How To Evaluate A College Financial Aid Package
8 September 2006Smartmoney has a good article for parents and prospective college students for whom scholarships and financial aid are a big part of the college decision. It gives you some tips on the ways college financial aid offices will “rig” the packages to make them look a lot more attractive than they really are. Comparing the numbers is often an apples and oranges thing because of several ways they can play around with the package:
1) Using PLUS and non-subsidized Stafford loans. – Anyone can get these, even if you don’t get a financial aid grant – so the school you’re applying to may be trying to bump up the numbers they’re offering you.
2) Excluding incidental costs in the estimates. – Books, housing, and other living expenses are all things you’ll have to pay for. So if one college includes them and the other doesn’t, don’t assume one is less expensive just because they don’t list all the costs.
3) Loans vs. Grants – Make sure you don’t have to repay what they’re listing as “aid,” or in the long run one school could be a lot more expensive.
4) Conditional Aid – Remember that many aid packages are conditioned on good grades, or are offered but can be altered the next year. You could accept at one school and find out that the second year, they suddenly aren’t as willing to give you the same financial aid package for your next three years.
5) Increasing costs over time – Take into account how much costs have gone up in the past at the schools you’re considering. Some spendthrift schools raise tuition a lot faster than others, and you need to factor that into your decision.
Go read the whole article if you’re going to be making this decision in the near future.
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One Response to “How To Evaluate A College Financial Aid Package”
May 11th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I wish more people would take advantage of scholarships, grants and fellowships options. They are widely available and for low gpa to high gpa students. They are available for students who have low or high ACT or SAT scores. If you are intrested in finding out about these scholarships; go to http://www.freetoapply.com and take advantage now of these opportunity.