Mistakes Were Made
We asked experts to name the financial aid blunders families tend to make. Here are the top 10 and how to avoid them
There's free money out there if you are willing to work for it. Daunted by the $10,000 per year her family was expected to pay for her to attend Oklahoma State University, Kristen Stryker applied for about 30 scholarships. In many of the applications, Stryker, who graduated from high school with a 4.3 grade-point average, wrote about her community project--teaching gardening to kids in juvenile detention centers. Her diligence paid off. Stryker, now a freshman, won scholarships adding up to nearly $92,000 from Coca-Cola, Toyota, and Kohl's, among others--more than enough for four years at Oklahoma State.
Websites such as those of Fastweb, CollegeNET, and the College Board claim to have billions of dollars' worth of scholarships in their free databases, for everyone from left-handed kids to skateboarders. And many schools earmark some of their own money for merit-based scholarships to entice favored applicants. Most financial aid offices post detailed information about institutional scholarships on their school's website.
Local organizations are also worth checking out, says Barry Simmons, financial aid director of Virginia Tech. Each year, he sees kids who get scholarships from civic groups simply because they asked.
But there's a caveat: Scholarships could be used to offset your aid package, not the amount of money you are paying out of pocket.
4. SENDING IN FORMS A LITTLE TOO LATE
Too often families wait until after acceptance letters have arrived to apply for aid. That may be too late. Aid comes from many sources, and they all operate on different calendars. While the FAFSA isn't due until June 30, other sources of aid that require the FAFSA often have earlier deadlines. For instance, states that use the FAFSA to determine how to disburse their own loans and grants have deadlines beginning March 1. And some schools want financial forms, including the FAFSA, from applicants as early as January. School deadlines are crucial to meet because the well of institutional money can run dry.
5. PAYING SOMEONE TO DO IT FOR YOU
Financial planners can give you good advice on saving for your child's education, but you may be tempted by pitches from companies claiming they can apply for aid for you--and get a better result. "Parents who hire consultants to help them fill out the financial aid form are wasting a huge amount of money," says Kenneth Redd, director of Research and Policy Analysis for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
These companies often prey on families who can least afford it. Donna Connolly, a counselor to low-income and immigrant students at South High Community School in Worcester, Mass., was chagrined to discover that the parents of one senior had paid $1,000 for a company to fill out the financial forms--and that the company made mistakes that Connolly had to fix. As for the promised scholarship money, she says, "they just gave them websites to visit, the same ones we tell students about." Even worse, the company persuaded the parents to pay upfront for future services for their two younger children. "They were sold a bill of goods," she says.
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