The Princeton Review - 8 Steps to Paying Less for College: A Crash Course in Scholarships, Grants, and Financial Aid

Depending on which survey you read, between 70 and 80 percent of all college-bound high school students were accepted by their first-choice college last year. Except for a handful of schools, selectivity has gone by the board. Nowadays, the problem is not so much getting into college, but paying for it once you are there.

The cost of a four-year private college education has passed the $250,000 mark at some schools, which is enough to cause even the most affluent of parents to want to sit down and cry. The public Iviesstate schools with excellent reputationshave been raising their tuition even faster than the privates. If there is a bright side to all this it is that there is a great deal of financial aid availableand we are talking billions of dollars.

At these prices, almost every family now qualifies for some form of assistance. Many parents dont believe that a family that makes over $150,000 a year, owns their own home, and holds substantial assets could possibly receive financial aid. These days, that familyprovided it is presented in the right lightalmost certainly does, depending, of course, on the cost of the college in question.

The college financial aid officer (known in college circles as the FAO) is charged with helping the college to enroll students at just the right price. The FAO does not want to spend more moneyor less than necessary to enroll a student. Let the financial aid officer do his jobbelieve us, hes very good at it. But in the meantime, you have to do your job, which is to use the rules of financial aid to maximize your eligibility for financial aid and scholarships.

Earnings, assets, and tuition prices aside, one fact trumps all: Parents and students who understand how to apply for financial aid get more financial aid. That said, remember that the primary responsibility for financing an education rests with the family. This book is not about shirking your responsibility. It is about using the need- and merit-based policies to maximize your eligibility for aid.

So lets be clear: this is not gaming the system. Whether you know it or not, youve been contributing to financial aid funds for years. Each April, you pay federal taxes, a piece of which goes straight to the federal student aid programs. You pay state taxes, part of which goes directly to state schools and to provide grant programs for residents attending college in-state. You may even make contributions to the alumni fund-raising campaign at your own college. You have paid all these years so that someone can get a college education, and now is the time when you can lay claim to some of these funds for your own son or daughter.

You may have heard a lot of myths about paying for college: thats to be expected when youre talking about an act that goes back for centuries. Your father may have had to join the Army to get through state school, and your friends smart niece may not have even applied to private universities because there was no way her family could afford it. But, as youll learn in this book, none of that is necessarily true.