I have a high school senior this year and we are deep into the college planning process. But, that process didn’t just start this year. This has been an ongoing project, because our family really prioritizes making sure that our kids can get a college education that our family can afford. That takes some time and careful planning.
I recommend that before your teen even thinks about what their dream school is, you have the conversation about finances. Helping our kids understand our target price for college and how to get to that number has been really helpful. My kids know that they can get a great education at plenty of places – they don’t have to be at a big prestige name school that’s above our budget. They also know that in addition to getting a great education, their big college goal is coming out of school debt free. We’ve talked a lot about how we can work together to make that possible.
Here are 10 tips from my college planning process with my kids.
ENCOURAGE
Encourage your student to build up strong academics and extracurriculars. My kids know that we will contribute a certain amount to their college education, but they have to contribute, too. Their contribution comes from earning merit scholarships from the colleges they apply to. They do that through earning great grades in high school, getting strong ACT or SAT scores, getting involved in extracurricular activities, and volunteering. That strong portfolio makes them stand out to colleges and scholarship decision makers.
It’s good to note that not all schools offer merit scholarships. Because we knew we’d be counting on merit aid to help with the cost of college, we took schools that didn’t offer merit aid off our list from the start and only considered ones that did.
SAVE
Check out my post about getting started on college savings with a 529 plan from a few years ago. Save as aggressively as you can. Literally every dollar helps.
ESTIMATE YOUR ANNUAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
Figure out the amount you can contribute. How much will be in that 529 when they’re ready to go to college? How much will you be able to contribute each year based on your current family financial situation? Know exactly how much you think you’ll be able to contribute from your savings and your annual budget.
KNOW YOUR SAI – STUDENT AID INDEX.
Figure out your Student Aid Index (SAI), previously known as the EFC or Estimated Family Contribution. You can do that here: https://studentaid.gov/aid-estimator/
This number lets you know how much schools and the government think your family can pay for college each year. Generally speaking, you will qualify for need-based financial aid if your SAI is lower than the cost of the school. The financial aid offered is supposed to fill the gap between the school’s cost and your SAI. For example, if a school costs $75,000/year and your SAI is $30,000 per year, you would qualify for up to $45,000 in need-based financial aid from a school that promises to meet 100% of need (which not all schools do). My experience is that the amount I can actually contribute and the SAI are wildly different numbers! So, don’t be shocked when you see the ridiculous number that they think you’ll be paying for college.
USE THE NET PRICE CALCULATOR (NPC)
Every college that provides federal student aid is required to have a net price calculator on their website. While required, it’s not always easy to find, so I recommend using the search function on each school’s website to find it quickly. You’ll be able to input information about your family’s financial situation and your child’s academic profile (GPA, ACT/SAT scores, etc.) and the NPC will provide a rough estimate of how much financial assistance your student will receive and show you how much you’ll be responsible for paying.
Start early looking at schools that you think would be a good fit for your child and run the Net Price Calculator for each school that your family is interested in. Once you have an estimate of how much a school will cost based on any merit awards that your child will earn, scholarships your child will be eligible for based on your family’s estimated SAI, and the amount that you think you can pay each year, you’ll know if this is a school that should stay on your child’s list of potential colleges. In my experience, the NPC estimates have been very close to the actual amount of aid offered with each offer of admission, so I highly recommend using this tool.
STAY ORGANIZED
My goal is to find schools that have a net price that will be what’s currently in our child’s 529 or less. I’m a spreadsheet mom – I admit it. So, I built a Google Doc that my child and I could use together. Either of us could add schools. I added columns for:
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- School Name
- School Location
- School Size
- Student’s peak interest areas so we could make notes about whether the school had what he wanted most and add info about those programs, including links to find out more
- Total cost of attendance
- Estimated scholarships based on net price calculator or merit charts on school websites
- Source for scholarship estimate – details from NPC, conversation with admissions counselor, published scholarship charts with links
- Estimated cost to us
- Link to website
- Notes
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I tracked all of this information, which meant my kid and I didn’t have to retrace our steps and wonder, “What about this school? Would it be a good fit?”
APPLY EARLY
Once your student has narrowed down their list of schools, have them apply early if they can. Many of the schools we’ve spoken to say they have the most merit aid available for students who apply early. There are two types of early applications – Early Action and Early Decision. If you’re keeping your options open, apply Early Action, because it is non-binding. If your student has a dream school that they would go to no matter what, you can apply Early Decision. This is binding – if your student gets in, they’ve committed to go, just by applying early decision. We’ve encouraged our student to apply Early Action to all the schools he’s interested in to maximize merit awards while keeping options open.
APPLY FOR EACH COLLEGE’S SPECIAL SCHOLARSHIPS
Many schools offer additional scholarship opportunities beyond the “automatic merit” that is offered when your student first applies. This might be a special scholarship contest day, an essay-based application, a talent or interest scholarship, an alumni referral scholarship or any number of things. Add these opportunities and deadlines into your spreadsheet (mine actually has a separate tab for scholarship opportunities!) so that you can help your student stay on top of deadlines.
COMMUNICATE WITH SCHOOLS
Some schools really do care about how excited your student seems about their school – they call it “demonstrated interest.” Plan in-person or virtual visits to the schools you think you can afford, encourage your child to send emails to their admissions counselor when they have questions, and have your student set up Zooms or phone calls with their admissions counselor when you have a lot of questions. My student has been offered the top merit scholarships and some special scholarships at multiple schools. I believe this is in part because he’s amazing – if I do say so myself 😉- and in part because we made those connections and asked specifically about those scholarships.
FILE THE FAFSA
Filing the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is an important part of receiving need-based aid at most colleges. Schools will use the FAFSA to determine the amount of their need-based scholarship offers for your student.
Some schools offer reduced tuition or free tuition for students with a household income under a certain threshold. For example, here in the Midwest, the University of Chicago offers free tuition for students with household incomes under $125,000 and Simpson College offers free tuition to students with household incomes under $100,000. For these kinds of opportunities, filing the FAFSA is the way that you will verify your income level for schools and qualify for that aid.
Even if you don’t think that you will qualify for need-based financial aid, file anyway. Many of the schools that my student is applying to offer scholarships ranging from $500 – $2000 per year just for filing and some schools only offer merit scholarships if you file the FAFSA, too.
My family has done well with using these steps and I hope they help you, too. With all this careful planning in place, I’ve been thrilled that every school my student has applied to has not only accepted him, but also offered scholarships that have made every single school an affordable option. Wishing you a college planning process that is just as successful – and affordable!! I’ll be right there with you, working all these steps with my younger two children over the next few years.
