I often hear from parents of 12th graders or with kids already in college, “I wish I knew you when…”, and they are right, because I probably could have saved them big bucks.  That’s why it’s particularly annoying when a family comes to me when their kids are in 9th or 10th grade, and they think they can wait.

    When it comes to planning for college, it’s never too early to get started.  Because the sooner you begin, the less distasteful the medicine.

     

  • collegepete 8:37 pm on April 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , financial aid   

    The Business of College Admissions 

    Sometimes money can buy happiness.  Or at least a spot in a freshman class.

    Today, more so than in the past, parents worry about whether ‘ability to pay’ will influence their child’s  prospects at a particular college.  While I would like to reassure everyone that  with respect to schools, need-blind especially,  a family’s financial need will not be a factor in admissions, my gut (and the results of a new Harvard survey) tell me that it might be… at least a little.  This is not to suggest that money is the main driver in the admissions process – far from it at most of the more selective schools in the country.   But in these economic conditions, I cannot  wholly deny that ‘ability to pay’ is not a factor influencing some admissions decisions at some colleges.   Will a public university facing a funding shortfall look to less qualified, out-of-state, full-freight paying students?  Perhaps.  Will a private university that has already offered a $33,000.00 discount counsel a student who wants more to go elsewhere?  Sometimes.

    If you have ever heard me speak at one of my workshops, you might recall that I frequently emphasize that even ‘nonprofit’ colleges act a lot like ‘for profit’ companies in that they have business offices that must meet certain net revenue targets (aggregate and per student).  Now the results from a recent Harvard survey of 75 of the most competitive colleges seem to support my claim.

    But visit any college fair and the admissions officers at the more competitive colleges (including and especially those surveyed) will be quick to discuss their “holistic” and financially need-blind approach to admissions.  That is to say that these schools claim to consider the entire background of the candidate, not just grades, test scores and ability to pay full freight.  In my experience, this is mostly true of most colleges… most of the time.  The first ‘sort’ is about the quality of the applicant’s highschool, grades and scores — and then they consider ‘softer’ criteria such as  “fit” between the applicant and the institution, class needs, recommendations, essay, specific talent, ethnic background, and yes, even the ability to pay the bill.

    And therein lies the conflict between the admissions office, driven by the institutional values of applicant qualifications, and the business office, driven by greenbacks.  

    So what is a normal, middle class family to do?  

    One of the most important things you can do is to make sure your student’s focus remains on excelling in high school and preparing as best they can for SAT/ACT testing, while seeking schools that are the right academic and social fit based on their intellectual pursuits and avocational, or extra-curricular, interests.  I have hard evidence that if a school wants your child badly enough based on those factors, they’ll make you a financial offer that you can accept.

    You should be working on an integrated admissions strategy with your child, and help build a college list that targets a number of schools where your child is not only very likely to be admitted and be happy, but is also more likely to meet your financial needs (in a variety of ways).  In doing so, you significantly stack the odds (on admissions and affordability) in your family’s favor.  How much so?

    Well, we’re just wrapping up an admissions season that pundits are predicting will have the lowest admit rates in history.  And yet it looks as though my 12th graders are on target to have the best financial award year we’ve ever had with the average financial offer coming in at just shy of $30,000 per student (so far)  from great colleges… including all of the FL schools, as well as Brown, Harvard, Duke, Cornell, BC, Emory, RPI, USC, Brandeis, Ithaca, Northwestern and many others.  Of course, that’s not to say that there weren’t some head-scratching surprises and one or two disappointments, but all of our students got into and received financial offers from one of their choices.  I’ll be publishing our results, anonymously of course — including the annual school disslist of colleges that we feel are not living up to their marketing –  as soon as the process is finished (deposits are due on May 1).

    If it seems that what has always been a complex and competitive selection process has gotten even more so, you’d be right.  And I expect this trend to continue.  The best way to ensure your child’s success is to arm your family with the right tools for today’s college process.  If you have a current 11th grader, schools will begin accepting applications for the upcoming admissions year  on August 1st, which is why I’m offering my 5th annual College Pete’s Thick Envelope Admissions and Application Bootcamp earlier than ever.  If your child is a current junior in high school and you’d like them to get a head start on the college application process, I highly recommend this half-day intensive class.  I hope to see them there.

    Best,
    Peter

    P.S. If you’re wondering how these families are receiving five-figure tuition discounts or  how you’re going to pay for college with list prices approaching $60,000 at private schools, then you should register for one of my upcoming workshops.  It’s free to attend, but missing out on this info could cost you a fortune.

