5 Painless Ways to Save for Higher Education

by Melissa Brock | Nov 6, 2020 | Ask the admission office | 2 comments

I welcomed a guest post from Lisa Bigelow, an award-winning content creator and mom who learned way too late how to save for college. Check out her helpful tips below!

It seems like yesterday your little bundle was born. Then came first steps, school, a driver’s license. Before you know it, you’re scouring college brochures that come in the mail by the elephant load, grinding out college tours and applications and wondering how to pay for it all.

In 1995, the average cost of a full year of tuition plus room and board at a four-year university was $10,560, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Fast forward to 2018 and that antiquated figure blooms to an astonishing $27,357 – a near-threefold increase.

It’s safe to say that the cost of college probably isn’t coming down anytime soon. Yet even with the total tab for four years of university exceeding $100,000, for many families, the intrinsic value of higher education is unquestioned. 

You know you should start saving now, but how much will you need?  

It’s difficult to estimate what college will cost when the big event is far in the future. So many factors affect the cost of attendance, including eligibility for need-based aid and in-state residency, plus the promise of merit awards or private scholarships. Unfortunately, when you start saving, you won’t have the answers to any of those questions. 

Nevertheless, families that plan ahead for college expenses aren’t likely to regret it. If you want to pay for four years of university education for your future collegian, here are five saving for college tips. 

First things first: You need a goal. But how much? 

Luckily, the College Board — the same organization that administers the SAT — offers a free future cost estimator on its website. Here, you can enter the current cost of one year of school, either public or private, and the tool will calculate the estimated cost of attendance after factoring in your timeline, estimated inflation, and other considerations.

Not sure which value to enter? Consider entering a total of one year of tuition plus room and board at your state flagship university. You can always change it later.   

Step 2: Stack rewards.

Setting up a college savings plan is a great idea! Funding it, however, is a different story.

Automating contributions is helpful (and some might say critical), but don’t hesitate to think outside the box. For example, credit card rewards programs, browser add-ons and retailer programs like Upromise are fantastic ways to chip away at that big goal you set in Step One. Earn a reward, deposit it into the 529. It’s really that simple.

Step 3: Go low-tech.

Spare change stored in a water jug. Birthday and holiday gifts from Grandma deposited into your child’s 529. Yard sale proceeds put toward college tour travel costs: All great ways to capture value from otherwise overlooked — or worse yet, wasted — funds. 

At the end of every month, empty your wallet, jacket pockets and car of any change and bills you find. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much it totals — especially when combined with earned rewards. How’s that for one of the easiest but simple saving for college tips?

Step 4: Pursue private scholarships.

You’ve probably heard the rumor that millions in scholarship dollars go unawarded every year, but don’t use that as an excuse not to save for college. There are countless private scholarships that award students on the cusp of high school graduation.

Merit-based scholarships typically award money for academic, athletic or creative talents. But other types of scholarships don’t even require an essay. Have your teen peruse available scholarships like the ones on Bold.org.  

Step 5: Explore regional discounts.

Don’t overlook residency discounts, as they can be worth tens of thousands of dollars per year. Some states let you pay tuition years in advance, while others award special scholarships to students in otherwise out-of-state tuition zones. In New York State, in-state residents who meet income criteria are guaranteed free tuition at in-state colleges and universities.  

Finally, when the time comes to make a selection, carefully evaluate the cost of your student’s degree path against likely future earnings. 

Is it worth it to pay $200,000 or more for private school tuition if a public school degree will get your student the same salary after graduation? If not, it may be wise to reconsider.

First Child Going to College? How to Handle the College Search

by Melissa Brock | Nov 1, 2020 | Ask the admission office | 3 comments

I met with hundreds of college-bound students and their families as an admission counselor. 

One thing I always noticed about second-timers: Easier conversations. 

Usually.

When parents had a second child going off to the same college (we had an unprecedented number of sibling pairs at our college), conversations sometimes went like this: 

Me: “Did you get a good look at the residence halls?”

Student: “I stayed with my sister in her residence hall 34 times last year. We made a Jell-O tower the last time I stayed.” 

Me: “A Jell-O tower?”

Student: “Yep, that’s why she had to scrub the lounge. You know, because the whole thing exploded from the vinegar.”

Parent: Rolls eyes. “Let me get you a check for the deposit. Let me see, if I remember correctly, that’s $200, right?”

Me, still with a million questions about the residence hall lounge Jell-O/vinegar volcano, checking the time: “Do you guys have any questions? You’ve only been here for 15 minutes.”

Student: “No, I’m good.”

(I know, this conversation was borderline ridiculous.)

At any rate, when you’re going through the college search for the first time, it’s daunting. It’s like looking into the end of one of those pool noodles (you can’t quite see the light at the end). You may worry, have a million questions, convinced you’re not sure what you’re doing when your first child heads off to college. 

