College admissions take toll on parents/students
Cave Creek -- March and April are busy times for colleges across the United States. This is when the bulk of acceptance letters and award letters are sent out to nail-biting anxious students and their parents.
With the anxiety of waiting over, some students and parents are shocked and bewildered at the award letters. These prospective college students were hoping for more scholarships, grants free money and less student loans.
To top it off, some parents didn’t even try to apply for any financial aid because they were duped into believing they would not qualify for anything.
‘Most parents think they make to much money to qualify for aid. The truth is with a little bit of strategic planning they could get college financial aid’ says J.D. Wyczalek (why-zall-ick) the founder of AZ College Planning.
J.D. has been educating parents in the community about the ins and outs of college financial aid even if they haven’t saved enough for college.
‘It’s really sad, but most parents that we talk to have done pretty good financially, but never found the time to save for college. Now they’re facing a bill of $18,000-$48,000 a year, and they don’t know who to turn to,’ he says. ‘Further more, a strong majority of the time, all they hear is to not even bother applying for any aid because they make too much money. However, most of the time, that is simply not true…even if they make a six-figure income.’
‘Simply put, the truth is parents need to be informed about how the college process really works’ says J.D. the college guy.
A high percentage of the financial aid forms are submitted incorrectly which results in excessive time sending the form back for correction and re-submittal. By the time the form is resubmitted some sources have run out of money because it had been already given out. In this case the early bird does get the worm. With proper guidance this could have been avoided.
One way to find out about the college admissions and financial aid process is to attend AZ College Planning’s free workshops entitled “How to not go broke paying for college.” For information about the date and location of the workshop, logon to www.AZCollegePlanning.com.
J.D. has done an excessive amount of research in the college admissions and the financial aid process.
‘If you know how the college financial aid game is played you can stack the deck in your favor, legally’ comments college-expert J.D.
Don’t believe all the naysayers and doom and gloomers. You can reduce your college expenses.
