financial aid

Gamers helping gamers…get into college

June 25, 2014 By Liz Weston

Samantha Castillo drove her family a bit crazy with her love for video games–and her criticisms of the ones that could be better. She loved educational games when she was little, for example, but found the games for older kids could be pretty dull.

So she jumped at the chance to learn game design from USC’s Game Innovation Lab when she was in high school. In return, the lab wanted high schoolers’ help in designing games to make it easier for first-generation students to apply for college.

“First generation” students are those whose parents haven’t gone to college. The knowledge gap between those parents, and the ones with college degrees, can be huge. Kids without parents to guide them through the application and financial aid processes are less likely to attend college, and less likely to get college degrees when they do. A big problem is “under-matching,” when the student settles for a much less challenging or selective school than the ones for which she’s qualified.

That could have been Castillo, who lives in a neighborhood where just getting through high school is considered an accomplishment. She had a vague idea that she might go on to community college, but wasn’t sure what that would involve.

So she asked a lot of questions, and helped to research the answers. Just the fact that the game developers listened to her and her opinions gave her more confidence.

Fast forward to today: Castillo is about to graduate USC with a degree in neuroscience. She credits the game lab, and working on its college application games, with the big step up in her ambition and accomplishment.

For more on Castillo, and the games, read my Reuters column this week: “To get into college, play a game or two.”

Money rules of thumb: College savings edition

May 12, 2014 By Liz Weston

A college degree today is what a high school diploma was 60 years ago, a college consultant told me. Meaning: the bare minimum for staying in the middle class.

There will be exceptions, of course, but your kid is unlikely to be one of them. So here, in my ongoing “rules of thumb” series (previous editions include retirement and cars), are a few guidelines about saving for college:

So here, in my continuing “Rules of thumb” series, are three guidelines regarding cars: – See more at: http://asklizweston.com/page/3/#sthash.BwXsoYOC.dpuf

Save yourself first. No one’s going to lend you money for retirement, so that has to remain your top priority–hard as that is for parents to hear. Think of it this way: by saving for yourself first, you’re reducing the odds that you’ll have to move in with your kid in old age. Trust me, she’ll appreciate that someday.

But save something. Even if it’s just $25 or $50 a month to start, putting something away for college helps solidify it as a goal–and anything you can save will reduce your child’s future debt load (since most financial aid is actually loans, not grants or scholarships).

Use a good 529 plan. Money saved in 529s is tax free when used for college education costs, and most of these state-run plans are pretty good these days, thanks to better investment options and lower fees. Morningstar runs an annual list of the best and worst plans.

The more you make, the more you’re expected to save. Federal financial aid formulas aren’t adjusted for regional differences in cost of living. There’s no exception made for families that have experienced hard financial times in the past. The higher your income, the more the formula expects you will have saved…to the point where someone with an income over $100,000 could be expected to fork over a third of it for college costs. There are ways to reduce college costs, but knowing the reality of financial aid formulas will help you to understand the maxim that “if you CAN save for college, you probably SHOULD.”

Does your kid need expensive SAT prep?

April 21, 2014 By Liz Weston

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I bought a fat paperback test prep book to help me study for the SAT (which, back then, was still known as the Scholarship Aptitude Test). I didn’t buy the book until after I’d already taking the SAT the first time. After studying, I took the test again–and did worse.

Not that I suffered for this experiment. I scored high enough to become a National Merit Scholar, which meant big bucks for college.

I recently asked a friend my age who was also a National Merit Scholar how he prepared for the test. He vaguely remembered being taught a few test-taking strategies in school. But that’s it.

The world’s changed in the past few decades. College is a lot more expensive and elite schools are a lot more competitive. High scores give kids an edge not just for admission but for all-important merit scholarships. Which is why SAT test prep is pretty much a given among upper-income parents. Even less affluent parents are spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars trying to boost their kids’ scores, as I write in my Reuters column this week, “Resist the urge to go overboard with test prep.” Not investing in test prep feels like a gamble that could leave your kid trampled in the dust.

These parents aren’t foolish or deluded. Scores matter, and most teenagers could use some help. My column mentions some free resources, and I highly recommend reading Debbie Stier’s book, “The Perfect Score Project: Uncovering the Secrets of the SAT.” Even if you can’t afford private tutors, you can do a lot to help your get your child ready for the test.

Friday’s need-to-know money news

April 11, 2014 By Liz Weston

Today’s top story: What parents and students need to know about financial aid. Also in the news: Using your smartphone or tablet to clean up your finances, tax tips for procrastinators, and what to do when your teenager has become a financial disaster.

Eight Financial Aid Secrets That Parents And Students Need To Know
What you need to know before filling out the FAFSA.

12 Powerful Ways Data Can Help Clean Up Your Finances
Putting your smartphones and tablets to work.

6 tax tips for procrastinators
Tick-tock.

Help! My Teen is a Money Monster
What to do when your kid is out of financial control.

How to Budget For Health Care Expenses in Retirement
Health care expenses will eat up a significant part of your retirement savings.

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.