EFC

Why “Get scholarships!” is bad advice

April 22, 2015 By Liz Weston

We had a great Twitter chat today about preparing financially for college, hosted by Experian. (You’ll find the tweets using #creditchat.)

I was distressed, though, that many believe people should look for scholarships as a way to reduce college costs. That’s not how it usually works.

If you have financial need, colleges typically deduct the amount of so-called “outside” scholarships from the free aid such as grants and their own scholarships that they otherwise would give you. Schools don’t have to reduce the loan portion of your package unless your outside scholarships exceed the grants and other free aid they were planning to bestow.

They’re not just being mean. It’s what federal financial aid rules require, according to FinAid. If you don’t have financial need, outside scholarships could reduce the merit aid a school would otherwise give you.

Does that mean you shouldn’t search and compete for outside scholarships? No. But it’s certainly not a reliable solution to the college affordability problem.

A better approach for students and families is to look for generous schools. Colleges themselves are the greatest source of scholarships, but most don’t meet 100 percent of their students’ financial need. Some meet 70 percent or less. If you want a better deal, look for schools that consistently meet 90 percent or more of their students’ need. College Board and College Data are among the sites that can help you find this information.

What you need to know about paying for college

January 15, 2015 By Liz Weston

My recent Reuters columns have focused on some of the most common issues families face in trying to pay for college, from getting the most financial aid to how to cope when you haven’t saved enough. Read on, and please share these columns with people you know who might benefit.

Increase economic mobility by busting college myths

One way to improve economic mobility in the United States may be to fix the misconceptions that high-achieving, low-income teenagers often have about college.

Avoid easy-to-make mistakes on your financial aid application

One of the worst mistakes you can make with college financial aid is simply failing to file the all-important Free Application for Federal Student Aid. But there are plenty of other ways to mess up this application.

Last-minute moves to boost financial aid

Financial aid filing season starts Jan. 1. It may be too late to rearrange your finances this year, but here are some ideas for maximizing what you can get in future years. First, though, make sure your hopes are realistic.

What to do if you have not saved enough for college

Soaring college costs and stagnant incomes mean many families will not be able to save enough to pay for a typical undergraduate education. But there are still ways to find a college degree you can afford. The good news is that most people will pay significantly less than the sticker prices.

Busting the myths of haggling for college aid

My daughter learned this little ditty in preschool: “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.” Parents who are convinced they can haggle their way to a better financial aid package might want to learn it, too.

No need for irrational fears of student loans

The next generation of college students has heard the message loud and clear about the perils of taking on too much student loan debt – so much so that many are unwilling to go into debt at all in order to attend college. The drawback to this wariness is that most of those who do not borrow are unlikely to get four-year degrees.

What will you pay for college? Probably more than you think

November 18, 2014 By Liz Weston

I recently used the College Board’s “estimated family contribution” calculator to see how much we’ll be expected to pay when our (currently pre-teen) daughter heads off to college.

The answer? Roughly half our annual incomes. Each year.

No colleges actually charge the amount we’d theoretically be expected to pay. So our out-of-pocket costs would be somewhat less. But the exercise drives home how important it is to run these numbers, early and often, if you want a college education for your kids that doesn’t bankrupt you, and them.

Because I know how the formulas work, I was able to tweak some numbers to lower our EFC. Moving more money into retirement accounts and using savings to pay down the mortgage helped a lot with the federal formula, and helped some with the institutional formula (which, unlike the federal, counts home equity). We still wouldn’t get any need-based help from most colleges but could get some breaks if our daughter gets into one of the most-expensive elite schools. (The total cost of the average public college is $20,000 to $25,000; $40,000 for privates and $60,000 for elites.)

If we didn’t have a fat college savings account, we likely would steer our daughter toward public schools or privates willing to offer merit scholarships to reduce the total cost. It’s much better to start a college search knowing what you can afford than to have to tell your kid, dream school acceptance letter in her hand, that you can’t send her there. Or worse, that you will–and then never be able to retire.

For more about how financial aid formulas work, read my Reuters column this week: “A guide to figuring out the real cost of college.”

Beware college financial aid letters

April 8, 2014 By Liz Weston

If you want to see what’s wrong with many financial aid letters today, check out the one that Georgia Institute of Technology has so helpfully posted on its Web site under the rather ironic headline “Understanding the Letter.”

The school does a few things right. Not all colleges include the total cost of attendance on their financial aid letters, and many don’t include the “expected family contribution”–what the family is expected to pay according to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA. Subtracting the expected family contribution from the total cost results in the family’s need. In this case, the need is $31,787.

The total award figure of $41,690 seems dazzlingly generous compared to the family’s need. It’s not.

Like many schools, GIT lumps together gift aid (scholarships and grants) with loans and work study.

In this case, the gift aid is just $8,242, which includes a $2,000 scholarship the student won on his own.

The vast majority of the “aid”–$27,548–are parent PLUS loans. PLUS loans are designed to help the family pay its expected contribution, which in this case is $11,903. PLUS loans don’t reduce the family’s $31,787 need.

This award that seems so generous actually meets a quarter of the family’s actual need with gift aid. When work study and the student’s loans are included, the percentage of need met is only about half.

Too many financial aid letters are even more obscure, as I write in this week’s Reuters column, “Don’t get fooled by financial aid letters.” Some don’t include any cost information, while others list partial information. Some don’t spell out what’s a loan and what’s not. Fewer than half of schools use the federal “Shopping Sheet,” which was designed to help stop misleading financial aid letters and allow families to compare aid offers. You can find the sheet here, and using it to parse letters like this can really help you understand how generous–or not–a college is actually being.