How We Help Families with Their College Planning Campaigns
We know that the current average cost for 4 years of college is $80,000 – $300,000… per child…depending on the school. Most of the families who engage our services have no strategy whatsoever to address the freight train coming their way. We assist these families (our families) in developing their strategy and running their campaign.
We are your allies in the battle to ensure that your college-bound children receive the best education available for the lowest possible out-of-pocket expense.
Our mission is to provide guidance to families of college-bound students (1st -12th grade) in ALL areas of the college planning process including, but not limited to:
- Proposing strategies that may render an undergraduate education more affordable;
- Finding the best schools for the student based on academics, geography, student population, and budget; and,
- Identifying all available means of covering the cost of an undergraduate education.
We help these families navigate the entire financial aid process. Many high schools do host FAFSA nights. But, it’s not just filling out the form correctly that matters – it’s making sure the right information goes in the right place and that families not disclose information that they don’t need to disclose! We also help by assisting in negotiations for a better aid package. We identify schools with the highest aid budgets. A family won’t benefit/ if a school doesn’t have the necessary financial aid budget.
Most families fall here.
We help these families navigate the entire financial aid process. If a family receives what we consider to be an unfair aid package, we assist in negotiations for a better aid package. We utilize every legal strategy available to help reduce the family’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC). We want to help the family receive as much free money as possible, while minimizing the self-help money (i.e. loans). Further, we develop strategies that will help the family handle student debt repayment while they address other financial goals.
We help these families navigate the entire financial aid process; however, that is not where we really bring value to this group. Our goal for families in this category is to help them send all children through college comfortably without neglecting all of the family’s other goals (e.g., paying off the mortgage, supplementing retirement income, purchasing a second house somewhere warm, etc.)