The way I see it, the main job of financial aid officers should be to help the newly accepted and current students find a way to afford to go to their colleges or universities. In some universities and colleges, this is the way it is.

However, there are some colleges that actually plan that some students will not receive financial aid packages that will allow them to enroll.  This is called financial aid leveraging, and it maximizes the amount of money paid by students, while balancing that with the goal of meeting enrollment goals.  Because of this, richer students, who can afford to pay their Cost of Attendance (COA) will get more spots at the college than they would if ability to pay didn’t play a role in who would enroll.  Facts of life, folks.

Why Colleges Leverage Financial Aid

With colleges losing big chunks of their endowments when the stock market tanked, they’ve got to make it up somewhere.  Some cut costs; some raise tuition and fees.  (CNN recently reported that The Board of Regents of The University of California system just raised the undergraduate tuition 32 percent over the next two years.)  Others cut costs AND raise tuition, and some leverage financial aid.  There are even companies that help colleges and universities figure out how to do leverage financial aid  so they will get the tuition income plus enrollment figures they want.  It’s a rough world out there.

Christian College Parents to the Rescue

This is why you need to get reliable information when facing the daunting task of selecting the right college, applying to colleges, and finding financial aid for college.  A woman I met in, of all places, a mammogram waiting room, told me that someone had asked her for $900 to find scholarships for her child.  Totally unnecessary!

Financial Aid Ebooks Coming Soon!

You can get all the information you need on the website and in our upcoming ebooks on financial aid.  And it won’t cost you anywhere near $900!  Actually it will cost you a whole lot less.  Be sure to opt-in to our mailing list to get notified when the ebooks are available.

Blessings,

Bonnie

Other universities are cutting faculty, freezing jobs, and admitting more students in an attempt to make sure that their classes are filled in the fall. This is good news for cash-strapped parents who are worrying about sending their children to college. To help students pay tuition and expenses, colleges are cutting their expenses and digging deeper into their endowments.

The important message for bargain-hunters is that you need to look at the bottom line when comparing colleges, because private universities give out lots of financial aid. This is especially true with smaller, lesser known colleges like University of St. Thomas.

Parents shouldn’t tell their children that they will be able to go to any college they are admitted to, unless the parents can afford the school without financial aid. However, they should encourage their children to apply to private colleges that might try harder to get them to attend by giving them the financial aid they need to make that a reality.

COMING SOON:“The Secrets of Financial Aid” – an ebook with all the secrets I’ve discovered in my comprehensive research of the subject. Make sure you’re on my email list, so you can get a copy as soon as it is released. Just fill in the boxes on the right hand site of this blog. You’ll also get a free copy of the ebook “A Parent’s Survival Guide to College” by insider Neil P. O’Donnell, academic advisor and professor at a private college in NY.

Blessings,
Bonnie