So you’ve calculated your EFC and are breathing a sigh of relief, telling yourself, “We can do this.” Hold on a second. “E” is “Expected,” not “maximum” or “guaranteed” or anything like that. There is no requirement that your school of choice meets your financial need, or if it does, that loans aren’t part of the aid package. That’s why…
If you are among those fortunate individuals whose parents want to help pay for their grandchild’s education, it’s worth figuring out the best way for them to do so in order to avoid the law of unintended consequences. In the college world, unintended consequences include losing financial aid as a result of a grandparent’s gift. First, you need to know…
A great article on college selectivity and how you can use it in your favor, here
Are you still filling out the FAFSA? Is that because you have questions about it? One of the most frequently-asked questions about filling out the FAFSA is, “Do I need to include 529 Plan assets as an asset, and is the answer different if the account beneficiary is a child other than the one on whose behalf I’m filling out…
What happens if you don’t use all the money in your 529 plan? This may happen for a variety of reasons: your child received a scholarship, chose a less expensive school than what you had budgeted for, or didn’t attend college after all. Maybe you had other family members contributing to the cost of college. Maybe you just put more…