College Planning Information: Financial Aid & Admission Strategies Help You Pay For College Without Going Broke

College Planning PhD, Inc.

Client Services

 

‘MAKING COLLEGE AFFORDABLE’


We are part of the largest and most reputable college financial aid service network in the United States.  Together, we’ve helped thousands of parents, just like you, navigate your way through this extremely complicated financial aid maze and college funding process.  By working with us, let me explain the services you’ll be receiving…

• Student Positioning Assessment  

We use one of the most state-of-the-art “Student Positioning” tools available called DISCOVER.  What it does is take a profile of your student’s talents, interests and ambitions.  From there, it performs a career search to help narrow down some different areas of studies.  Once these steps have been taken, you can perform a college search based on demographics and other criteria you and your   student are seeking. Maybe they want to be a 2 hour car ride away…or maybe they want to be a 5 hour plane ride away.  The whole point of the Student Positioning Assessment is so that the chances of your student spending 4 years in an undergraduate program – as opposed to national average of 4½ to 5 years – are much, much greater.

• Personalized Private Student Interview

This is where your student will get to spend about 45 minutes on the phone with a third party experienced in interviewing students.  The point of the interview is really to see where their head is at. We want to make sure that if you and your student aren’t on the same page, you want to know about it now – not after school already starts.  You may think that they want to be an architect when they were thinking of becoming a kindergarten teacher.  All feedback of the interview will be provided to you – but most of the time, a Parent learns something new that they previously were not aware of.

• College Planning Checklist

This is helpful because even if you don’t physically want to be doing all of the work involved in the financial aid process, you still want to be kept in the loop of what’s going on.  This checklist details out every task in the financial aid process and the deadlines associated with the task. Seeing that we would be handling everything for you, you will be automatically updated every time something is completed or if additional information is needed. 

• Calculate Expected Family Contribution (EFC)

This is where we’ll calculate your EFC so that you know in advance what the schools will be looking at from you financially.  We will also be able to see if there are any planning strategies we can take advantage of to lower your EFC.

• Provide Planning Recommendations to Reduce EFC

We will take advantage of every strategy available to make your EFC as low as legally possible.  We will detail out step-by-step what needs to be done to get that EFC to the absolute lowest number possible for your situation.

• Provide Financial Aid Award Estimates For Unlimited Amount of Schools

Each year, the colleges must send the IRS what their average financial aid package looked like for their average, middle of the road, 50th percentile student.  Through our network, we have licensing rights to view these reports for over 2500 schools.  Although, it cannot guarantee what your aid package will look like, it provides a great gauge into seeing what a school has done in the past.  If you see they have a terrible history of giving a good aid package, your student may want to eliminate the school from the list you’re considering.

• Recommend Additional Schools to Be Considered

If there are any other schools WE feel you should be looking at based on your students interests, we want to make you aware of those schools. 

• Provide Recommendations for the Best Way to Pay Your Share of College Costs

This is where we will develop a plan on how you’re going to pay your out-of-pocket costs.  Even if we can considerably lower your EFC, you are still going to have an out-of-pocket cost.  Depending on “how” you pay that cost can mean thousands of unnecessary interest, fees, and overpaid tax dollars.  Also, if you’re not careful and you keep taking loan after loan after loan, you might find yourself in a difficult cash crunch situation.  We want to put a plan in place to help avoid that situation.

• Complete Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

If you even want to be considered for financial aid, then the FAFSA must be completed!  And… it must be completed every year for each child you have going to college!  The problem is that almost 70% of these FAFSAs get submitted each year with some kind of error or inconsistency on the form.  Seeing that a lot of financial aid is awarded on a first come / first served basis, having an error on the FAFSA could potentially cost you thousands of dollars in financial aid.  We’ll gather all of the necessary FAFSA information from you so that every year the FAFSA can be submitted 100% accurately and on-time – making sure that you’ll be receiving the best package possible.

• Register your Student for the CSS / Profile

Many private colleges require you to complete a CSS Profile.  This form is even more complex than the FAFSA and if there are any discrepancies between this and the FAFSA, your forms can get pushed back in the process – resulting in lost financial aid.  You actually have to register and fill out a registration form just to complete the CSS Profile.  By working with us, we will register you for this CSS Profile form

• Complete CSS / Profile and walk Clients through all Supporting Paperwork

After we register you, we will complete the CSS Profile and help with all other supporting paperwork to make sure everything is again 100% accurate and that all forms match up.  Once again, any errors made could be detrimental to your financial aid package.

• Complete any Additional Forms Required by the Individual Schools

Many schools now have their OWN forms – in addition to the FAFSA & the CSS Profile.  These, once again, have to match up with the FAFSA & CSS Profile or else it may result in lost financial aid.  We will complete any other Institutional Forms that the schools require as long as you forward them to us.

• Confirm the Accuracy of the Student Aid Report (SAR)

Once your FAFSA is submitted, you will receive a Student Aid Report.  We will take a look at this just to make sure everything is correct.

• Make adjustments to SAR

We will also handle any adjustments that need to be made to the SAR.  Any updates or changes will be made so that the SAR is done properly.