     

  • collegepete 8:09 pm on March 13, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: financial aid   

    Upset Alert! Take Loyola (MD) over Ohio State 

    I get excited every year in March with the onset of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  I love it when Dick Vitale loses his voice on the first day of the tournament.  I love the way the game times are staggered, beginning at noon on Thursday, so that we can view the endings of each contest without missing any excitement.  And I absolutely love it when Cinderella makes her guest appearance last well into the later rounds.

    I’m a big college basketball fan, but I cannot possibly keep track of all these teams.  Like most people, I have no clue who will win between Cincinnati and Texas, or Purdue vs. St. Mary’s.  Even the so-called experts get many of the games wildly wrong.

    That’s why I’m proud to release my 5th Annual University Generosity Bracketology, where the winner is the school with the best ‘tuition discounting’ policies and graduation rates.  If your college basketball knowledge is somewhat limited, and choosing a winning team (or the right college, for that matter) based on its mascot or its weather seems trivial, here’s an alternative approach.  It may not be a formula for bracket success at the office, but it’s certainly a solid strategy when researching colleges with your child…and it’s a creative way to discern between two teams you have absolutely no clue about.  As a side benefit, you may actually sound intelligent (from a non-basketball standpoint) when explaining your reasoning to your colleagues.

    This year, Loyola (MD) is my favorite dark horse.  The Greyhounds (great name for an underdog!), seeded 15th in the East, are making their first NCAA appearance since 1994, having won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.  They face a perennial powerhouse and number 2 seed Ohio State in the first round.  Most give Loyola absolutely no chance to win this game.  But off the court, Loyola students are big winners because the school, beautifully situated in suburban Baltimore and offering great programs in business and communications, meets 100% of demonstrated need, 72% of which is grants and scholarships (read: Cash Money).  Ohio State cannot touch that, meeting only 59% of need.

    Last year I suggested taking Bucknell over UConn in the first round because Bucknell is a more generous school, meeting 95% need.  UConn then went on to win the National Championship.  So much for my basketball predictions (Ohio State fans, including President Obama, are now drooling).

    If you are the parent of a high school student, you need to understand the concept of University Generosity.  Because when March Madness ends, college bills begin.  Come April, parents of 12th graders will start to receive financial aid offers.  Some will be happy.  Others, not so much.  If you are a 12th grade parent, I hope you will be happy.

    For those with underclassmen, the time to learn how colleges ‘set’ and ‘discount’ their prices, and to take action on a college plan is now, well before your child’s 12th grade year.  I’m starting to see more families with younger children in 8th, 9th, and 10th grade get started on a college plan for all of their children.  They’re smart to start early.  Not only do they find that they have more options, but also their decisions are made with less pressure, less panic, and with better results.  Five figure results.

    I’m holding a workshop next Wednesday, March 21 in Weston, where I’ll discuss University Generosity and How to Pay for College in Today’s Economy.  There is no cost to attend, but missing this info could be very expensive.  I invite you to attend.  Click here to register – you’ll be doing yourself, your student and your family a huge favor.

    Dedicated to Cinderella and Buzzer Beaters,

    Peter Ratzan

     

  • collegepete 10:51 pm on March 1, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , financial aid   

    Why Florida’s Colleges Are Becoming A Bad Place To Invest 

    I read a recent NY Times article that prominently featured Florida’s higher education system -  for all the wrong reasons.   

    Worst In The Nation:  Since 2008, our legislature has decreased by 24% the amount of funding for Florida universities.  We are now at the same funding levels that we were at in 2003.  That’s so long ago, the Iraq War hadn’t even begun and it puts our fair state university system dead last in the nation on spending per student! 

    Among other maladies, the cuts have left us with a 2003-level number of professors teaching to a record 2012-level number of students, which means fewer or larger classes, fewer hands-on experience in labs, research projects and school-sponsored internships and a new normal graduation schedule of six (not four) years.  That means most students — even those with pre-paid plans — are now forced into debt in order to graduate.

    It’s not pretty, but the story actually gets worse from there.  At the same time the state was slashing higher education funding and quality, we were paying more.  Tuition has been rising 15% each year (that’s about 12X the rate of inflation and 3X more than the national average), with more and even higher hikes expected this year.   For example, University of Florida President Bernie Machen wants to increase tution at his school as much as 30%!  We are paying a premium price for an increasingly poor product (UF has slipped from 47 to 58 in the US News Rankings). 

