You will receive financial aid awards letters around the first of April of your senior year. (This can vary +/- by several days—maybe even a week.) You are usually going to have to make your decision by May 1.

At this critical time I have seen many families panic and resort to loans because they were not properly prepared.

In my opinion the place to start choosing a school begins with affordability. Read the book “Right College, Right Price.”

Use FAFSA4caster: https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f… to get an idea of likely financial aid.

Develop financial plans for multiple scenarios. The plans should encompass the planned term of the targeted degree NOT just the first year.

Your plans should include a “safe acceptance” school and a “safe financial” school/plan. The “safe financial” plan is for the contingency that financial aid does not work out as you had anticipated. One example would be a 2 + 2 plan. That’s two years at a community college and then a transfer to a four year institution.

This takes a lot of work. Many parents and students don’t bother, thinking things will all work out. This is why we have $1.3 trillion in student loan debt with 25% of loans in default or delinquency. In the business world we had an acronym to describe this situation: PPP. The last two P’s stand for “poor planning.”

Now comes the “free advice” worth every penny you are paying for it. In this economic environment, if you don’t have a marketable major, you are just wasting your time and your parent’s money. Half of all current college graduates end up underemployed or unemployed, i.e. there are two candidates with bachelor’s degrees for every suitable job. (Another way of looking at it is with more than 40 percent of high school graduates matriculating at four year colleges, “bachelor’s degrees are a dime a dozen.”)

An Anecdote:

A few years ago my adult daughter had two boys about to graduate from high school. She had been working on their college plans for 18 months. In December before their May graduation the high school scheduled a financial aid planning session for the parents. I asked if I could tag along.

The school had invited in a financial aid planning officer from a nearby college. In her presentation she took us through the various loans available. (In my opinion that’s not financial planning, but “what ever.”) The lady knew her stuff.

After the meeting my daughter—much more of a social butterfly than her father—must have talked to a dozen of her friends (fellow parents) as we worked our way out to the car.

When we got to the car, I looked at her, and she looked at me. At the same time we both blurted out, “This is the first time these parents have thought about this.” Approximately fifteen weeks before their kids were to receive their financial aid awards letters these parents had done no or little planning.

The choice of post-secondary education for their kids is probably the second biggest financial decision parents are going to make in their life—after their house. It is no wonder that there is a student loan crisis in our country.