#CollegeCash Summary with College Abacus

Our guest for CollegeCash was  College Abacus, we had a great twitter conversation about college cost in the United States. Abacus is  free  service parents, students and counselors , that helps  compare  projected college financial aid packages across schools and to identify schools within families  budgets.   [View the story "CollegeCash Summary with College Abacus" on Storify] Share → Tweet

#Collegecash Summary The Next Step Choosing your College

Most of the week, I have been on the phone with parents about college decisions and financial aid. Students across the board have been admitted to many amazing colleges. But families still have a hard time communicating to students how well they have done to get into the colleges on their list. The parents, students that I have been chatting most of the year about their student’s college lists. The college admissions process is tough and now it is time to chose your college – here is some info to... Read The Rest →

You’ve Finished Your FAFSA – Now What?

Congratulations – you finally sat down, went online, and completed your FAFSA – Free Application for Federal Student Aid – to determine your eligibility for college financial aid. Now what? The Federal Student Aid website has a lot of information on what happens next, but here is a quick summary: Processing: The Department of Education will process your FAFSA and determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) based on their Need Analysis Methodology and review of your information. Once this processing is complete, you will receive an email notification. You can... Read The Rest →

Make A New Year’s Resolution to Apply for Financial Aid Now!

Happy New Year! Now that all of the fun of the holidays is over it’s time to get down to the serious business of figuring out how you’re going to pay for your college education. Many people start planning for the coming year by making a New Year’s Resolution. Statistic Brain just published highlights from a University of Scranton article which said that 45% of Americans will make a New Year’s Resolution. Only 8% will realize total success in achieving their goal, but another 49% will realize at least some... Read The Rest →

6 Tips to Determining if Your Financial Aid is a Good Offer

Evaluating financial aid packages can be tricky because they are not standardized. Schools use different formats when presenting awards to families and the terminology in these packages can be bewildering. There are ways, however, to determine which offers are the best. The bottom line is the extent to which the financial aid award lowers your actual out-of-pocket cost to attend the college. Here are six tips to help you evaluate financial aid awards. 1.  Don’t assume that the cost of attendance is correct. Financial aid letters should include the school’s... Read The Rest →

Your Guide to Financial Aid Award Letters

The financial aid award letter tells you how much financial support the school can give you for the coming year.  You will receive a financial aid award letter from all schools where you have been accepted and from which you requested financial aid. Award letters tell you exactly how much financial support the school is able to provide for the upcoming year. In general, the school computes the award based on the information you provided in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). As you may recall, after you... Read The Rest →

New College Net Price Calculator: Understanding the Limits

Colleges and universities across the country must now mount net price calculators on their websites to enable students and their families to get a better idea of the costs of education. The calculators – mandated by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 – are designed to estimate the cost of attendance, net of loans and grants. But these calculators should be seen only as a baseline in determining your final costs, and it’s important to understand their limitations. Following are a few points to consider. • Don’t expect the... Read The Rest →

Open Mic Night #CollegeCash Twitter Seminar September 29

As most of you know I recently launched the twitter seminar #CollegeCash! I am thrilled with the success of this launch and our first few seminars have been informative and well attended. I would like to thank all of you for supporting my work and welcome all our new online seminar participants. What I enjoy most about social media platforms is the engagement and networking. As our new community on Twitter grows my vision of providing a space for us to connect, engage, learn and support each other has come... Read The Rest →