Here’s what you can do to lighten your mental load.

Your child might think you’re there to slloooowly give her signs of a stroke when you’re on college visits. You pester the admission counselor, the dean of admission, the professors, the security personnel. You make best friends with Clara, the cleaning professional in the all-female residence hall and vow to get in on the jazz professor’s next gig — as the drummer.

You’re just doing your job as the first-time parent. If you have another child, you’ll barely utter a peep the second time around. 

Your second-born will say, “Mom, the admission counselor just asked if you have any questions. Can you take your sunglasses off and uh… look like you’re into this?”

Ha!

All jesting aside, check out my overly long list of questions if you’re not sure what to ask: 202 questions to ask on a college tour… (Too many? I’m so sorry.)

2. Visit campuses.

You know you need to visit campuses, but where should you go and when? A lot depends on your student. Some sophomores are nowhere near ready to visit colleges and others are. It depends on maturity level, drive, etc. Gauge your student’s readiness. Even if you’re ready for a full tour of New England colleges, your child may not give a toot. At all. 

Trust me — I’ve seen the kids who aren’t ready for college visits! They act just like you imagine they would. 

Once you figure out when, you need to determine where. “Where?” is a fun — and stressful — question because you have so many choices. Big? Small? Four years? Trade school? Parents’ alma mater? In state? Out of state? 

You don’t know until you start visiting. There are no rules here. Just pick a school your child’s interested in and go. Simple as that.

3. Meet the people. 

Really get to know the people. Not just the students. Not just the admission staff. Everyone. While there’s no way you can meet all 10,000 people on campus, you should be able to get a feel of what the campus means to the people you do meet. Try to get people to say, “I wish campus offered X…” or “I love X about our campus.”

Find out whether students love the things that matter — the relationships they develop or the opportunities they’ve been given. If all they can talk about are the beautiful buildings, the rad parties they attend or other surface-level stuff, it might be a red flag.

4. Get organized. 

You may have no idea what you need to organize when you’ve got your first child going to college. Here’s a spreadsheet I put together — without the fluff you don’t need to know.

You can copy that spreadsheet and save it for yourself. It’s definitely nothing fancy but is super functional. It includes things like distance from home, tuition and fees and heart/gut test (feelings after the visit). Encourage your child to maintain this sheet.

5. Activate the heart/gut test after every visit.

As I alluded to in the previous point, you need to make sure your child “takes” the heart/gut test. The heart/gut test is not really actually a straightforward test. It’s actually a litmus test for how your child “feels” about the college search. You can ask a few questions to probe a little bit for how your child feels about a college. Ask:

• How did you feel when you were on campus?
• Can you see yourself going to college here?
• How do you feel about the students/professors/admission staff, etc.?
• What was your gut/heart initial reaction to this college?

As you can imagine, this is a little unnerving for some people. It takes out the facts — how many students get a job after graduation, successful alumni, internship stats — and puts feelings front and center.

But it’s so good when you get it right.

6. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk about money.

Talk about money until you get a scratchy throat. Of course you have lots of questions about money. How much will each school cost? How much merit aid does a college offer? What scholarships can my child receive from searches?

Here’s what you want to find out from every college your child’s interested in:

• The amount of merit aid he or she will receive from that college.
• Whether your child can apply for other scholarships.

Don’t forget to talk about how much you can reasonably afford to help your child pay for college. You don’t want your child to have unrealistic expectations about what you’ll be able to help pay. (Imagine that your child thinks you’ll pay for the whole thing — but you can’t. It might be a nasty shock when your student tallies up the loans for her first year alone!)

7. Avoid talking too much about major.

Whaaa? 

Yes.

Here’s a quick fact: Three out of every four students enter college undecided or change their major at least once.  

You may already know that. But that still might not stop you from searching the internet for “best colleges for pre-optometry” or “best pre-med universities.” 

A true story about a past student of mine: Jessica began looking at colleges as a junior in high school. She knew she wanted to be a pre-med major. In fact, she was so determined to be a pediatrician that she even shadowed her own pediatrician. Jessica chose her college (in this case, a large state university) based on the university’s high percentage of undergraduates who got into medical school.

Guess what happened. Jessica started taking biology and chemistry classes and realized it wasn’t at all what she’d expected. In fact, she realized she didn’t even like the school she’d chosen at all. She ended up transferring and switched her major to marketing instead. 

About three quarters of all college students change their major plans at least once. Your student will most likely change his major (because he either discovers something new or learns that he’s not well-suited for his initial choice). So don’t go into the search on a mission to find the best school for the best [insert major].

It’s easy to ask college reps, “Can I major in X at your school?” 

