Among the apples-to-grapefruit aspects of planning for college costs is the substantial differences in what’s included in Cost of Attendance at different schools. All schools will quote costs for tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies and personal expenses. But often, those are just a starting point.
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Financial Aid
Last month, the Department of Education announced the release of earnings and debt levels by major and school. This is a fantastic level of transparency when a career path is already in mind. The data is available on College Scorecard.
Many families think there’s no point in doing the FAFSA because they assume they don’t have financial need. That reflects a fairly limited view of the FAFSA; in fact, there are plenty of good reasons why every family of a student who’s even potentially college-bound next year, regardless of the family’s financial position, should do it.
It’s time for my annual financial aid presentation at my kids’ high school. This year the topic is Five Questions for College-Bound Students, which your families might also want to discuss.
The FAFSA gets a lot of attention right around now, but it’s only one of two financial aid forms. The other is the CSS Profile, used primarily by private colleges and universities. The Profile differs from the FAFSA in several major respects: