Early College and Financial Aid Awareness

Adam Bethel Cer$fied College Planning Advisor Midwest College Planning Network

The secrets of how to get maximum money for college

Parent’s Biggest Concerns • How to pay for college – How are you going to pay? Do you have a plan?

• Selec$ng the Best Schools for Your Student – What schools are op$ons?

• Missing Deadlines: FAFSA, APPLICATION – Do you know the process? Is it bad to miss them?

• Lacking $me to do everything involved – Too busy, too afraid of the process, Too nervous to find out answers

• Doing something that will hurt their child’s chances for admission – Not knowing things can hurt

• Ac$ons that will cause them not to get the most financial aid – 128 tax laws that determine what your family partnership HAS to pay

Meet my kids, Sophie and Isaiah

Why is College SO expensive?

• Less aid from government sources • Rising Faculty/Staff salaries • Rising costs of maintenance • Changes in technology Each year, college cost are increasing faster than infla7on rates!

How do you pay for that?

• • • •

Savings (?)

Borrow (?)

Scholarship (?)

Go to a less expensive school (?)

• Not go at all (?)

What does it cost? (2010-­‐11) • 4 Year Public School -­‐ $20,050 (4.4% increase) • 4 Year Private School -­‐ $35,862 (3.5% increase) • 2 Year School -­‐ $15,609 ($1.4% increase) – Cost – Tui$on for A+ Students ($12,697)

•

Ins$tute of Educa$on Sciences – Postsecondary Ins$tu$ons and Price of Agendance

How much aid is available?-­‐ (2010-­‐11) $169 Billion Total

How do you apply?

• The FAFSA – Free Applica$on for Federal Student Aid – EVERYONE must fill this out to receive aid – To apply for Federal Loans – If not done properly, it can be “bumped” • 4-­‐6 weeks can be added to processing $me • Oken results in the lost of financial aid • Do FAFSA ONLINE, avoid these problems

How do you apply?

• The FAFSA • The CSS/Profile & registraWon form – Many private schools want this form – Further explains income, assets and expenses – Must be consistent with FAFSA – Difficult to understand & fill out – Requires a separate form to register for the CSS/ Profile form and pay a registra.on fee in order to receive the form

How do you apply?

• The FAFSA • The CSS/Profile & registra$on form • The school’s own insWtuWonal forms – Some school’s have their own addi$onal forms to fill out – They must be consistent with the other forms – Usually they will ask similar ques$ons to the other two forms.

Y T I L A E R . v H T Y M

Who is eligible?

MYTH

REALITY Own a home Grades too low Aid is only for CERTAIN students

Income too high The school can help me

How is eligibility determined?

Basic Equa$on:

COA-­‐EFC= Financial NEED

COA: Cost Of Agendance • Includes tui$on, books, room & board, etc.

EFC: Expected Family Contribu$on • Based on parent’s & students income, assets, ages & number of people in school NEED: How much aid the family is eligible for

3 Categories of people that need college funding 1. Families with TOTAL financial need – Those who will be eligible for financial aid wherever they go.

– Everything must be done 100% accurately and on $me to receive the maximum amount of grants (FREE money) and less loans

3 Categories of people that need college funding 1. Families with total financial need 2. Families with PARTIAL financial need – Financial Aid is dependent on what school you choose and how assets and income are posi$oned.

* The majority of people par.cipa.ng in this workshop fall into this category.

3 Categories of people that need college funding 1. Families with total financial need 2. Families with PARTIAL financial need 3. Families that make too much money to qualify for “need based” financial aid.

– S$ll need to go through the process for merit based aid.

– Should pay for college in the most tax effec$ve fashion.

– Assess the impact on other financial and re$rement goals

Not all colleges are the same.

give you the best Which colleges

shot at gebng money?

Factors to consider in determining your BEST SHOT • Percentage of need met – Some schools meet 100% of need.

– Others only meet 30-­‐50% • Remember COA-­‐EFC=Need

For example: School meets 100% of need COA: $20,000

EFC: $10,000 20,000-­‐ 10,000= $10,000 Need School meets 50% of need Need: $10,000 ½ ($10,000) = $5,000 New Expected Family Contribu$on: $15,000

You MUST know these statistics BEFORE applying!

Factors to consider in determining your BEST SHOT • Percentage of need met • Percentage of Gic Aid – Some schools meet most needs in grant (FREE) money, while others give you mostly loans.

You MUST know these statistics BEFORE applying!

Factors to consider in determining your BEST SHOT • Percentage of need met • Percentage of Gik Aid • Percentage of Self-­‐Help Aid – Some schools meet most or all of needs in work/study or loans.

(You don’t want to find out in June that they met most your needs with loans!)

– Know what the school has done in the past.

You MUST know these statistics BEFORE applying!

Case Study 1: The Jones Family School A Cost EFC Need

$45,163 $ 7,878 $37,285

Meets 100% need Gik Aid

76% Self Help 24%

B School

Cost

$16,576 EFC

$ 7,878 Need $ 8,698

Meets 55% need -­‐ $4,784 Gik Aid

33% Self Help 67%

What you actually pay Total EFC Total Gik Total Self

$ 7,878 $28,337 $ 8,948

EFC

+ Unmet Need Total EFC Total Gik Total Self

$ 7,878 $ 3,914 $11,792 $ 1,770 $ 3,014

To get the best deals, you must know your op$ons.

How to negoWate for the best

possible package.

How to NegoWate • Some schools mis-­‐award.

• Some schools under-­‐award.

• Some schools will try to compete with other schools.

– You must know when to accept or appeal the first award leger – You must know how to talk to those who work in the financial aid office

How to increase need-­‐based aid • Depending on your individual situa$on, you can re-­‐arrange your finances to qualify for addi$onal money • This can be done by learning the legally established rules

Case Study 2: One family took control Family A Family Income: Assets: (Excluding home) Home Equity: Number in family: Number in school: EFC:

Family B $75,000 Family Income: $60,000 Assets: (Excluding home) $40,000 Home Equity:

4 Number in family:

1 Number in school: $11,959 EFC:

$75,000 $60,000 $40,000

4

1 $ 8,692

Difference of $3,267 (more than $13,000 over 4 years) because Family B took the $me to understand the process and take control

Can you do this on your own? … f l e s r u o Ask y 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Do I know how to lower my EFC and maximize my eligibility for financial aid?

Do I know how to pick schools that will give me the best aid package – meet the most need, more FREE money, less loans, etc.?

Do I know how to fill out the FAFSA/CSS Profile forms line-­‐ by-­‐line?

Am I prepared to nego$ate if I get a bad financial aid award or less than I expected from each school?

Do I know the best way to pay for my family’s share of the cost of college?

If the answer was no to any of these…

Fill out the bolom!

We offer an complimentary consulta$on as a follow up of the workshop. You will learn many things at this mee$ng. Just fill out your personal informa$on at the bogom of the evalua$on to sign up for this session.

Complimentary ConsultaWon • What you will learn….

• How much do colleges cost that YOUR family is interested in?

• What is YOUR family’s share of that cost? (EFC) – Could you possibly LOWER YOUR COST?

• Depending on the planning you have done so far, how much is lek to be done?

• Is there any way WE can help you?

ConsultaWon Requirements • Must schedule consulta$on within 2 weeks of workshop date.

• If married, both parents must be present.

• Appointments typically run during regular day$me business hours (star$ng between 9:00AM – 6:00PM).

• We have a list of available consulta$on $mes over the next two weeks. Please pick one of them tonight! If you find out you need to reschedule, we will help you with that.

• If you don’t pick a $me tonight, it will be your responsibility to call in and set this up. We WILL NOT contact you unless you ask us to.

Develop a plan! “ A fool with a plan is beger than a genius with none.”

-­‐T. Boone Pickens (’08)

1 Out of 2 Things Will Happen • You will get your individual ques$ons answered and all of the added info you were looking for so that you can do this yourself • You will decide that you want us to help coach you through part or all of this process

How much aid is available?

Cost Chart -­‐ Billions of Dollars -­‐ (2010 Academic Year) 89 Billion Student/ Parent Share

169 Billion Student Aid

$258 Billion Total cost of higher educa$on $89 Billion Parent/Student Share $169 Billion Financial Aid