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How To Pay For College
$ The Financial Game for The Pie $ | Presentation
Page 6 |
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College Search
Critical For Financial Aid And Other Things |
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| The search is a very vital step in the financial process! |
- From a financial perspective, it means you need to find out what the profile is of the top students going to any of the particular colleges the student might choose. Another way to look at it would be to find out which colleges would place the student in the top 25% of the entering class (according to his/her GPA and SAT/ACT scores.
Students in the top 25% of the class entering a given college will most likely be offered more free money! Students in the bottom of the class will most likely be offered more loans! If finances are important, this is one of the first crucial steps to getting a great financial aid package!
- We recommend that you apply for aid with at least 3 to 6 colleges. This increases your chances of getting a good financial aid package somewhere. Where feasible you should make at least two of the colleges on the list ones where your child would be in the top 25% of the 1st year class. There may be other colleges to which you want to apply where your child is not in the top of the class, but at least having two "top" ones helps you play it safe. (Financially and for admission purposes.)
- As part of our services, we can do the college search for you!
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A Tale Of Two Colleges
By Hertz Liktha Dickens |
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| Cost Of Attendance | $10,000 | $25,000 |
| Expected Family Contribution | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Financial Need | $5,000 | $20,000 |
| Funding Shortage | $3,000 | 0 |
| Actual Cost To You | $8,000 | $5,000 |
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| Some colleges are better endowed than others and have more money to give out. So while you may have a certain amount designated as your Expected Family Contribution, a given college may or may not have enough money to award your student the difference between the Cost Of Attendance, and the Expected Family Contribution (which is the Financial Need). If the college doesn't have enough, you have to make up the difference! |
| Based on knowledge of historical precedence, our college planning services help you know which of the colleges on your list of choices are more likely to award your student the full amount of the Financial Need*. This is important knowledge to know before your student applies to a given college! |
This knowledge also helps with negotiating. If a college doesn't award as much as we expected (according to historical precedence), we help you appeal to the college; whereby your student may end up getting a larger award! More will be said about negotiating on the next page.
* This information is available on most, but not all colleges.
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| Please go to the next page, page 7, to see another Major Ingredient to the recipe! |
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