For many families, the price of college comes in a close second to the next largest purchase they will make, their home. Add in several children and college could easily be the biggest investment a family makes in their lifetime. Yet unlike buying a house or even a car, the process dramatically lacks both the resources and transparency needed to make a well-informed decision.
It’s a huge topic that could easily take up a year of blog posts, so for today, I’m going to focus on a few things to consider while building a college list and during the final decision. Whether you do it in the beginning (which is advised) or as part of making the final choice, it will relieve a ton of stress over the four or more years your teen is in college as well as help control the amount of debt after they graduate.
Building your list:
1. Figure out your budget. Think about the last car you bought or the house you own, in addition to coming up with a list of criteria you were looking for, you also established a budget range. It’s the same with colleges. Determine what you can afford over 4 years without discounts or aid, based on the total cost of attendance. That is one of the easier things to find on a college website. You can google “name of college cost of attendance” or find the tuition and aid page (usually under the admissions tab) for the college.
2. Include that as part of the criteria. In addition to location, major, type of environment, big or small, liberal arts or big research institution, also include the total 4-year cost. It’s also important to think about what your goals are for college and the experience you want to have. The more your teen explores both the “what” AND the “why”, the more that they’ll be able to find a wider variety of colleges that fit what they’re looking for AND that opens up the opportunity for discounts in the form of merit aid.
3. Get familiar with all the options that are out there. Go beyond the “top-ranked” colleges, learn about how colleges use discounting and then use resources like these to determine how likely they are to offer merit aid that can help reduce the average 4-year cost.
Making your choice:
1. Make sure you’ve received a financial award letter that lists all financial aid and merit aid. Unfortunately, colleges lack transparency in both the way they present the information and in providing it in the first place. Make sure you receive a financial aid award letter in the student portal. If not, call and ask for one. If you have questions, call the financial aid office and go over the letter. Use resources like TuitionFit to help compare your award to others that the college has given and gain more transparency about the process.
2. Calculate the cost over 4 years, that way you can more easily plan and are not scrambling each year. Find out the parameters for any grants, aid or scholarships and whether they automatically renew or if you need to reapply. Also determine what the qualifications are to maintain the awards.That can often be found on the college’s website.
3. Think long term and know your “why”. What are the student’s long-term goals? is grad school, or law school a possibility? Are they interested in becoming a physical or occupational therapist? If any type of post-graduate education is on the horizon, it’s good to consider that in the overall undergrad college choice. This is also a great time to re-evaluate what’s important to them in their college experience and why, and use that to review their choices. I love when a student tells me that their college application journey helped them learn about themselves and what they were looking for and how knowing that, they realized they are able to make that happen at all of their choices!
In addition to the suggestions above, it’s a great idea to follow some of the experts in the field of college affordability or have a meeting with a college financial consultant. The more you know and understand what’s involved, the easier it will be to know how to include financial fit as one of your primary criteria.