We are responding to a recent article in the Nashua Telegraph, Mounting Tuitions Test Multi-children Families

A sad conclusion to be drawn from this story is that many families only consider the “sticker” price of colleges, a mistake that is often costly both in terms of finance and education.

The article brings up several essential issues. However, we feel that some clarifications would be helpful.

We see two areas where obvious preconceived notions limit a family’s goal of putting their children through college.

The first essential issue is that the parents probably do not even know what they can afford. The Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) – not mentioned in the article – is the figure all colleges use to determine financial aid eligibility. Much like buying a house, where you need to have a pre-approved mortgage in place in order to make an offer, families need to know what they can afford prior to embarking on the college search process. The EFC helps get them started. From there, a family can then figure out the more realistic “Workable Family Contribution.”

The second issue arises from a parent’s comment that they made a decision to not have to worry about paying for college. That is, the kids would have to take care of college funding themselves. It may not be that it is a God given right to go to college and that the parents should fund that dream. However, parents and students should know that colleges think differently.

When a student files for financial aid, the college’s expectation is that the parents will contribute to their student’s education. Whether a family decides to fund all or part of the funding of college, it is paramount that they know, or work with someone who does know, how to strategically approach the transaction. There is no reason a 21 year old college graduate needs to start out “in the hole” with thousands of dollars in debt, and/or leave the parents in a similar position.

An effectively planned college search puts the student and family in control of the process, and allows a range of options when it comes time to make a final college selection.

A competent counselor can explain that a high priced college may, in some cases, require less funding and less debt than a state university, but because of this misconception, students do not apply to schools they believe to be “out of their price range”, or they and their parents resign themselves to incurring significant debt.