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The new Simplified FAFSA is here! Here’s a quick video with some tips that will help you get through it with a minimum of chaos and maximum of financial aid. 🔗
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Appealing a Financial Aid Award
About 3/4 of families who appeal their financial aid award receive additional aid. Yet less than half appeal. Here’s how to get more money from the colleges you’re considering.
Comparing Financial Aid Awards
We’re almost there: acceptance letters are arriving and the May 1 decision day is right around the corner. For most families, how much schools cost is part of the decision making process.
It’s Graduation Time!
Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday that they were learning to walk, and now my kids are graduating from college?!?
Colleges Still Have Openings!
Dream school didn’t come through? Plenty of colleges are still accepting applications.
Year-End Checklist
Wherever you are on the college planning journey, here are a few actions you can take before the end of the year.
Net Price Calculators
Getting an estimate of your Expected Family Contribution is really helpful, and it's pretty easy. The Department of Education's unfortunately-named Student Aid Estimator will calculate the FAFSA's EFC for you with a few data inputs; the College Board offers one for the CSS Profile.
Budgeting for College Applications
It is both a blessing and a curse that the Common App makes it easy to apply to many colleges. One of the curses is that applications cost money. Enough that you should budget for them. The good news is that having a money budget for applications will automatically create a “time budget” since it might reduce the number of applications you file.
Your College Research List
Families getting started on the college search process are well-served by keeping a list of schools that the student is interested in. (This should be the student’s job, by the way.) But what does that list look like? What goes in it? Read on for suggestions.
Test Optional, Test Blind and What Am I Supposed to Do?
Clearly, test-optional admissions are here to stay, with more than 1,600 four-year colleges offering test-optional admissions for the fall. More than 80 others are test-blind for the 2021 admissions cycle, according to FairTest’s online database of testing policies.
Podcast: College Financial Literacy
In my latest podcast episode, he walked me through some of the key pieces of college financial literacy. His wisdom is available here on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Talking College Planning…
Link to my interview about college planning with Your Teen Magazine.
Early Decision and Early Action
Early Decision is a binding commitment that if you are accepted to the school, you will attend and will withdraw all other college applications. Early Action, on the other hand, is typically simply a quicker response from the school that still gives the student until the regular admission deadline to respond.
To Defer or not to Defer
Many students are considering deferring enrollment for the fall; surveys show that perhaps as many as 15% of college-bound students in the high school class of 2020 are likely to defer.
Common App and Coalition App Essay Prompts
Does your student have some free time on their hands? If so, now could be a great time to start working on college essays. The Common App and Coalition App release their essay prompts well ahead of time– January for the Common App, for example.