COLLEGE PLANNING: Address affordability early in the process
PUBLISHED IN THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER -Monday, December 3, 2007
BY: Tom Bottorf
Columnist
Q.We just learned that our Expected Family Contribution is $35,000. We can’t come close to paying this for even one year. How are families affording to pay for college?
A.This is one of the most common questions we get this time of year. I’d like to first answer your question and then share with you what the alternative is, seldom being given proper consideration.
Most parents that seek my counsel and assistance wait until their oldest child’s senior year of high school. They don’t learn their EFC until after the student has completed his or her college selection list and submitted all applications for admission. When families operate with this timeline, the unfortunate result – with few exceptions – is predictable. They find themselves borrowing the vast majority of funds in order to pay for college.
Education loans – federal and private – are at an all-time high, approaching the $100 billion mark! Families are tapping into home equity and retirement accounts with no plan for repayment. In many cases, they are strapping the students with loans of $50,000 or more. In the majority of situations I have personally observed, most of this could have been avoided.
It all comes down to proper college planning. There’s so much more to planning than taking – even “acing” – rigorous classes, achieving high standardized test scores, being the president of a club or two, and then applying to “brand name” colleges. In my opinion, there’s an over-emphasis of curriculum, even among independent college counselors. The importance of good grades is obvious, as well as matching academic achievement and major to a college, but the affordability factor is often entirely overlooked until it’s way too late.
Proper college planning should begin in the sophomore year or at the very latest, early in the junior year. There are curriculum considerations, tax strategies (surprised?) and EFC analyses that can ultimately affect college affordability in a dramatic way. Any family that has not begun aggressive planning before December of the student’s junior year is at risk of compromising the affordability of their child’s college education.
FACT OF THE WEEKThe most expensive college in the nation is George Washington University at about $54,000 a year, including tuition, room and board and other fees.
Tom Bottorf is a College Planning Strategist and founder of nonprofit GetCollegeFunding Inc. in Dana Point.
POSTED BY COLLEGIAN INTERNATIONAL, CHERRY HILL, NJ TEL : 856.673.4087 infocollegianinternational.com
“helping families fulfill their educational aspirations for their children with less cost and stress”
This entry was posted on December 6, 2007 at 12:15 am and is filed under COLLEGE FINANCIAL PLANNING, HIGHER EDUCATION AFFORDABILITY, Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
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