It’s much more difficult to ask other, less-defined questions, like “What does it feel like to be a student on campus?” (See heart/gut test.)

8. Don’t spend too much time looking over your shoulder. 

If your next-door neighbor already applied to 36 colleges and your child thinks he’s good with two college applications, don’t compare. What’s right for neighbor Billy Bob may not be right for your child at all. 

If you’re struggling to file the FAFSA but your neighbor Mary filled it out in two seconds flat, relax. As long as you meet required deadlines for each college your child’s interested in, you’re doing great. And if you need help, get it.

9. Check college’s requirements — then follow the deadlines. 

All the different requirements and deadlines at schools can slowly drive you crazy if you let it happen. One school may have a November 1 application deadline. Another school has a scholarship interview deadline in February. Grab my spreadsheet and make sure you clearly denote each deadline. Put your head down, get your child on board and meet the deadlines of all the colleges on your list. Make sure you ask about: 

• CSS Profile deadlines (usually only required at more competitive schools)
• Application deadlines
• Scholarship deadlines
• Testing requirements for the ACT and SAT (many schools don’t require them now) — and find out whether your child needs to do the written essays or the SAT subject tests
• Deadlines and requirements for letters of recommendation
• Resume requirements 
• Deadlines for final transcripts

10. Follow up.

Make sure colleges get your child’s transcripts, test scores, recommendation letters and other requirements. It’s a good idea to make sure your child’s file is complete well before deadlines approach. 

Don’t skip this step. There’s nothing worse than thinking everything’s ready to go, then realizing with horror that something didn’t get turned in on time.

Check a month before everything’s due if it’s feasible. That way, your child has plenty of time to submit transcripts or scramble for another recommendation if needed.

11. Consider revisiting.

Did your child not feel the heart/gut test magic the first time around? That’s normal. 

Sometimes your child just needs a second visit, particularly if it’s been a year or more since your family made the trek to a particular college.

Keep going till your child can see himself going to a particular school and can envision success there as well.

12. Talk about your insecurities.

It’s okay to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. Isn’t it like that the first time you do something new, no matter what it is? Think about the first time you booted up the internet. The first time you drove a car. The first time you went off to college yourself. Learning about the college search is an involved process.

You really will get there. The entire process may feel as foreign as learning how to drive on snow when you’re from Florida (and maybe this will actually happen if your kid’s looking at colleges in, say, North Dakota!) but the good news is there’s no one way to complete the college search. 

Your Quick Guide on How to Look for Colleges in October

by Melissa Brock | Oct 18, 2020 | Ask the admission office | 0 comments

This post may contain affiliate links. 

How do you help your child find the right college fit in October? 

The college search is a process. It’s not like your child can usually apply, visit, get accepted and plunk down a deposit all in the same month. (If you can do that, my hat’s off to you! — Ha!)

Again, it’s a twisty road with lots of checkpoints along the way. 

Senior parents, here’s what you need to know about how to look for colleges in October. (By the way, this is great information even for those parents who aren’t parents of seniors!)

The FAFSA opened on October 1 and now’s the time to fill it out. 

The FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Colleges and universities use the FAFSA to consider your child for federal student aid. States and individual colleges and universities also use the FAFSA to award grants, scholarships and loans. 

File the FAFSA as soon as possible — for federal aid, you must submit the FAFSA by 11:59 p.m. Central time (CT) on June 30, 2022.

Does that mean you get to veg out till June 29?

No!

Because colleges also carry deadlines. Check with the college(s) your child’s interested in attending to understand their exact application deadlines. 

2. Encourage your child to work on applications in advance — not at the last minute. 

Most colleges evaluate regular applications between January through March. However,  you’ll unearth a few different deadlines for specific admission types. 

For example, early action and early decision applications require students to submit their materials well before the new year. Application deadlines show up during the — you guessed it — fall months! You might see a few mid-October through November deadlines at colleges that have an early action or early decision process.

Check — and double check — the admission deadlines for each college your child plans to apply. Even if the college uses rolling admission, it’s best to apply early so you know where your child stands in terms of merit-based scholarships and other financial aid early on.

3. Check out various other deadlines for specific colleges. 

Your high schooler may not be done with just an application. You may uncover a few other dates to keep track of:

• Additional deadlines for honors programs
• More applications or deadlines for scholarships and financial aid

How to keep track of it all? Create an online calendar or spreadsheet to plan campus visits so you don’t — gasp! — miss key application dates for scholarships or financial aid.

4. Note ACT/SAT Adjustments

Does your student plan to take the ACT or SAT? Do a quick study on the latest testing information. Will the test be offered where your child normally planned to take it? What are the COVID-19 requirements? 

If testing is not available in your area or you don’t meet the safety requirements, know that many schools have gone test optional. 

Note: Even if your child’s a senior, it’s not too late to take one of these tests.

5. Start Narrowing Your College List

Your child can only go to one school, right? Time to start narrowing the list! Ask your child a few questions to get closer to a decision:

• Do you want or need to be closer to home? (Colleges close by may not have popped up on your kiddo’s radar before!)
• Do you think you prefer a small liberal arts college or a large university?
• Would you prefer a large city, suburban area, rural community, etc.?
• Do you think you want community college first?
• Are you interested in going to a school that’s currently all online?
• Are you comfortable with some loans?
• How hard do you want to work for scholarships if schools don’t offer much merit-based aid?
• What do you think you might major in during college?
• What types of extracurricular activities would you like to participate in?

Next, divide schools into “safety,” “match” and “reach” schools based on the admission criteria at each school:

• Safety: A safety school means that based on a school’s admission criteria, it’s likely that your child’s academic credentials are way above the average incoming freshman range. A lot of people call this school a “back-up.” It’s a good idea to make sure your child can proudly say, “I’m okay with attending my safety school” — just in case. 
• Match: A match school is one that your child is likely to get into based on a particular school’s admission criteria. Your child is likely to be admitted because his or her academic credentials are well within the average incoming freshman’s range. In other words, it’s more likely that your child will attend this school. 
• Reach: A reach school is not a guaranteed shoo-in. Encourage your child to choose a school that’s not a complete pipe dream (your child can’t apply to Harvard with a 2.5 grade point average, for example). 

Feel like you’re constantly bombarding your child with questions and all you get in return is “I don’t know!” or something along those lines? Remember, your child may not know the answer to some of these questions — this may be the first huge decision he’s ever made. 

Elicit help from a guidance counselor, admission counselor or another individual you trust to help guide him through this experience.

6. Start Applying for Outside Scholarships

Outside scholarships include private scholarships and cash awards. Encourage your child to go for those $100 scholarships — they add up.

Totally ask the guidance counselor at your child’s school for insight. Here are a few other pointers: 

1. Go to area high schools and collect programs dating back up to four years ago. You can find the names of scholarships on that list, Google them and then BAM! Your kid’s got lots of local scholarships at her disposal.
2. Contact various civic organizations in town, like the Elks club or Kiwanis club. They usually give away lots of scholarships.
3. What types of scholarships does your company offer? Do other family members work for companies that offer scholarships as well? 
4. Ask your child about scholarship announcements at school. Ask for an email copy of these announcements, if possible, or ask where you can find them online.
5. Check social media. Join Facebook groups or other social media groups that post scholarships. All it takes is a simple search!
6. Look at scholarship search engines. Google “scholarships for writers,” for example. Use keywords to your advantage! 
7. If your child doesn’t look like a match for a specific scholarship, reach out to the scholarship committee and ask if your child can apply anyway. Maybe he’s just missing one tiny requirement. 

I urge you to check out Scholarship System’s free webinar. Jocelyn of the Scholarship System is amazing — she’s turned getting scholarships into a complete system. She knows how to streamline the process so your child gets scholarship results.

7. Attend Virtual College Fairs

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, NACAC has canceled all Fall 2020 in-person fairs and pivoted to virtual programming. Find out details about 2020 Fall Virtual College Fairs. If you’re wondering how to look for colleges, this is a great place to start because your child can learn a lot about colleges from all over the U.S. from a comfy, squashy chair!

8. Visit Schools

Visit, visit, visit. I can’t stress the importance visiting schools. How to schedule a college visit? 

1. Talk over the type of visit your child wants. Talk to your child before you jump on the phone or set up a campus visit. What does your child want to get out of the visit? Does she want to meet with a faculty member or does that idea terrify her? Does she want what I call the “drive-by” experience — just tour and admission counselor? 
2. Call the admission office of a college or university. I heavily suggest calling the campus visit coordinator at that college or university instead of signing up online. It’s always better to talk to a live person. A computer can’t hear you talking about your child’s interest in biology, but a campus visit coordinator can — and can offer a one-on-one meeting with a biology major or professor. 
3. Understand your visit options. What are the options? Let’s say you want to visit on a specific date. Maybe the admission office isn’t doing personal campus visits that day — maybe there’s a group campus visit day. 
4. Consider a personal campus visit. This is my very favorite type of visit option! I love personal campus visits because they allow you and your child to do a visit that fits your child’s exact interests. It’s personalized! You can visit with anyone in the college you need to (professor, coach, student, etc.) 
5. Visit in person. I know it’s tempting to do a Zoom visit, but while Zoom is wonderful, it can’t take the place of an in-person visit.

Take the temperature. How’s your child feeling about the process? It’s easy to become so absorbed in checking all the boxes and forget how your child feels. Start having those heart-to-heart chats!