• Complete all Stafford Loan & PLUS Loan Applications

We will also complete any Stafford or PLUS loan applications that you may have – just to make sure that they get completed properly as well.

• Protection from being overlooked for grants, scholarships or loans due to mistakes in your financial aid forms.

By having us complete all of these forms for you, it’s almost like having protection for being overlooked for grants, scholarships, loans, etc…  We are experts in this arena and want to make sure that you receive the best possible financial aid package each and every year your child is in school.

• Sponsor “Client-Only” Teleconferences Throughout the Year For Parents & Students on Topics Ranging From Essay Writing to Admission Tips

The College Funding process can be an extremely difficult one – not only from a financial perspective but also from admissions to writing essays.  Part of our services involve a monthly teleconference with topics that cover pretty much every aspect of the College Funding process.  You’ll learn tips and strategies from how to present your “hook” when applying to colleges to how to write the perfect essay.  These are all important parts of the process that you want to make sure are done correctly.

• Spreadsheet Up To 3 Award Letters and Professionally Evaluate if Your Offer Was Fair

Once your FAFSA is submitted, you’ll start to receive award offers from the colleges in the Spring.  You have to know whether or not the offer you were awarded was fair – and if not, is there anything you can do about it.  What we want to do here is spreadsheet your Top 3 awards and determine if you were given what you were entitled to.  We look at your EFC, your student, and the past history of the colleges to determine if the award was a fair one.

• Provide Tested Appeal Letters if You Were Under-Awarded

If we feel that the award you were offered was not what it should have been, we will provide you with tested appeal letters and help guide you through the appeals process.  You have to know how to talk to the financial aid officers in their language and to make sure you state your case so that they’ll actually listen.  Now, we don’t get involved if we feel the offer was fair, but if it was unfair, we have a great track record in the appeals process.

• Provide Easy-To-Use Parent & Student Manuals

Through working with us, you’ll receive an easy-to-use Parent / Student manual that discusses everything in the process and details out some commonly asked Q & A.  This serves as a great reference point to understand how this process really works and what you can expect from us.

• Provide a Monthly E-Letter To Keep Parents & Students Updated On Everything They Need to Be Aware Of Along With A Weekly College Funding “Tip of the Week”

We’ll also provide you with a monthly electronic newsletter to keep you updated on what you should be doing.  You’ll also receive a College Funding “Tip of The Week” that always provides some helpful hints and strategies when going through the College Funding and Financial Aid processes.

• Automatic E-Mails Submitted Monthly to Both Parents & Students on What They Need To Be Doing That Month To Maximize Their College Admissions & Financial Aid Results

Depending on the month that we’re in, both you and your student will receive an e-mail detailing out strategies that you should be trying to do in that month.  Therefore, you will always know on a month-to-month basis, what you should be doing to maximize your results.

• Personalized  Financial Aid FAQ Page

You will have access to a Financial Aid FAQ page that will help answer some of the most commonly asked questions about the Financial Aid process.

• Interactive Online Page For Each Parent / Student

You will have your very own Web Page that you can go on to see what has been completed and what needs to still be completed.  You will also have miscellaneous helpful forms and documents on your page that you may need throughout the process.

• Provide Parent / Student Feedback on Specific Colleges

Through our network, we have helped thousands and thousands of students go to the colleges of their choice.  Therefore, we have first-hand experience with most of the schools that are out there.  We will be able to provide hands-on experience of which schools give money and which schools most students have had great results at.

• Unlimited Support for Parents & Students

By working with us, you are entitled to unlimited support.   We charge a flat fee for our services and we do not charge by the hour.  Therefore, you can contact us as often as you want with as many questions as you want without fear that you’re being billed every time you talk to us.

• Bonus Item: Copy of our book, “Learn How To Give Your Child a 4-Year College Education Without Going Broke”

You will get a copy of our controversial book, “Learn How To Give Your Child a 4-Year College Education Without Going Broke.”

• Bonus Item: Copy of our “Student Handbook For Success”

You will get our very popular “Student Handbook For Success” that contains a number of Special Reports on college life and dealing with the pressures of being a Freshman.  Your student will learn numerous tips from pledging a fraternity to staying in shape while living away from home to avoiding credit card debt.  Students seem to love this handbook.

• Bonus Item: Copy of our “College Admissions Boot Camp Handbook”

You will also get our “College Admissions Boot Camp Handbook” which outlines many tips and strategies for getting into the college of your choice, how to best position yourself for admissions, and so on and so forth.  Once again, you’ll be sure to find great tips in this handbook.

• A One-Stop Shop To Always Be Able To Have Your Questions Answered With Personalized Contact

You will always have a place to call when you have a question in the process.  We serve as your College Funding “coach” and are always here to answer any questions you may have and help you through any stumbling blocks that may occur along the way.

• Provide “Peace of Mind”

Last but definitely not least, by working with us, you’ll be receiving complete PEACE OF MIND in knowing that your situation is being handled by an expert team to make sure that you receive the absolute best College Funding and Financial Aid experience.