    As a parent, lifetime Floridian and an education advocate, I’m sick.  But that’s not the point of my essay.  Instead, I want to talk today about what we as consumers would do if faced with these conditions in any other market.  What, for example, would you do if the car company you had been buying from for years, stopped funding R&D and started offering you cars with 2003 technology at a 2012 premium price?  Me thinks you’d find a new car company.  Or, what if you were an employee who was asked to work longer, harder and with fewer resources for less and less money.  Me thinks you might look for a better job with a different employer. 

    I don’t want to belabor the point, but as a higher education consumer, you have similar options.  With sticker prices from $20-$60,000 per year, most of us can’t and none of us wants to pay full price for college these days.  And certainly no one chooses to pay more for an inferior product.  I know that seems counter-intuitive, but with financial aid and merit-based institutional scholarships serving as the great price equalizer, you don’t have to!  So-called expensive, private schools (that graduate students in 4.1 years on average) can cost the same or even less than our state universities.   The College Board estimates that fewer than 20% of students pay the ‘sticker price’ for college and that the average discount is 42%.   You just have to be a savvy consumer and learn where to look, how to properly position your student, and understand the rules of the game.   

    And the time to start is now, or when your student is in 9th, 10th, or 11th grade.  The earlier you plan for this enormous expense, the better. 

    I’m often baffled how we will spend hours and hours researching cars, televisions, or furniture before making a purchase, but when it comes to pricing colleges we go in blind, hoping for a scholarship.  I do it too – I recently spent several hours researching a pitching machine for my son’s little league team before making a purchase.  If parents spent as much time understanding college pricing as I spent looking at the different devices to launch a baseball towards a 9 year old, they would be far more educated on the whole process.

    Here’s your chance to get educated on higher education.  I’m holding a public workshop on March 21 in Weston, where I’ll discuss How to Pay for College in Today’s Economy.  Specifically, I’ll cover:

    • How an expensive, private college can cost less than a state university
    • Why EVERYONE should apply for financial aid, regardless of income
    • How they determine what you are expected to pay for college, with strategies to manage the formula and save money
    • The most overlooked yet critical statistic to research when comparing colleges
    • Assets that count, assets that don’t count, and some assets that count more than others
    • More!

    There is absolutely no cost to attend this event, but missing out on this information will prove costly.  Do yourself, your student, and your family a favor and click here to register.  I look forward to seeing you there.

     

  • collegepete 11:20 am on February 22, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , financial aid   

    Students Easy Prey For Scholarship Scams 

    It’s almost March, and that means there are only two months left before parents of 2012 high school seniors will have to plunk down a deposit at Top Choice U.   And with skyrocketing tuition, a sluggish economy, and record-level college debt, many will use this time to hunt down private scholarships.  Unfortunately, they’ll be facing some pretty long odds: in any given year, a scant 6.9%, or about 14.5-to-1 of the undergraduates who apply for private scholarships actually receive anything at all.  In fact, private scholarship money  represents less than  2% of the total that’s available for financial aid (through the government and the colleges themselves). 

    What’s worse — in their desperation, many will fall prey to scholarship scams and unscrupulous financial aid providers.  The Federal Trade Commission estimates that parents lose more than $100 million to scholarship scams every year (that’s $250.00 a day). 

    To avoid becoming a victim , follow these safe search guidelines:

    1. Steer clear of any companies that require an advance fee to do a scholarship search. Instead, start with a FREE, reputable online scholarship search such as Fastweb, or borrow a scholarship book that is less than one year old.

    2. Never provide information about your bank account, social security number etc. in response to an unsolicited  (or any) sholarship offer.  Some swindlers (cleverly disguised as legitimate companies) will send out information to your student indicating that they’ve been selected as a ‘finalist’ for an award and request additional information to ‘confirm eligibility.’  You should NEVER have to provide this type of  information for a private scholarship search.

    3. Watch out for any company that ‘guarantees’ that you will win a scholarship.  Any claim or guarantee I have ever seen or reviewed came with impossible conditions and have turned out to be a scam.

    4. Check with your, your spouse’s and even your parents’ employers.  Many have scholarships that nobody knows about because they’ve never asked and never been aggressively marketed.

    5. Apply wisely.  You don’t have much time so increase your odds by casting a narrow net.  You may have a better shot at applying for less cometitive local scholarships than more widely publicized national programs.

