College help?

[JerryG]

I have a daughter that is about two years away from starting college. She has been looking into different areas of financial aid. Does anyone have any information about a group called College Degree Planners, LLC. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.collegedegreeplanners.com/>http://www.collegedegreeplanners.com/</A>

 

[MikePA]

My oldest daughter starts college this fall, actually in about 3 weeks /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif. The advice we got from a number of people, including the financial aid officer at her college, was to go to the <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/>FAFSA</A> web site and fill in the information during January (after you and she have completed your federal tax returns) of the year your daughter will start college. Once this is complete (the form is filled in by the student), this information, which includes your income and debt information as well as your daughters', will be shared with whichever colleges and universities you specify (up to six if I remember right) as well as the federal dept of education and your state dept of education. You will receive information back, either in the mail or via email about which grants, loans, etc. you are elilgible for. If you qualify, they will automatically appear on the tuition bill as a credit. That's all you have to do. Their opinion of the outfits that purport to offer financail aid assistance is they are simply there to separate you from your money and they do not do any more than assist you with filling in the FAFSA form, which is easy anyway, if you have yours and your daughters tax return in front of you.

If you have any questions, just ask. We went through this process earlier this year.

 

[TerryinMD]

Mike,

Thanks for the tip. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

My oldest will begin her search this year and having that information will really help. And - two years later the youngest will be ready for school..... /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Terry

 

[JerryG]

Thanks Mike. We'll look in to it.

 

[TAB]

If your daughter has a pretty good idea of what she wants to study and has narrowed her list of schools, check with the schools about scholarships. I have had female students that were going into construction management or engineering that could pick up some good scholarships as non traditional students. My daughter will be a junior this year at Michigan State and if she had gone into engineering she had a free ride. Of course she didn't, but still received alot of scholarships.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Be VERY careful, most of the college planning/scholarship outfits should call themselves www.SCAMJOB.com.
In the Northeast, colleges are advertising on TV for students, and that is a clear indicator that there is a shortage of students.
Any college has a staff of people who are supposed to arrange financial aid for students.

 

[TimSullivan]

Hi Jerry,

My advice to you is spend the time to talk with your daughter's counselor and teachers. Get all the information you can from them. They know your girl's potential better than anyone.

Find out how much you can afford and then start looking at schools. You are smart to start now. This is the year that she should make some visits and narrow down her choices.

There are some great bargains in education, you just have to work at it to find them. Talk to the admissions people at the colleges you will be visiting and don't be afraid to ask about any financial aid that they can come up with.

I also would warn you about many so called planners.