If you’ve landed here with a plan to do some college financial planning, welcome!

Planning puts you in control and helps you achieve your goals. It gives you a framework to guide your student. The earlier you plan, the greater the range of future choices you will afford for your student.

In the ever-changing world of college planning, the cost and complexity of choosing a college have significantly increased. Tuition fees have risen by over 25% in the last decade alone, putting a financial strain on students and families. Moreover, this year’s seniors have submitted more college applications than ever before. The number of applications filed through The Common Application has surged by 30% in the past three years, while the total number of seniors has remained fairly flat since 2020. These trends highlight the importance of strategic college planning to navigate the competitive and costly landscape of higher education.

Amid all our uncertainty, it can seem foolish to plan. But here’s the thing—it is very rare for a family to regret putting some money away for a child’s higher education, and even rarer to wish they had saved less than they did. So let’s get started and secure a bright future for your student!

If you’re a parent, it’s never too soon to start thinking about your child’s college education.

The benefits of saving for college outweigh the effect on your Expected Family Contribution (EFC – transitioning soon to “SAI” or Student Aid Index), a calculation of financial need colleges use to award students financial aid. For most students and families, savings has only a small impact on their expected family contribution.

Can your child afford to go to college? The answer is yes, but you need to carefully plan together how to pay for it. Remember:

Students and parents are often dismayed by the prices they see listed on college websites. The truth is, most students don’t pay the published price, or sticker price, for their college. When you take into account the aid—grants and scholarships—a student gets, you’ll often find they pay a lot less. This is called the net price.

Grants and scholarships are the best kind of financial aid because it’s money your child doesn’t have to pay back.

Loans must be paid back with interest, but some college loans, especially ones that come from the federal government, have very good terms. Generally, students are responsible for paying back federal college loans, but parents can take out a PLUS loan, which won’t be their child’s responsibility. If you choose the type of loan and loan amount wisely, borrowing for college can be a good investment.

No family should be surprised by the cost of college – and feel forced to take on debt to cover education bills.

We recommend financing college like you would any other major purchase or investment. By shopping smart, understanding the financial aid process, and setting a budget in advance, you can set both you and your student up for future success.

The first step to creating your college budget is to assess what you have available to cover the cost of college. Next, look at what cash flow you have available to cover tuition bills or daily living expenses for your student. Finally, assess what financial aid your student can expect to receive from different schools based on the information you’ve gathered.

Once you have a handle on how financial aid works and what your family’s unique budget is, you can start to shop for schools. We recommend skipping tours of any schools that you know won’t be financially feasible for you and your student. It’s not worth test-driving a Porsche if you know it’s not in the budget!

We recommend and use College Aid Pro™ to help our clients build their list of colleges and universities – it provides customized financial aid, scholarship, admission, and salary data all in one place for every college, making it easier to shop for schools and compare net costs.

You can then schedule tours of colleges you know are in your college budget and meet your affordability criteria to see what feels like the best total fit. This is where the college search gets exciting! When you know you’re looking at schools you can comfortably afford without putting your student (or yourself) in debt, you can focus on:

We believe that every student deserves a great college education for a price their family can afford. To that end, our College Funding Blueprint™ service combines a proven college funding strategy with the best-in-class college planning software, enabling you to find the right college for the lowest cost.

You’ll save time and money, and reduce stress and anxiety, as we guide you toward making an informed buying decision that will lay the foundation for your student’s future success in both career and life. Schedule a conversation to get started.