    Although it may be too late for many of my 2012 readers, when it comes to slashing the college bill, you should focus less time on the 2% of private scholarship money referenced above and much more of your effort on the other 98% available through federal and institutional discounts.  From now until the summer (and sometimes beyond then) I will probably get a call at least once a day from parents in desperate need of help to pay the looming college bill.   Often the only available response at this point is:  ‘Oh Crap’ – here’s a family with a great student that just waited too long.  Which stinks because more than likely, if they had started their planning process earlier (i.e., had their child apply to schools with money to give, positioned him or her to be in the top 25% of some of those schools and re-allocated their non-exempt assets) they may have qualified for both merit and federal-based scholarships and grants to help offset these costs.

    I’m often asked “when should you really begin college planning and funding process?”  My response:  Now!  Or, at the latest in 10th or 11th grade, or at the very latest, at the same time that students are beginning their admissions preparation.  So, If you’re the parent of a high school student with questions about where the legitimate college money is, please come to one of my free classes.   I’ll be at Sagemont School, Upper Campus tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb 22), where I’ll be sharing many of the tips and advice that I’ve personally used to help almost 1,000 South Florida families make college affordable again.  It’s free, pitch-free, and almost completely full.  Click here to reserve your seat now. 

    Best,

    Peter Ratzan

    p.s. One final note:  if you believe you are the victim of a scholarship scam, notify the FTC immediately.  They will put you in touch with their education fraud division to assist you.

     

  • collegepete 8:56 am on January 18, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Education Trust, , financial aid, , , , Work Study   

    5 FAFSA Mistakes To Avoid! 

    A few years back, a frustrated Arne Duncan (our Secretary of Education) told Congress, “You basically need a Ph.D to figure that thing out!” . Mr. Duncan was referring to the 106 question Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or “FAFSA.” And he’s a Harvard guy!

    A little closer to home: One mom at last week’s packed class told me that it had taken her five attempts just to read through the form that would ultimately determine her daughter’s eligibility for financial aid, and she still wasn’t sure if she and her spouse (or her ex-husband and his spouse) were the appropriate household to use on the application.

    Confounding the matter is the fact that the FAFSA, which is arguably the single most important document in determining how much and what type of financial aid a family will receive, has failed to keep up with the changing composition of our families and our lives. Confusion is widespread and can lead to an inaccurate portrayal of a family’s finances — one that does not fairly reflect its needs.

    At last week’s class in Pinecrest, I took a few minutes to answer some individual concerns. Many of the questions are shared issues for many middle class families so I thought I’d summarize five of the more common ones here. Quick disclaimer: my responses are necessarily general and should be considered as a guideline, not a recommendation — remember, no two families have exactly the same circumstances. Finally, although it may not always be immediately clear what information should be provided, the guidelines are available through the Department of Education.

    First – the student is the applicant. Any reference to ‘You’ or ‘Your’ on the FAFSA and on the CSS Profile refers to the student!

    Next, on the matter of children with separated or divorced parents: Dept. of Ed. guidelines require that the applicant report the household dynamics of the legal parent who provides more support, which is interpreted as the household where the student lives the majority of the time. Two notes: 1) the other parent’s household is largely ignored on the FAFSA, but WILL LIKELY be counted in the CSS Profile formula and 2) children with divorced same-sex parents face additional difficulty when applying for aid and should contact a specialist to review their situation.

    The Small Business Loophole: For most business owners I see in my practice, the proper value of their business is “zero.” Why? The rationale buried in the directions has to do with the number of employees your business has. Those with fewer than 100 employee shoud be exempt, but I’ve seen CPAs make this mistake and lose tens of thousands of potential financial aid.

    Independent Students: I get so many questions from parents who want to ‘emancipate’ their children so that the parents’ assets will not be counted in the formulas. In most cases, this won’t work. The Dept. of Ed. has 6 criteria to determine whether a student can be considered ‘independent.’ And trust me, you don’t want to answer ‘Yes’ to these questions, at least not yet (like, for example, whether your child is married or has dependents of her own).

    Work-Study: This is not a trick question… you probably realize that most colleges do not give out 100% free money. Most schools award a combination of free money and loans/work study. You should check ‘yes’, indicating that you wish to be considered. You can always appeal later or decline the work study offered, but it’s harder to ask for it later. Besides, if your kid works 10-20 hours a week and makes a few extra shekels, that’s a good thing.

    5) Retirement, checking, savings and cash balances: Aside from questions about your income, these are the most important questions. You don’t have to disclosing the value of your retirement accounts – IRAs, 401Ks, and so forth, nor the value of your primary residence. The FAFSA specifically tells you not to include those assets, so don’t! You do need to enter the total amounts of cash holdings you have as of the day you are filing SO make any large payments (like mortgage etc.) BEFORE you file. As for other non-retirement assets, there is an asset protection allowance, and certain annuities and insurance products could also be exempt. Consult a qualified college advisor sooner rather than later if you have more than $50,000 worth of assets.

