When it comes to cutting the cost of college, some enterprising financial aid counselors find that parents are willing to spend almost any amount in an effort to save money.
Total college costs have risen to nearly $90,000 annually at the best private universities, and competition is driving acceptance rates into the single digits. This year has been especially difficult because opening the Free Application for Federal Student Aid has been delayed until the end of December, and colleges can’t finalize financial aid packages without it, even for students who were accepted early.
Cue parental anxiety. And check books.
“The big question when I started in this business was how will my child get in, and now the question is how will I pay for it,” says Jeff Levy, co-founder of Big J Educational Consulting.
There are all sorts of options available, depending on parents’ price tag and level of desperation: concierge-like packages that can cost tens of thousands of dollars, hourly rate consultations, online courses, and access to do-it-yourself programs. Of course, there’s free help and information available too.
All counselors work with the same basic set of known facts about the financial aid process, but these facts can be somewhat opaque when you get down to the school level and how they approach each applicant. But some tout expertise as college financial aid counselors, others have created data processing programs, and others have the kind of bedside handle that worried parents need. On the purely financial side, many certified financial planners and other financial advisors also offer college assistance.
“There’s nothing in what they do that I wouldn’t give away for free,” says Mark Kantrowitz, a longtime financial aid expert, a prolific writer of articles on college finance and the author of How to Appeal for More Financial Aid. And other books. “But they do hand-holding,” he adds.
How much can you pay?
Before you can figure out how much you can pay for college, you first need to figure out how much you can pay for the help you need to make that decision. If you can’t afford anything, you can get free help from your child’s school, the government’s FAFSA helpline or many nonprofit organizations.
For a little more, you can buy a book like Kantrowitz’s or Ron Lieber’s The Price You Pay for College for about $20. But Lieber found that after reading his book, people kept asking questions about pursuing merit scholarships, in particular, and wanted to dive deeper. So he’s now offering a $299 online course on the mechanics of merit aid.
“A decent merit aid package can change the price of college by $100,000 or more,” Lepper says. He believes that people who would pay $20 for a book with general information will pay many times that amount for the specific information they need to save big bucks.
Some parents are willing to pay 100 or even 1,000 times the cost of this book for the levels of personalized service.
Levy charges $150 for a 30-minute consultation, and while most of his clients don’t need more than an hour or so, some have a lot of questions and extend to deeper engagement. A certified financial planner who specializes in college financial aid planning may charge approximately $300 per hour or more, or 1% of assets under management for clients who have an ongoing relationship. Some services offer access to programs and webinars, such as CollegeAidPro.com, which charges $149 for a year for its starter package and $2,999 for full-service assistance.
Judy Okun, a financial aid expert who has been working in this field since 2008, charges $950 to participate for a full year. Each year she works with a small group of families in their college selection process and on filling out the FAFSA and CSS File, a supplemental financial aid form required by many private colleges. This year, she’s also offering 15-minute strategy sessions on the new FAFSA.
“People are very confused about the new rules, especially if they have small businesses,” she says.
Okon says her clients watch all kinds of other offers on the web and ask her what’s different about her services. “There are a lot of searches for rabbits on the Internet,” she says. “One family said, ‘What do you think about this guy? We found him on Instagram.’ I said, ‘I’m not clicking on the link.’ You can trust me. I’ve been in this business for many years.
Concierge-style packages, which often include help with essays and ongoing strategy sessions, can cost several thousand dollars. Participating for several years can cost tens of thousands, especially if parents start when their child is just starting high school in order to try to maximize extracurricular activities and course selection in high school.
“They’ll take you by the hand in your first or second year of high school so you can start to understand what you might be qualified for,” Lepper says.
The only value here, Kantrowitz says, is not in what has become known as “merit-based seeking” — strategically applying to schools that might offer scholarships — but in helping families be realistic about the costs of college from the beginning. If counselors steer families toward less expensive schools, they can save money overall. “The value can be in the form of preventing something really catastrophic going wrong,” he says.
As an example, he points to the elite University of Chicago, which had a total cost of attendance of $86,856 for the most recent academic year on his tracker. If a counselor instead directed the family to the nearby and less expensive University of Illinois Chicago, it could potentially save the family $40,000.
Alone
What you can no longer get from any of these consultants is for them to fill out the FAFSA form for you. The government is now asking parents themselves to fill out the form and sign a statement to that effect. An advisor may be sitting close to you during a video call, but you can no longer outsource the task to someone else.
“I’m sure they’ll still help, but just shake things up,” Kantrowitz says. “They won’t tell people what to answer, but they will tell them how to maximize answers and choose colleges where they will get more financial aid.”
More about saving for college
With the rising cost of college tuition, many families are turning to unconventional methods to protect their assets and secure financial aid for their children’s education. “Hiding money from colleges” has become a booming business, as parents and students seek to navigate the complex landscape of financial aid and scholarship opportunities. From setting up trusts to transferring assets into different accounts, the strategies for shielding funds from colleges have become increasingly sophisticated. This trend has raised concerns about fairness and transparency in the college admissions process, as families with the means to engage in these practices may gain an unfair advantage over those who cannot. Overall, the phenomenon of hiding money from colleges has sparked an important dialogue about the affordability and accessibility of higher education.