Fairview High School
Counseling, Post-Grad
(revised=
12=
/3/2007)
(and Other Strategies to Make College More Affordable)=
Here
is the dilemma: you and your family may be too well off for your student to
qualify for need-based financial aid and scholarships, yet not well enough
situated to afford today’s college expenses, which can range up to a=
nd
beyond $40,000 per year for 4 to 5 years (and often graduate school). You are probably not eager to incur large debts for
college, nor for your student to take on huge debt. What
are you to do?
Here are 10 tried and true strategies you can use t= o ease your burden. You may be tempted to discount som= e of these, but do not be too quick to do so. By spe= nding a few hours investigating these strategies, you may prevent thousands of dol= lars per year of college debt. That said, this artic= le is in no way intended to dissuade you from saving for college. Saving to whatever extent you can will give you more flexibility during the colle= ge admission process, and less dependence on the decisions of the financial aid officers and oth= er awarders of money.
Before you read about the 10 strategies, please hee= d these two tips that are intended for all Fairview parents.
Sanity-preserving
tip
Your
student should apply to at least one financial safety school.
A financial safety sc= hool is one:
- That you would be able to afford= with little or no aid.
- At which the student is almost c= ertain to be accepted.
- That the student is willing to a= ttend.
Remember to register your student for hi=
s or
her Colorado college opportunity fund. This is =
money
set aside by the state of Colorado for students who attend an in-state, pu=
blic
college. The amount is currently approximately =
$2400
per student per year. (The Colorado Department =
of
Education used to give every Colorado public college a set amount of state
funds. Now, however, they are allowing students=
to
designate where the state funding will go.) Go =
to www.CollegeInColorado.org to
register, even if you are fairly certain that your student will not be goi=
ng to
school in Colorado. It only takes one minute.
Strategy 1. Seek
merit/talent/service scholarship money from a well-endowed college.
Strategy 2. Compete for=
private
scholarships.
Strategy 3. Apply to ho=
nors
programs.
Strategy 4. Educate you=
rself
about college financial aid.
Strategy 5. Apply to in=
-state,
public 4-year colleges.
Strategy 6. Start at a =
2-year
college, then transfer to a 4-year college for =
the
last two years.
Strategy 7. Use the Wes=
tern Undergraduate
Exchange Program.
Strategy 8. Shorten the=
college
years. (Multiple options)
Strategy 9. Apply to
out-of-state, public colleges & gain resident status.
Strategy 10. Get speci=
fic: Use
a college cost finder (web site) to calculate estimated costs.
References Books and web sites you may want to
investigate.
Strategy 1=
: Seek merit/talent/s=
ervice
scholarship money from a well-endowed college.
Be
aware that almost every college, other than Ivy League colleges, has
scholarships for their highest performing students. Find
several well-endowed colleges (see research tips on the next page) that ha=
ve
scholarship money to give away. Among those col=
leges,
identify some for which your student’s grades and SAT or ACT scores =
are
at the top of the college’s range of scores (the “top of the
bubble” in a scattergram of accepted students’ scores).
Ask
that your student apply to two to four of these colleges. The
goal is for your student to be one whose scores and grades would help to r=
aise
the school’s average scores; this will increase your student’s
chances of receiving non-need (merit/talent/service) scholarship money. Students should apply as early as possible, before =
the
money runs out for that application cycle. Plea=
se note
that not all colleges are need-blind in their admissions policies. In other words, there are some colleges where the
family’s ability to pay may be a factor in gaining admittance.
University of Puget Sound - Example |
|
Freshman Class Prof=
ile |
|
4,554 applied, 3,181
admitted, 671 enrolled |
|
Mid 50% test scores=
SAT verbal: 580 – 6=
85 SAT math: 5=
75
– 670 ACT : &nb=
sp;
25 – 29 GPA 3.0 or higher:<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> 94% Average GPA: &nb=
sp;
3.57 |
In
the example to the right, the University of Puget Sound in Washington,
typically reserves their academic merit scholarship money for their studen=
ts
who are in roughly the top 25% (nationally) of SAT / ACT scores and the to=
p 25%
of GPAs.
Although grades and =
test
scores are the easiest evidences to pinpoint, the colleges also consider
letters from teachers and counselors, and other confirmation of the
student’s character, talent and service from their entire applicatio=
n packet. The University of Puget Sound offers scholarships to
incoming undergraduates for academic merit, leadership, and performance
excellence in music, theatre, art and forensics, National Merit designatio=
n,
achievement in the humanities, mathematics, sciences, and for interest in
business and religious activities.&nb=
sp; The
majority of these scholarships are renewable for three additional years of
full-time undergraduate study.
Research
tips for strategy #1
To
identify some possible colleges, use a combination of reference materials =
such
as the following trio:
For
a list of books and websites on this topic, please follow this link to the=
References at the end of this article.
To
research the extent to which a particular college offers merit scholarship=
s:
o
Check the financial aid and scholarship page on the college websit=
e.
o
Call the financial aid office or make an appointment to see someon=
e as
you are touring the campus. Ask some clarifying
questions:
o
Look up the college in an up-to-date college guide that provides a
financial profile of each college, such as CollegeBoard’s College=
Cost
and Financial Aid Handbook. This shows the
college’s most recent pattern of awarding financial aid to freshmen.=
Strategy 2: Compete for private scholarships.
There are many private scholarships that are offere= d by businesses and charitable organizations. Typica= lly the competition for these involves sending a résumé and writing a short essay. To improve the odds of successfully competing, your student should ask specifically what the judges are lookin= g for. It is important to find out the purpose of each spo= nsoring organization and how the scholarship contest fits with their purpose.
Although it may be tempting to look for scholarship contests with large financial awards of $5000 or more, these usually have = only one state or national winner and the odds of winning are quite slim. Therefore, ask your student to compete for some sma= ller ($250, $500, $1000) scholarships. They can add = up to some serious money. With some planning, a stude= nt can write a small number of essays and, with some modifications, use those same essays to enter into even more competitions.
Note: If your student enters contests as a junior, = there is another advantage beyond the dollars he or she may win: The essays for scholarship contests are excellent practice for college application essays= . In each case, the audience is looking for a personal statement from the student: a glimpse into whom that person really is.
Do
some detective work to find viable contests. Ty=
pes of
sources include:
q =
; The internet -- Some =
sites
are listed below under financial aid web=
sites.
q =
; Fairview’s =
Post-Grad
web site:
q =
; Scholarship books -- =
Some
examples are listed below under scholarship=
books.
Money-wise tip
Do not pay for a scholarship search serv=
ice
and do not pay to enter any contests. You can s=
earch
just as well for yourself.
Is
it worth pursuing? Some authors of college fina=
nce
books will tell you that it is pointless to win private scholarships, beca=
use
it will just diminish the direct financial aid that you might be offered b=
y the
colleges. There is an excellent discussion of t=
his in The
Standard and Poor’s Guide to Saving and Investing for College
Strategy 3: Apply to honors programs.
Almost
all colleges have honors programs. An honors pr=
ogram
can serve as an excellent, challenging college within a college, and the c=
osts
are sometimes much lower than at the most famous and/ or most competitive
colleges. For more information follow this link=
to an
article on the Fairview Website about honors
programs:
Strategy 4: Educate yourself about college finan=
cial
aid.
Almost every college in the country receives money from the Federal government to= give to students, based on the family’s financial need. The need is determined via the FAFSA form (“Free Application for Federal Student Aid”) available at Fairview each November or online at www.fafsa.ed.gov . The form cannot be filed until January of the senior year and families can see= an estimate of the “expected family contribution” (EFC) at www.finaid.org . <= /span>If you have specific questions about the FAFSA, you can call 1-800-4FEDAID and reach a real person. These funds are distribute= d in the form of grants, guaranteed “work-study” jobs, and loans. <= o:p>
All
colleges want the FAFSA, which asks questions about income and assets. Some colleges also want the “CSS Profile̶=
1; that
asks additional questions about mortgage values and other financial
information. The “CSS
Profile” is available from CollegeBoard at https://profileo=
nline.collegeboard.com/index.jsp
.
Go
to the library, the Post-Grad Center at Fairview or your favorite bookstor=
e and
page through a few of the books about financing college. Some
books and websites are listed in the references at
the end of this article. Choose a couple of boo=
ks or
sites to study more closely. By doing so you wi=
ll be
able to de-mystify the world of college financial aid, by learning about
need-based and non-need based aid and how to apply for financial aid.
Strategy 5: Apply to one of the 12 in-state, public 4-year colleges.
Tuition
can be as low as $3,300 per year. Ask that your
student include one or two of these affordable colleges in his or her list=
of
colleges. [If CU Boulder is too close to home t=
o suit
your student, consider CSU (Fort Collins) or Colorado School of Mines (Gol=
den),
or any of the other state colleges, depending on his or her academic and
extracurricular interests.]
Strategy 6: Start at a 2-year public college, and
transfer to a 4-year college for the last 2 years.
Tuition
at a 2-year college can be as low as $1,700 per year and class sizes are
frequently small. Most 4-year colleges will all=
ow a
student to transfer in after two years and still get their degree from the
(more-prestigious) 4-year college. All Colorado=
2-year
public colleges have specific articulation agreements with the 4-year publ=
ic
colleges to transfer credits toward the 4-year degree programs.
Strategy 7: Take advantage of the Western Undergraduate
Exchange Program.
This
program offers reduced tuition for Colorado residents for some public coll=
eges
in the western U.S. To find out which colleges =
are
included and to what extent, see the program’s website at http://wue.wiche.edu/ . Be
aware that some of these colleges only give the tuition reduction to certa=
in
less-in-demand majors and for some specific talents (such as someone to ro=
und
out their school orchestra with a particular instrument). Nevertheless,
this is worth exploring, because in some cases your student might be eligi=
ble
to pay resident tuition plus 50%, instead of the full out-of-state costs
Strategy 8: Shorten the duration of the college years.
Pay
close attention to the college statistic regarding the percentage of stude=
nts
who graduate on time. It is becoming all too co=
mmon
for students to spend 5 or 6 years to get their undergraduate degree. Be sure to encourage your student to stay on a 4-ye=
ar path
to complete his or her degree, and not be tempted to spread a 4-year plan =
out
to 5 or more years. This can have a huge impact=
on the
total cost of college, even if the student attends a school with lower than
average costs per year. In addition, note that =
some of
the higher-cost schools also have a significantly higher frequency of on-t=
ime
graduation.
There
are several other ways to potentially shorten the college years. The following methods are discussed in the Kiplinge=
r book,
Financing College, listed in the =
reference
section below.
q =
; Using Advanced Placem=
ent
and/or International Baccalaureate exams to get college credit.
q =
; Pursuing a 4-year deg=
ree in
an accelerated 3-year program.
q =
; Obtaining 2 degrees i=
n 5
years.
Strategy 9: Apply to out-of-state, public colleges & g=
ain
resident status.
Students
that are state residents pay, on average, less than half the tuition of
non-residents when attending public universities. Every
state has its own residency requirements. The C=
ollege
Board publishes the "Guide to State Residency Requirements: Policy and
Practice at US Public Colleges and Universities" to inform students
It
may also be helpful to check college web sites for information about resid=
ency
requirements.
In some states a student may be able to establish residency after one to t=
wo
years of college attendance, by working there during the summers and fulfi=
lling
other residency requirements. More commonly, it=
is
necessary for the student to take a gap year after high school and before
college, move to the state in question and establish residency by working =
and
not attending college for a year, thereby demonstrating the student's
independence from the parents. Please come to t=
he
Post-Grad Center for more information and to hear accounts of studentsR=
17;
experiences in establishing residency out-of-state.
Strategy 10: Get specific. Use a
college cost finder to calculate estimated costs.
Use
these links to check for college cost information. (Note:
Some of the colleges may not be included in these web sites.)
Col=
lege QuickFinder (This includes a way to compare coll=
eges,
as well as look up individual colleges.)
College Cost
Calculator (This helps you estimate future year costs.)
*
Those with one asterisk (*) are available at the Boulder Public Library
** Those with two asterisks (**) are available at the Fairview Post-Grad Cent= er.
Financial Aid and Scholarship Websites<= o:p>
Click on the link for a brief description of each boo= k.
* <=
span
style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>College Cost and Financial Aid Handboo=
k
* <=
span
style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>College Money Handbook
* <=
span
style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>Rugg’s Rec=
ommendations
on the Colleges
** Barron’s Best Buys in College Education=
* The Standard & Poor’s Guide to Saving and Investing for College<= o:p>
** Bears’ Guide to Finding Money for C=
ollege
** Don’t Miss Out – The Ambitious Student&#=
8217;s
Guide to Financial Aid
* College Cost and
Financial Aid Handbook – The easy way to navigate financial aid<=
span
class=3DGramE>. (CollegeBoard, edition for 2006=
) ($24.00
paperback)
o
Financial pictures of 3,100 colleges, universities and technical
schools. (This includes the % of aid as scholar=
ships,
% as grants, % as loans/ jobs, for non-need and=
for
need-based aid, as part of a ½ page profile of each school.)
o
Advice on when and how to apply for aid, and how to compare awards=
.
* College Money H=
andbook (Peterson’=
;s,
edition for 2006) ($32.00 paperback)
o
The ABCs of paying for college. This in=
cludes
a chart of approximate Expected Family Contributions (EFC), as well as a
worksheet to help you compare financial aid awards and family contribution=
s.
o
College costs at a glance (a comparison chart).
o
Financial aid information for over 2,000 schools (1/2 page per sch=
ool).
* The Insider’s Guide to Paying for Co=
llege
by Don Betterton, Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid at Princeton
University. (Peterson’s Education Center,=
a
division of Thomson Learning, 2000)
This is a description of how financial aid wo= rks, by someone with 30 years of experience in the field. Some notes from the introduction:
o
85% of all assistance starts with the FAFSA (the free application =
for
federal student aid), even if the dollars you a=
re
competing for are not federally funded.
o
8% of students win scholarships, while nearly 60% borrow money.
** The
College Finder – Choosing the School That’s Right for You =
by
Steven R. Antonoff, Ph.D. (The Ballantine Publishing Group, New York, 1999=
)
Many lists of colleges, including:
o
Top-notch low-cost colleges
o
Comprehensive colleges at a fair price
o
Colleges with money available for scholars
o
Hidden treasures: Colleges that provide an excellent education and
student experience but are not well known by the general public.
o
Colleges with large cooperative education programs (working while
studying)
o
Colleges with the highest graduation rates
* Rugg’s Recommendations On
the Colleges, 22nd Edition, by Frederick E. Rugg (Rugg̵=
7;s
Recommendations, 2005)
This lists the quality departments at quality
colleges. It covers 1,035 colleges, 275 with a =
chapter
of Phi Beta Kappa and 760 as good or better.
By major, it breaks schools out into the most
selective, the very selective and the selective, with an approximate
guide to the corresponding SAT ranges required for admission.
It also categorizes schools by enrollment size, from extra large do=
wn to
small.
** Barron’s Best Buys in College Educa=
tion,
Sixth Edition (Barron’s Educational Services, Inc., 2000)
This includes 2 to 3-page profiles of 282 col= leges. “For the most part, these 282 colleges are pl= aces where the total cost in 1999 – 2000 did not exceed $28,000 or did so= only slightly, where at least two-thirds of the faculties held Ph.D.s … , where at least half of the entering freshmen graduated in 4 or 5 years, and where a significant percentage of the gradu= ates went on to pursue advanced degrees… within 5 years of earning their bachelor’s degrees.”
The profiles include descriptions of academics =
&
the student body, plus these key statistics:
* The Standard & Poor&=
#8217;s
Guide to Saving and Investing for College by David J. Braverman, Senior Director,
Standard and Poor’s, (McGraw-Hill, 2004)
This is a very read= able book about preparing financially for the college years, with solid examples. Some of the topics:
o
o
o
o
** Financing
College – How to use savings, financial aid, scholarships and loans =
to
afford the school of your choice. By Kristi=
n Davis
(Kiplinger Times Business, Random House, 1996)
o
Financial questions to ask on your campus visit.
o
Where to look for scholarships.
o
Tips for scholarship seekers.
o
Cost-conscious ways to get a degree (advanced placement and other
strategies).
** Bears’ Guide to Finding Mone=
y for
College 1998 – 99 – An updated guide to the not-well-understood
sources of unconventional and ordinary financial help and how to pursue th=
em. By John B. Bear, Ph.D. and Mariah P. Bear (Ten Spee=
d Press,
1998)
A
couple of items of note that are included are:
o
Financial and psychological return on investment of pursuing
scholarships.
o
Getting money from private foundations, athletic scholarships, the
military, big corporations, work-study programs and more.
** Don’t Miss Out – The Ambitious
Student’s Guide to Financial Aid By Robert Leider and Anna Leider
(Octameron Associates, 1993)
Some
helpful sections in chapter 9, The Colleges:
o
The Rich Schools
o
Leadership in Selected Fields
Also see chapter 25, A T= reasure Chest of Tips.
FAFSA
(Free Application for Federal Student Aid)
www.fafsa.ed.gov
Reduced tuition for Colorado residents for some public colleges in=
the
western U.S.
Free
scholarship search with a massive database of private-sector scholarships,
grants and loans.
Database
contains more than 600,000 scholarships and awards, with keyword search or
profile selection. Free.
http://www.collegenet.com/mach25=
Excellent
tools, information on loans, pre-paid tuition plans, scholarships, aid
applications, military aid, and college cost calculator.
Comprehensive site with helpful= advice, information, tools, scholarship search, and aid calculator.
http://www.collegeboard.com/p=
aying/
Ten
steps to paying for school & links to further information.
http://www.mapping-you=
r-future.org/paying/
CollegeQuest.com Help getting organized.=
Organizing
your college list. Help for filling out applica=
tions.
* Scholarships,
Fellowships and Loans – A guide to education-related financial aid
programs for students and professionals, 21st Edition, Matthew Miskelly,
(Thomson Gale, 2004 - hardcover)
Contains:
* Peterson’s
Winning Money for College – The high school student’s guide to=
top
college scholarship contests, 4th Edition. By
Alan Deutschman. (Peterson’s)
This book contains a 2 to 3 page description = of each contest, with award amounts, deadlines and contact information. Sometimes there is a sample winning essay.
* How to Go to College (Almost) for Free: The Se= crets of Winning Scholarship Money (Waggle Dancer Books), by Ben Kaplan. This includes sample winning essays and application= s.
* Free Money for College – A Guide to More= than 1,000 Grants and Scholarships for Undergraduate Study, 5th Edit= ion by Laurie Blum (Checkmark Books, 1999)
** The As and Bs of A= cademic Scholarships, Daphne A. Philos, Editor, (Octameron Associates, 1993, f= or 1994 – 1995 academic year)
This contains a table of collegiate academic awards for 1,200 colleges.
[1] Scattergrams are available on the TCCI Naviance web site. The password is available in the FHS counseling office.
[2] McGraw-Hill, 2004, Chapter 9 “The Mystery of Merit-Based Aid”,= page 119 in section titled “How Merit Awards Interact with Other Aid and Calculations”.
[3] Alt= hough some of the books on this list are several years old, there is still a wea= lth of information in them, and in most cases you can find a more-recent editi= on through your favorite bookstore. Note that the = information on costs quickly becomes outdated. Be sure to c= heck current costs via the internet or in recent editions of college guide book= s.
[4] For= a more comprehensive list of college guides, please follow this link to an article about credible college guide books: Tips-Credible College Reviews.
[5] = Commercial sites are not endorsed by Fairview High School or the Boulder Valley P= ublic Schools. We present this list for the convenien= ce and private investigation of our students and families.
[6] = For more suggested financial aid and scholarship web sites, see the Post-G= rad Center’s Quick Reference Guide (sometimes known as the goldenrod she= et).