Family College Planning Resources

Can an Ivy be cheaper than a State school?

Vaughan Moore — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:11:04 +0000

In a recent article in the San Jose Mercury News, Matt Krupnick reports that it’s now cheaper to go to Harvard than Cal State. According to Rhonda Johnson, Call State East Bay’s financial-aid director, ”We are coming close to pricing out many of our middle-class students. Now we’re seeing a disadvantaged middle-class.”

How could this be? Many top private schools have deep pockets to provide tuition assistance to many families that wrongly think they would never qualify for financial aid. For instance, Princeton has an endowment of over $17 billion. By comparison, University of California Berkley only has a little over $3 billion. Not everyone can get into a Harvard or Princeton, yet assumptions about how State schools are the most “affordable” are starting to fall.

When we work with families at college funding we take a high level approach. We start with the student and what they want to accomplish in school. Then we encourage students to look at the schools that will meet their goal. This is a different approach as most students pick a school and then find out later if it has the majors or expertise to get them where they want to be. To see if these schools will meet the financial goals of the parents, we look at past award history, percentages of need met, and how that need is allocated. Schools that meet the needs of both the student and the parents become the target.

The funding plan is put in place based on assumptions that are solid. When the acceptance and award letters come pouring in during the spring, each school can be weighed accordingly. Ideally, the plan matches perfectly. Yet, if there are some gaps the family is well equipped for the negotiations that are a natural part of the process.

Is this your approach to college funding? If not, would you like some help in the process. We work with families in the DC, Denver, and Phoenix metro areas. Our contact information can be found on the Contact Us page or email all of us at team@familycollegeplan.com.

It’s time to update your FAFSA

Vaughan Moore — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:34:57 +0000

As you have read here before, the best time to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is at the beginning of the year. This is when grants and scholarships are most plentiful and the opportunity to receive them is the greatest. Many of these are issued on a first-come first-served basis. So, waiting until tax-time will hurt your student’s ability to receive the most aid available. However, now that tax-time is past, it is time to update your FAFSA numbers.

Many families are worried that updating their information will raise “red flags”. Yet, the government, colleges and universities fully expect your numbers to change to a degree. No one is expected to have all their numbers right on their taxes on January 1, and the same is true for the FAFSA.

So, take the time to log back into the FAFSA site and plug in your real numbers from last year. You may be surprised to see the difference and the impact it may have on your student aid package from the school of your choice.

School Selection

Vaughan Moore — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:05:57 +0000

School selection is as important a factor in college aid as income and assets. All schools have different ways of meeting “need”. Need is the difference between how much the government says you can pay and how much the actual “Cost of Attendance” of the school may be. Some schools meet need with a majority of their aid in the form of gift aid, while others meet it in the form of loans. Over the course of 4 (or 5) years, the difference can be substantial. It’s not hard to figure out what is better. Let us help you find out which schools give the best kind of aid.

Additionally, one of the other ways we help our clients is by having “the conversation” with your student about school selection. Some students have everything planned out and know exactly why they want or need to go to a particular school for a particular career choice. Yet most students have reasons that might not match their parents, such as following a girlfriend/boyfriend, liking the dorm layout, or being a lifelong fan of the football team. The monetary consequences of school selection can be large. Let’s walk through this process together. Email us at team@familycollegeplan.com and one of us will contact you.

The Budget

Vaughan Moore — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:47:47 +0000

In many households “budget” is a 4 letter word. Yet, if there is ever a time to develop a budget, it’s during the college years. As this month’s “College Keystone” points out, cash flow is king. The stress on a family can be fairly large when two monthly payments (tuition, room and board to the school) and (personal expenses to your child) are added to the checkbook register. So, having a structured approach to the process will do amazing things to your sense of well-being.

The reality is, as Dave Ramsey has said, “a budget is just a tool to help you tell your money where to go”. So, we encourage you to start telling your money where to go so you’ll have some of it left at the end of the college years. Dozens of free resources are just a Google search away. And although a budget takes time and effort to start, it’s fairly easy to keep current. Send us an email at team@familycollegeplan.com if you have questions on how to get started.

College financial aid season is here

Vaughan Moore — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:50:50 +0000

The time for applying for and obtaining financial aid for colleges and universities around the country is now. In fact, it’s almost getting late. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) opened for submissions on January 1st. A large portion of aid is granted on a first-come first-served basis, so waiting only hurts your chances to obtain all the aid you can. Visit http://www.fafsa.ed.gov to get started now.

Welcome to Family College Planning Resources

admin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:49:10 +0000

Family College Planning Resources educates you about the college financial aid process. We offer free workshops and in-office meetings so you know the impact of your son or daughter’s college selection before the decision is made. We also offer free tuition credits through Sage Scholars for attendance at any of our meetings and for referrals. Additional services are offered for a fee.