Costs – Page 9 – Do It Yourself College Rankings

Rule 2 of 5 Rules That Most Parents Don’t Know About Paying for College

04/16/201803/09/2018 by Michelle Kretzschmar

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50-50 Highlights: 89 Best Bets for Affordable Public Universities

02/28/202103/08/2018 by Michelle Kretzschmar

A person wearing graduation robes and a cap holds five $100 bills against a green textured background, celebrating the achievement made possible by affordable public universities.

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Let me start by saying you never know how much a college is actually going to cost until you get the college’s financial aid award. That’s when you really know if a college is affordable. But there are indicators that some colleges are more likely to be affordable than others. Knowing these indicators mean that you can make sure you apply to colleges more likely to meet your financial needs. That doesn’t guarantee they will because we are talking averages here. But it does improve your chances.

7 Things You Need to Know When Looking for College Scholarships 2

05/03/202203/06/2018 by Michelle Kretzschmar

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With all of the college scholarship search websites available, it would seem that getting a scholarship to pay for school has never been easier. Unigo’s scholarship match offers to match students to 3.6 million college scholarships worth over $14 billion. And Scholarships.com tells you that there are over 3.7 million scholarships worth $19 billion just waiting for you. How hard can it be to get a scholarship?

Actually, the truth is that the internet has made it easy to find out about numerous college scholarships students might qualify for. The student still has to apply for the scholarship and is competing with all of the other students who used the same search websites to find the scholarship.

Why Your College List Should Start with Your Flagship University

06/08/202202/13/2018 by Michelle Kretzschmar

A young woman in glasses and a white top smiles at the camera, holding a green folder that contains a list of flagship universities. Several people stand blurred in the background.

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Long time readers of my blog know that I think that the start of any college search should begin with estimating your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). This simply sets the baseline for how much you should expect to pay. The next step should be looking up your state flagship university. Why? Because while your EFC sets your financial expectations, your state flagship serves as the ideal reference point for adding and comparing the schools you add to your final college list.

How to Find Colleges that Give Tuition Coupons

10/12/201801/18/2018 by Michelle Kretzschmar

Person typing on a laptop displaying a shopping website with a coupon code entry and "Shop Now" button; a cup of coffee sits on the table beside the laptop, perhaps considering using a tuition coupon for added savings.

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What, you say you’ve never seen a tuition coupon? Just because nobody has ever actually held one in her hands doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You know how you start getting coupons for movers and home stores when you change your address? Or after you visit a website online, you start getting discount offers from them in your Facebook feed? Well, it’s possible to get a coupon for $10,000 or $15,000 off your college tuition if you pick the right college.

50-50 Highlights: Best Financial Bets for Public Universities

02/28/202112/14/2017 by Michelle Kretzschmar

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graduate holding money represent public colleges best financial bets A few years ago I did a post on Best Financial Bets for 50-50 Public Universities. The idea is to create a list of public schools that accept at least 50% of students and have at least a 50% graduation rate and are likely to be affordable through either merit or need-based financial aid. I’ve decide to update the list using simpler criteria which increased the number of colleges on the list. Ultimately, I ended up with 66 50-50 public colleges as best financial bets. If you aren’t interested in the gory details of how I came up with the list, just skip to the end to see the entire list.

50-50 Highlights: Public Universities with Highest Percentage of PLUS Loans by State

05/26/202311/30/2017 by Michelle Kretzschmar

Piggy Bank on a calculator representing Public Universities with Highest Percentage of PLUS Loans by State

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With all the talk about student debt, it’s easy to miss the PLUS loan numbers. PLUS loans are federal loans taken out by parents on the student’s behalf. The really scary thing about PLUS loans is that parents can borrow up to the full amount of tuition. Furthermore, eligibility for PLUS loans isn’t based on ability to repay the loan but rather your credit history. Just think about it, even with a great credit history, a bank won’t loan you money for $250,000 house without some evidence that you can make the payments. The government will.

Must Read Book on Paying for College: The Financial Aid Handbook

05/06/202211/02/2017 by Michelle Kretzschmar

dog reading a book representing reading The Financial Aid Handbook

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With the availability of more free information on the internet than we know what to do with, the suggestion of reading a book to understand a topic may seem, well, old-fashion. But it’s precisely because of the information overload spawned by the internet that books can be a great investment. A good book will present you with the information you need to know in a meaningful way without any distractions. That has value. And for those looking for such value, I want to recommend The Financial Aid Handbook by Carol Stack and Ruth Vedvik.

If you only read one book to understand the intersection of finding and paying for a college, this is it. Carol Stack and Ruth Vedvik have taken their experience as college admission directors and created an essential guide that will take families through a cost based college search. And best of all, it’s written for students.

Why Teen Checking Accounts Should be Part of Your College Prep

02/28/202110/26/2017 by Michelle Kretzschmar

A teen checking their account balances while inserting a card into an ATM machine, with a focus on the action and the machine's user-friendly interface.

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Parents make sure that their kids are prepped for the college admissions process. They make sure they take the right classes, get the appropriate grades, study for the ACT or SAT, and participate in extracurricular activities. But do they make sure they’re equally ready to handle the financial aspects of independent living? Students may be able to do the math to calculate interest rates yet 43% don’t understand the differences between debit and credit cards.