College funding lessons to be learned.

This was an interesting post that I ran across and there are a few lessons to be learned from it. The author of this article is responding to an article from SmartMoney.com.  In the SmartMoney.com article they speak how it's best to apply early to get more free money for college.  If you read this article it might lead you to not worry about the fafsa aid deadlines.  The first lesson is this, get the form done by the end of January.   It's true that I have not seen getting the form in after January mean a larger award BUT the school will work on the forms submitted earliest first.  This will give you sometime to go back and appeal to the college for more money.  This article did make one point the schools do run out of money.  You want to make sure that you have gone through the appeal process as early as possbile, while the college still has money to give. The second lesson can be found from the Bre Akers story inside this article.  In the article they quote her "I feel that half the stress that I have is because of my school finances," Akers said:

"I have this guilt built up because I feel like I am taking away everything my parents have worked (for). The past two-and-a-half years have been nothing but tight budgets and headaches every semester to figure out how to make each month's payment."

In the article the author says Akers knew her choice of school prior to hearing of her aid eligibility.  The lesson to be learned here is we can

predict very accuratley the fafsa aid package from the college.

There is no need to sit on pins and needles wondering if you should accept a college's aid package or for that matter what kind of aid package they will give.  Everyone family I work with has an estimate BEFORE their children even apply for the college. So do get your FAFSA aid forms in early and DO research on the aid package the college might give your BEFORE your child applies to the college.  If you need some help, just drop me  a line. Contrary to findings from an article out earlier this month on SmartMoney.com, applying early to some colleges might not be a sure bet to secure adequate financial aid, a university official said. Mike Scott, director of scholarships and student financial aid, said while the university did have an early action application deadline in November, decisions from his office on financial aid would not ...

Tagged as: college funding, fafsa aid, fafsa edu, Free Grant Money For College, How To Pay For College