Seven Ways Parents Prevent their Students from Getting Free Money for College

It’s not your fault if you’re doing any of the things that I’m about to mention. Most parents make at least two of the mistakes I will mention. And there are ways to correct the mistakes you may have made because free money or college is given out every single year and it makes no difference whether or not your student is already in college. Let’s get started! Major Mistake # 1: Telling your Student Not to Apply to Expensive Colleges A lot of parents tell their students not to apply to expensive schools because they’ll see that a school like USC cost $54,500 per year (no this is not a typo) and they’ll say to themselves, “There’s just no way our family can afford that.” Expensive schools are actually the schools that give out the most financial aid, so you should be encouraging your students to apply to both the expensive schools and a few less expensive schools. It may very well be cheaper for you to go to the expensive school. Sound farfetched? I prove this concept to families every single day. More on this later… Major Mistake # 2: Having the Student Fill out the Financial Aid Forms Never let your student fill out financial aid forms. Studies show that when a student fills out a financial aid form for the family, they will make the family look richer than they really are. The psychology behind tendency is that the student has spent hours trying to prove themselves to the university in the admission application and that idea of trying to selling themselves to the university carries over to the financial aid forms. You do not ever what to make yourself look richer than you already are… and in six years of doing this, I’ve have never heard of a college calling a family and telling them they made a mistake like this on the financial aid forms. Major Mistake # 3: Relying on your High School to Handle Most of this Process By the high school, I mean the Guidance Counselor, College Counselor and Financial Aid Nights at your high schools. First, it’s best if you accept full responsibility for your own financial situation and take the time to understand how college and junior college will affect your financial situation. Of course your school should be a resource, but you cannot lean on them to handle even half of this process for you. And it doesn’t matter how elite of an academy your student goes to. Not all high school Guidance Counselors specialize in getting students into college either, some of them specialize in Social Work, Substance Abuse or Psychology as well as Career Counseling or College Counseling. Guidance Counselors work very hard and I admire the work that they do with the resources that they have. In fact, Guide Counselors of local high schools and academies often attend our workshops because they’re looking to learn the business side behind how the financial aid system works. Lastly, financial aid nights will really just explain the basics of financial aid, although it’s crucial that you understand what they teach, you must understand that you don’t just get financial aid from filling out the financial aid forms. The benefit of getting a good financial aid package comes from planning and working right. Major Mistake # 4: Suggesting your Students Start Going Online to Look for Scholarships When I say going online applying to scholarships, I’m referring to private scholarships. An example of private scholarship is the Coca−Cola Scholars Program or The American Rhodes Scholarship. Having your student spend all or most of their time applying to these kinds of scholarships actually give you the lowest chance of getting any kind of free money for college. There are so many smarter ways to get aid and you’ll learn much more about that over other next three weeks. Major Mistake # 5: Paying for College with Cash There are many reasons why you shouldn’t pay for college with cash, but I’ll focus on how it can affect your student’s financial aid award. When you pay for college with cash, the colleges will assume that you can do this every single year and they will expect you to. You may even see a change in your financial aid award the following year. If you’re a cash-and-carry type of person and you like to pay things with cash, there are much smarter ways to stretch your cash over four years while still avoiding loans and not making it seem to the colleges like all the money you have in your savings account will be for college. Major Mistake # 6: Filling Out the Financial Aid Forms When You Don’t Understand What They’re Asking or Why rnThey’re Asking Out of 107 questions on the federal financial aid forms, there are 78 factors that will determine how much you have to pay for college. Not only is it crucial for you to actually understand why they’re asking the questions, but you have the right to understand why they’re asking the questions and what strategies are available to you to reduce the amount you’re expected to pay. Says who? Says Congress in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. Make sure the resources you use to figure all of this out comes from the Higher Education Act and that goes for any advisors, CPAs, Financial Planners you might hire to help you out with this. Major Mistake # 7: Applying to Schools that have No Money to Give Out You can fill out the forms perfectly and do every other little thing you need to do, but if the schools you’re applying to don’t actually have any money, you’re basically trying to squeeze water out of a rock. If you want to find out whether a school has money, it’s a little more than looking up how much money they have in their endowment. You want to look at what they’re average award looks like for a family in your financial situation. I’ll cover this is much much more detail later. That’s it for now! And as I said before, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t know this stuff already. When families attend my workshop, they’re usually hearing this stuff for the first time. We will discuss a lot more at the workshop and if you’re confused you’ll understand by the end of the workshop.