College is expensive and oftentimes we focus on the getting in to the institution and not how to pay for it once you are accepted. I have some timely links below that I hope will help our rising seniors and underclassman focus on the "fit" of a campus. A college should meet your needs academically, socially, and financially. If any of those pieces don't align, we usually have a problem. For the Class of 2017, I heard a consistent voice of "we didn't realize that it would cost this much". Students shared that they looked up the cost but saw that colleges taunted how much money they give in financial aid. Yes, colleges do a great job of talking about how many of their students walk away with financial aid offers, yet they fail to mention that student loans can be a portion of that amount. If one wants to see what their financial aid package could look like, I advise for students to complete the CSS profile. Oftentimes what the college views that a parent can pay and what the parent and student have identified as what they can pay are VERY different. So as my juniors begin to make plans for college applications next year, I beg you to check the price tag of the institution and complete the CSS profile (should be on the colleges website) and see what your families EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) totals. Once you see what is expected for the family to pay you can determine if the college is a good "fit".
Please review the links below that provide valuable information about the expense of college and the financial aid process.
- Are student loans a part of your plan to finance college? If so this webinar proves to be very informative regrading the process of repayment. FSA Partners: Understanding Loan Repayment Webinar has been scheduled for Thursday, June 1 from 12–1 p.m. ET. Please click the link above to register.
- Lynn O'Shaughnessy posted a great read on her blog recently. Mrs. O'Shaughnessy is highly respected in the field of Financial Aid. Please ready her words of wisdom
- -I've heard from three parents in the past week who were stressing about their children getting into New York University and how they could possibly pay for it. NYU's cost of attendance is nearly $72,000!!! Not surprisingly, NYU is on the U.S. Department of Education's list of the 5% of private universities with the most expensive average net prices. (Net price refers to what a family pays at a college after any financial aid and/or merit award is deducted. Net price is far more relevant than sticker price!)
- The nation's most expensive universities: You can find the public and private universities with the highest sticker and net prices by heading over to the website of the federal Center for College Affordability and Transparency. Most of the private colleges on these hall-of-shame lists are located on either coast. That makes sense since students like to attend schools in big coastal cities and these institutions can boost their prices accordingly.
- Saying No to Expensive Colleges: In my latest blog post, I write about parents who were brave enough to say "no" to their teenagers who wanted to attend expensive colleges. In these cases, the schools were Northwestern University and Barnard College.
- Here is the post: Of course, the best approach is to know what a school will cost BEFORE a teenager applies! You can do that by using a college's net price calculator. Saying No To A Dream College
