FAFSA – Do It Yourself College Rankings

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

06/01/202301/24/2023 by Michelle Kretzschmar

Woman in glasses and casual attire using a laptop with a blank screen to research ways to pay less for college, sitting on a gray sofa with her feet up.

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(Updated for 2023) If you want to get any financial aid, you need to submit college financial aid applications such as the FAFSA and PROFILE. This is obviously a critical step: no application, no aid. But if you want to pay less for college, it certainly isn’t the first step.

The fact is that the FAFSA is just one of the final steps of many in paying for college. I’m not talking about the savings account you were going to set up for your kids when they were little but never got around to. What I’m talking about are the things you need to know before students even start applying to colleges. Before you even start making a college search list, much less worrying about completing the FAFSA, you should know the following five things about paying for college.

The EFC Chart: Understand How Much You’ll Pay for College

06/01/202310/13/2022 by Michelle Kretzschmar

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Troy Onink used to provide a Federal FAFSA EFC Chart until he passed away in 2018. His chart is still probably one of the most commonly found on the internet even though it’s from 2017-18. It’s still useful for its shock value. Most parents have little sense of what college is going to cost and the EFC chart is a wake-up call. Hopefully, parents who see it today will be motivated to use an EFC calculator to get an estimate for their own situation. In any case, since the table is outdated, I’ve created my own EFC chart.

28 Free Resources for FAFSA Help

10/04/202210/04/2022 by Michelle Kretzschmar

hand out of water looking for free FAFSA help

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Why should you care about FAFSA help? In case you haven’t heard, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for 2023-24 is available on October 1st. That means that it’s time for high school seniors to collect all their documents so they can fill out the FAFSA. Why? Because you will need to have submitted the FAFSA to be eligible for financial aid awarded by the federal government, colleges, and many states. And the sooner, the better. While filling out the FAFSA isn’t the key to great financial aid, it is a necessary step.

FAQ: What is the FAFSA?

04/02/202104/02/2021 by Michelle Kretzschmar

College student asking what is the FAFSA?

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The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid administered by the Office of Federal Student Aid. Students must submit the FAFSA to qualify for any federal financial aid, most state aid programs, and the vast majority of college aid programs. There is no cost to complete the FAFSA.

Harvard University Tuition 1980 and 2016

06/19/201904/16/2018 by Michelle Kretzschmar

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3 Hard Truths About Who Gets Financial Aid

05/31/202303/27/2018 by Michelle Kretzschmar

worried woman holding piggy bank representing who gets financial aid

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What’s the worst possible thing families could hear after getting their Estimate Family Contribution (EFC) for financial aid? How about that even if they could manage to pay their EFC, more than likely they’ll have to pay even more because most colleges won’t meet their full need. The data on who gets financial aid shows that most families aren’t going to have their need met.

5 Rules About Paying for College Most Parents Don’t Know: Rule 1

04/02/201803/03/2018 by Michelle Kretzschmar

ShareTweetFlipEmailPin0 SharesRule 1: The FAFSA is NOT the key to paying for college.

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

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

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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.

50-50 Highlights: Colleges That Require the PROFILE Financial Aid Application

02/28/202110/27/2016 by Michelle Kretzschmar

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There has been a lot of discussion of simplifying the FAFSA. The argument is that too many low-income students don’t apply because they are intimidated by the process, don’t understand that they can qualify for significant grant aid, or don’t have all of the required information. All of these are legitimate concerns that can be resolved without reducing the application to the size of a postcard.