How To Pay Less for College or University

How To Pay

For College
The Student Financial Aid Game

Who can benefit from College Planning?

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Students with parents or grandparents who meet at least two of the following criteria

Own a business or are independent contractors or own rental real estate

Have money or other appreciated assets outside of retirement accounts

Student has good grades and is willing to consider private colleges

Have family income over $65,000

Have accumulated company stock or stock options through their employer

Does your family meet at least two or more of the above criteria? If so, it would be well worth the while to schedule a consultation. (The first consultation is complimentary.)

College is the 2nd biggest purchase of your life! It is by far worth taking a little time to learn how to get more financial aid, education tax breaks, and tuition reduction so you don't pay so much and get hopelessly in debt!

WHAT ARE THE BEST SOURCES FOR COLLEGE MONEY?

Need aid - Families with up to 85k AGI may qualify for state aid. Families with up to 175k AGI may qualify for need aid at a private college. Both require planning. The strategies here are many.
Results - $4,000 to $48,000 more free money.
Merit Aid - With proper planning, a private college may award a substantial amount. The main strategies require SAT/ACT planning and knowledge of which colleges are right for a given student. State colleges are not likely to give merit aid.
Results - $4,000 to $20,000 more free money.
Tax Scholarships - If you are self-employed or own rental property we can show you little known tax benefits that get Uncle Sam to pay for a large part of your college costs. The strategies here are many.
Results - $5,000 to $50,000 more free money.
Tuition Reduction - Most colleges don't share these two strategies with students because the colleges get less revenue for doing so. However, with the right planning, a lot of tuition dollars can be saved. It requires knowledge of which colleges allow these strategies, and how to implement them.
Results - $6,000 to $20,000 reduced cost.
Room and Board - There are three strategies that can drastically lower what you pay.
Results - $15,000 to $30,000 reduced cost.

WHO WE ARE AND WHY WE'RE DIFFERENT

We are a team of Certified College Planning Specialists (with financial and tax backgrounds), SAT/ACT prep and admission specialists.

WHY YOUR OTHER ADVISORS AREN'T ENOUGH
Generally - Complete college planning involves the rules of the Higher Education act of Congress and of the state Student Aid Commission, which govern how colleges apply financial aid. This has to be coordinated with educational tax rules, and knowledge of how colleges play the financial aid and admissions game.
Tax Professionals - They usually specialize in tax returns, accounting, payroll, and bookkeeping, etc. For comprehensive college planning, you need a Certified College Planning Specialist to advise on and implement little known employee educational benefits and other advanced planning.
Financial Planners, etc - They perform a vital service in areas like college savings plans, but that does not address the comprehensive college planning that we do for you in all other areas.
Educational Personnel - Counselors and financial aid officers know about admissions and financial aid, and can advise on how to apply, but they are not in a position to advise on rearrangements to income and assets so you can qualify for more aid and tax scholarships.

The earlier the implementation of strategies happens, the greater is the amount of money that will be saved or awarded. There are four common starting points:
1. Early - Freshman year or earlier* 2. Middle - Sophomore or early Junior year 3. Late - Second half of Junior year, or Senior year 4. Already-in-college (too late for merit aid) || * Some tax scholarship planning for high-income families can start in grade school

The key to knowledge is in this box...

9 pages of important information that you need to know! (Relax it is an easy and quick read.)
Vocabulary | Presentation page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Free Consultation

Regarding Off-campus Scholarships
A full scholarship is the best, if you can get it. A small, partial "outside" scholarship may not help you as much as you think. The college may reduce dollar for dollar the amount of free grant money you were going to get; but many times you can have it reduce loans or work study. Because of this, unless you can't lower your EFC enough; we recommend spending more of your time and efforts on getting more free grant money, campus based scholarships, "tax scholarships", and tuition reduction which you have mre control over.. Having said that, if there is time, there are still good reasons to compete for scholarships. However, as with financial aid, you don't want to shoot in the dark; it is important to have the inside scoop and know how to go about it so you greatly increase your odds of getting a scholarship. That is why we also offer consulting on competing for scholarships.

Where do you want to go to school? Northern Arizona University, Prescott Arizona; Azusa Pacific, Chapman University, Claremont McKenna, Dominican, Harvey Mudd, Loyola Marymount, Master's, Menlo, Mount St. Mary's, Rice, Scripps, Stanford, UC, University of California Berkeley Irvine, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Occidental, Pitzer, Pomona, University Of The Pacific, Redlands, USC University of Southern California, Thomas Aquinas, Westmont, Whittier California, Yale Connecticut, Purdue Indiana, Harvard Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Notre Dame New Hampshire, Princeton New Jersey, Duke North Carolina, Notre Dame Ohio, Texas A&M, Baylor Texas, Hampden-Sydney, Hampton, George Mason, Marymount, Shenandoah Virginia? You can go there, or any others for less than you may have thought. Find out now!