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Health & Fitness

BLOG: Mistake No. 1 - Procrastinating College Planning

For families of seniors, they must come up with $10-60k within less than one year, yet is amazes me that little to no attention is paid to this by our government or private high schools.

With the school year begun, our phone is once again ringing off the hook.

For the past few years, schools have asked us to come speak to the families about the biggest mistakes parents make when planning for college. There are many of course, so we picked the top three, then five, then seven … and this year, 10.  For the next 10 weeks, I will be highlighting each mistake with other posts in between.

Here is the list.

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  1. Procrastination
  2. Four-year college is for everyone
  3. There’s plenty of financial aid for everyone
  4. Picking colleges is easy
  5. MISunderstanding EFC
  6. Allowing a 17-year-old to make a $100K+ decision
  7. Early Admissions will get me into my dream school
  8. Assuming you earn too much for financial aid
  9. Enabling students to accrue unreasonable debt
  10. Not seeking the necessary help to plan for college

Today, I will write about procrastination. It goes without saying that college is expensive, yet is amazes me that little to no attention is paid to this by our government or private high schools. 

For families of seniors, they must come up with $10–60k within less than one year. The rumors abound about who gets financial aid, so families allow their students to spend an average of $1,000 in application, text and transcript fees, and then are surprised when they suddenly can’t afford the colleges they applied to. 

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The data is staggering with many students dropping out due to running out of money, and of those who do graduate, 85 percent move back home to service their debt, or because they can’t find a job to support them.

Sadly, most parents have never been told this and they are instructed that the completion of the FAFSA form when it becomes due in the senior year puts them right on track! It’s only then that they learn they should have started a year or two earlier. 

They often realize that their college search would have been radically different.  The most common question we hear from parents of seniors is, ‘Why didn’t anyone tell us this a year ago?’

The first step in your family’s planning stage should be to learn your EFC (Expected Family Contribution). This calculation performed by the Department of Education is the primary factor in determining eligibility for the vast majority of financial aid awarded every year. Many families’ out-of-pocket costs for college can be reduced once their EFC is known. 

For a report on the 10 Mistakes, and a link to the most effective EFC Calculator we have found, go to our website. Also sign up for one of our free local or WEBinars.  If you would like us to speak in your local high school, shoot us an e-mail, at support@getcollegefunding.org.

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