    Tomorrow (1/18), I will be conducting a workshop for parents at The Sagemont School in Weston. It’s free, full of this type of information and open to the public — and it’s the last class I’m teaching before the priority financial aid deadlines. If you have college-bound children, I hope to see you there. If you don’t, please send this on to someone who does — they’ll thank you for it. Click here to register.

    Best,
    Peter

    p.s. One last tip: As soon as I sent out last week’s note about there being no changes on this year’s FAFSA, naturally I found one. Unlike in years past, the 2012 application gives you the opportunity to view select information about the schools chosen, including graduation rates. That sounds good, right? EXCEPT – the rates provided by FAFSA are the 6-year rates, not 4-year as was the standard time back in the day. This 6-year ‘new normal’ is not only abhorent, it’s expensive. And it blind-sides most families. The Education Trust publishes 4, 5, and 6 year rates on their site and is a must-stop when researching the colleges on your student’s list.

     

  • collegepete 7:43 pm on January 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , College Planning, , , financial aid   

    Essential Info For the 2012 FAFSA 

    Many people spend the first couple of weeks of the New Year slowly easing back into to their routine.  Not so me.  Once the ball drops, I get buried in FAFSAs.  I’ve prepared quite a few already and I’ve got good news and bad news.  First the good news:  it’s exactly the same form as last year’s.  Now the bad news:  it’s exactly the same form as last year’s.

    For those who are new to the college process, January 1 is the first day that the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (the ‘FAFSA’) becomes available.   The FAFSA  contains roughly 100 questions about your family’s income, assets, real estate holdings, household members, student’s assets, etc.  Your answers will be used by the government, and in turn the school financial aid offices, to determine how much they believe you can afford to pay for college for one child for one year.  The form is available at http://www.fafsa.gov.  It does not cost anything to complete and submit the FAFSA. (Note: Do not go to http://www.fafsa.com, as this is a fee-based website). 

    The form itself is not difficult per se – understanding the rules, regulations and loopholes that go into the government’s formula is another matter.  Overstate the equity in your investment property or mis-identify a parent asset as a student asset, for example, and you can wind up losing out on thousands of dollars of aid you would have otherwise been eligible to receive.    The College Board estimates that about 90% of forms have mistakes on them, while the Department of Education states that 40% of families leave money on the table.

    Every student planning to go to college must fill out a FAFSA in order to be considered for Federal and Institutional Financial Aid (note that in Florida, students who wish to qualify for the state’s Bright Futures merit scholarship must also file this form, regardless of whether they plan to apply for additional scholarship aid).  If you are considering strategies to reduce your EFC, the time to act is now.  If you  are not sure what an EFC is, the time to act is definitely now – well before (as in years before) you hit ‘submit’ on any of these forms.

    And for 12th grade parents in particular, this is an emergency.  The priority financial aid deadline for most schools for first-time applicants is usually on or before February 15th, and we urge all families to meet that deadline.  Financial aid is often awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, and we are expecting a record number of applicants to be vying for money from a shrinking award pool.

    The FAFSA (and it’s evil twin the CSS Profile) request income information for 2011.   Since most families have not completed their taxes yet and may not even be sure of their year-end numbers at this time, it is appropriate and EXPECTED that you will use estimates on the FAFSA.  Once your taxes are completed and submitted, you can make adjustments to your form.  Note that you will not receive a final offer until you have filed your taxes so this is not a year to procrastinate with the IRS.

    And since I mentioned procrastinate…parents with 11th graders should take heed, as your financial aid base year has just begun.  (The government will use your 2012 inome to determine your family’s eligibility for scholarships).  The time to make adjustments to your holdings to ensure that you qualify for the maximum amount of aid is now — certainly before your form is filed and ideally before your base year so that your plan is in place before the ‘look back’ period.

    Financial aid is not what it used to be.  Families with six-figure incomes often and yes, routinely, qualify for five-figure awards.  I know this to be true not just because the Wall Street Journal has said so (which they have),  but because I’ve seen it happen every year.  The financial aid process is like a game.  Know the rules and you win.  Stay in the dark and you risk losing out on thousands of dollars for your child’s education.  I’ll be discussing these rules and the entire college admissions and funding process (including the financial aid formula) at my workshop in Pinecrest next week.  Click here for more details and to register.  There is absolutely no cost to attend, but missing out on this info could cost you a fortune.

    If you are the parent of a college-bound teen, I urge you to join me for this class. 

    Best,
    Peter

     

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