With higher education costs rising, financing a college education may depend upon the availability of financial aid (i.e. scholarships, grants, and loans). If you apply for any kind of financial aid, you'll hear the term "EFC" or Expected Family Contribution, which is used to determine a student's financial need.
For a dependent student, this figure is generally 12% of certain parental asset net worth, 50% of the student's available income and 35% of the student's asset net worth.
Tip 1:
Although the cost of attendance (COA) varies by school and student, the EFC remains constant regardless of school and tuition costs.
Therefore, don't let the cost of a private school education deter you from applying.
Tip 2:
Apply to multiple schools and communicate to those schools what the other schools are awarding
you in financial aid. Having schools compete for your child's enrollment may increase your financial aid reward.
Tip 3:
For financial aid purposes, shift assets from your child's name to the parents' names to possibly increase your financial aid award.
Tip 4:
You can apply for financial aid by filing a paper FAFSA form (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) or filing electronically at
www.fafsa.ed.gov.
Avoid being charged a fee for electronic filing by going directly to www.fafsa.ed.gov.
Tip 5:
Review financial aid information web sites and print materials from each school you are applying. Also, investigate other sources of private and non-federal
aid by using free web site search engines such as
www.fastweb.com and
www.finaid.org.
Tip 6:
Check the legitimacy of scholarship search services at
www.studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/lsa/index.html and at the Better Business Bureau at
www.bbb.com.