I believe a successful college search needs preparation plus opportunity. One of my favorite sayings has always been Luck = Preparation + Opportunity. What this means to me is that there really is no such thing as “luck”. You end up feeling “lucky” when you are well-prepared and the right Read more…
The Merit Scholarship Deep Dive 5-Day Challenge starts Wednesday, August 21. This will be a great opportunity for you to prepare to help your student find great merit scholarships to make college more affordable. In the 5-Day Challenge, I will walk you through my Merit Scholarship Framework, covering one step Read more…
This is a guest post from Daniel Bishop, founder and Comprehensive Financial Planner from Black Swan Advisors. See his full bio at the bottom of the post. There are so many important tactics for reducing the cost of college. And planning for college is like turning over hundreds of stones. Read more…
Here are more debt-free college strategies. In my last two posts, Debt-Free College Strategies – These Worked for Us and Debt-Free College Strategies #2 – These Also Worked for Us, I covered the debt-free college strategies we used with our 3 girls. There are other debt-free college strategies that weren’t Read more…
There are so many debt-free college strategies. Last week I wrote a HUGE post about 10 that worked for my family with the college choices for my three girls – Debt-Free College Strategies – These Worked for Us. As I thought about it more after the post, I realized that Read more…
There are many debt-free college strategies. This week, I’ve been watching my friend Jocelyn Paonita Pearson, of The Scholarship System, in her free Debt-Free Degree Workshops. She and I are very much on the same wavelength about how to go to college debt free and what’s important in the college Read more…
When your expected family contribution is too high to be affordable for your family, you have several options. I want to address this both for high school Seniors with actual award letters in hand and also for younger students where Net Price Calculators are indicating an expected family contribution amount Read more…
Parents, there are really only 4 ways to pay for college. There are no big secrets when it comes to paying for college. It really comes down to how much of it will come out of your pockets and your student’s pockets. For most families, paying for college requires a Read more…
Merit scholarships make college more affordable, especially for those families who will not qualify for need-based aid. If you don’t know yet if you qualify for need-based financial aid, read Will We Qualify for Need-Based Financial Aid? If you are familiar with my Upside Down College Search process, you will know Read more…
Will we qualify for need-based financial aid for college? – A question on the minds of most parents with college-bound high school students. The answer is going to depend on many things, with the biggest being parental income and number of kids in college at the same time. Let’s go Read more…