I have to say, before we went through this with our boys, my wife and I THOUGHT we knew all about it. After all, I've been a high school teacher for over 20 years, and we have 4 (soon to be 5) college degrees between the two of us. But the landscape of college applications and financing is very, very different from what it was 10 years ago, as we found out.
And as much as I hate to say it, the Boise State University online degree program in which I am currently enrolled is...not a good indicator of what students just out of high school are going to go through regarding applications and financing.
So, based on everything I learned over the past 2-3 years about researching, applying, and financing college for your kids, these are the THREE BEST RESOURCES I have come across:
- College Confidential Just about any question you could EVER ask about researching, applying, and financing college can be answered on the hundreds of thousands of discussion forums at CollegeConfidential.com. Staggering amounts of honest (sometimes blunt) commentary. An absolutely invaluable resource.
- Cappex This is a great website for researching colleges. Easy to read, accurate data about admissions, majors, etc. for just about every college. The graphs, charts, and comments from current students and faculty are very helpful.
- US Government's easy-to-use "Paying for college" worksheet This is a great tool from the federal government's consumer finance department. You input the colleges you are interested in, and it gives you a comparison of how much you will pay to attend each college. If you know them, you can also input your sources of scholarships, aid and savings, and it will figure those into the calculations.
There are other websites you will need to know about: the common application website, the FAFSA website, collegeboard.com, and the websites of the colleges your children are interested in. But those are sort of obvious. The three I listed above are a little lesser-known, and infinitely more useful.
The two photos at the top of this post, by the way, are where both of our boys ended up going, which is Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University.
Just curious if your sons' school offers any form of college guidance? We have an amazing department here that begins working with parents and students their freshman year, and I am trying to figure out if that is common or not.
ReplyDeleteI am not really familiar enough to speak on the quality of the guidance programs. But what I do know is that my sons each have an academic counselor they can meet with at any time, whose office is located on the first floor of their dorm. There are also financial aid counselors and mental health counselors who are also easy to get into to see. But that's about all I know.
DeleteAn important note is that so many people tend to overlook retirement savings in favor of college savings. Most personal finance experts will tell you this: You can borrow for college. You can't borrow for retirement.
ReplyDeleteThat fact is always in the back of my mind now.
Oh my, excellent point. I have heard exactly the same thing: that it is NOT a good idea to sacrifice your own retirement savings in order to get your kids through college. Thanks for adding that!
DeleteGreat post! I remember my own college experience as well as helping my younger brother through it. It's never easy. My brother is going through loan consolidation right now and that is it's own breed of confusing!!! Thanks for the resources.
ReplyDeleteWe are having our students take igrad online to learn about loans and paying them back. The website www.igrad.com/.
ReplyDeleteBorrowing money today is different than when I borrowed money. The highest possible amount was $1000 and the bank took about $30 out for processing. The interest rate was 8% at the time.
When our son went to college we set a limit on borrowing to $16000. At the end of 4 year, his debt was only $13600.
Let's not forget about the scholarship websites! My dad made me apply for over 200 on Fastweb.com when I was a junior. My first two years of college were completely paid for. Yes it was a lot of work, but totally worth it.
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