Will you get financial aid for college? That’s a tough question because it depends on so many things: how much money you make, how you make it, what you owe, how many children are at home, and what college the child attends. Advice on how to structure your personal finances (general savings, retirement savings, paying off the mortgage, raising cash) depends on whether you are likely to receive aid.
Fortunately, there’s a wonderful online estimator on the FinAid.org website. It is not simple. You’ll have to sit down with your files and spend some time entering the information into the form. It’s important to get the details right in order to generate a reliable estimate before your child falls in love with an unaffordable school or rules out a college that might have a great aid package.
The FinAid form asks you to enter the costs for three different schools. Even if your child hasn’t expressed any interest, pick three. One should be a public university in your state, and one should be a private college that might work. The third can be anything. Different schools have different resources, and you want to see a range of results. (Hint: public colleges are not always the least expensive.)
The best time to do this is a child’s sophomore year in high school. If you do it too far in advance, you don’t have a clear idea of how your family’s situation will change. If you wait until you receive the college acceptance letter, you don’t have time to plan – and you may have a broken-hearted child on your hands. Sophomore year, you have a reasonably good idea of what you will have in the next few years. The information that comes back from the calculator can be used to help you plan your finances – and to help you steer your child toward a school that is a good fit for the entire family.
