College Search GamePLAN

College Cost & Sticker Price Shock

November 10, 2009

Local news made a “shocking” announcement regarding escalating college cost earlier this week - a “controversial” story on how Medford, Massachusetts based, Tufts University*, is now the highest priced college in Massachusetts. (This ran in tandem with other publications that focused on the raises many highly compensated college presidents receive – just to stir the pot, [...]

Read the full article →

Icebergs & College Admissions
What Do They Have In Common?

November 5, 2009

Icebergs — Just giant floating chunks of ice, right? Well, maybe not. As with many things, there is much more to them than meets the eye. As it turns out, icebergs have a lot more going on than most of us know about (and a lot more in common with the college admissions process than [...]

Read the full article →

College Search & Funding – SFC Heads Into New Territory

November 3, 2009

Well, here it is, our first “official” post delivered by e-mail or RSS feed from our new blog site. Won’t keep you long on this one, but wanted to explain a little about how this all started. Tom McGrath and I looked at online delivery of our services some years ago, and, to cut a [...]

Read the full article →

College Funding – Finding The “Right” Piggybank

September 20, 2009

A recent article in Kiplinger.com urges parents to “keep on saving” to fund college education for their child (or children). In particular, the piece vigorously encourages the use of 529 saving accounts (see link to the article below). While we are certainly proponents of saving for college, we also stress that saving for college does [...]

Read the full article →

Four Fatal Errors Parents of College-Bound Students Make

September 11, 2009

Parents entering the college admissions process are prone to “Four Fatal Errors.” They are: 1. Choosing a college before understanding their financial options The myth of “Choose first, pay later” is just that, a myth. Too many families get themselves in situations where financial offers from some highly visible colleges, make attending their student’s “Dream [...]

Read the full article →

College Tuition & Unnecessary Debt

August 31, 2009

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 [...]

Read the full article →

EFC for Dummies

August 21, 2009

The definition of the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from the Department of Education web site is that it is a measure of your family’s financial strength and is calculated according to a formula established by law. Your family’s taxed and untaxed income, assets, and benefits (such as unemployment or Social Security) are all considered in the formula. [...]

Read the full article →

$$ For College – Have You Got a Money Tree?

August 21, 2009

Many (maybe even most) parents and students immediately jump to the idea of scholarships to bridge the gap between their contribution and the cost of college. But the bulk of federal financial student aid is made up of grants (such as the Pell Grant), work study, and, mostly, low cost student loans. But remember this: [...]

Read the full article →

Off To College? How Far Should They Go?

August 12, 2009

As high school junior and senior years progress, the day of departure from home looms ever closer on the horizon. In spite of the many trials and tribulations associated with teenage years, there is sweet sorrow in this parting of the ways (the separation lasting at least until after graduation, in some cases). In fact, [...]

Read the full article →

College Funding -
Why do parents wake up to this nightmare?

August 7, 2009

College funding – Why do so many parents wake up to this nightmare? Talking about the “taboo” subject of money with their college-bound student is just another aspect of parenthood that many adults fear that they may fail their children on. While failure can be a terrific learning experience, doing so with the numbers game with college planning is [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →