VUAC Finance

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7 Ways To Pay For College
If You Did Not Receive Financial Aid
Or
If Your EFC is too high
PART ONE

You fill out all of the forms, you meet all of the deadlines, and then you wait. You wait to receive your Student Aid Report (SAR). The most important part of your SAR is just beneath the processing date on Part 1. This is where you’ll find your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). This is the amount of money that the financial aid administration believes you can afford to spend on college tuition during the next year. If that number is a string of zeroes, you’ve hit the jackpot: no one expects you to pay anything (although it is important to remember that not all schools will be able to pick up the entire tab for you).

Of course, a zero EFC is fairly rare. Most families find themselves looking at a much larger figure than they think they can afford. The financial aid administration doesn’t just consider your family income when they calculate your contribution; they also factor in any assets you might have and they may expect you to pick up some loans to cover the shortfall. Here’s an important point to remember:

It’s Not As Bad As It Looks!

How to Get College Financial Aid
Simple Strategies for Every Situation
Part Two

In Part one, we discussed two of the eight strategies.

In Part two we cover the next three strategies.

3. Arrange Your Money
The amount of college aid you receive will depend on your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Your EFC will be determined by your financial situation. That means that applying for financial aid is a little like paying your taxes. You want to make sure that when the powers-that-be pour over your financial situation, everything is arranged so that you have to pay the least amount possible.

You wouldn’t dream of filing your tax return without first talking to an accountant to see what you can claim and where you can get the most write-offs. Look at the college financial aid forms the same way and discuss your situation with a college planning expert. Remember, the figures you present could have repercussions for the next four years and beyond. It pays to get it right from the beginning.

We’d be happy to help you present the best case possible to the financial aid administration.
Give us a call and ask us to help you maximize your awards!

4. Take Care When Filling Forms
This year, you’re going to find yourself filling out seemingly endless amounts of forms. There are college application forms and scholarship forms, FAFSA forms and Profile forms. You name it, there’s a form for it, and you’ll have to fill it out. And you’ll have to fill it out correctly.

I came upon a very interesting discovery: Michelle Obama’s college thesis from 1985!

I couldn’t wait to read it…and to evaluate it! Why?  Knowing what I know about her now, I am very curious to find out what her intellectual ability and her belief system may have been like during those influential, formative years!

My current belief is that Michelle Obama is not likely to be a good person.

Why?  Well, I say that for two main reasons.

The first is the fact that she associates with her husband, and I believe there’s overwhelming evidence that her husband is not a good person, based on his policies and statements, as well as the disturbing views of numerous czars whom he’s hired, among other factors.  I also find it suspicious that there are several dead bodies of people who have been associated with Obama in some way:  the 9/11 widow who died a week after meeting with Obama; the witness who had been cooperating regarding Obama’s passport hack was found shot in the back of the head; the alleged gay lover of Obama’s was, along with two other openly gay members of Obama’s church, murdered.

The second reason I think Michelle Obama is not likely to be a good person is the fact that, during the 2008 primary nomination elections,  she said: “Let me tell you something, for the first time in my adult lifetime I’m really proud of my country”.   That certainly suggests that she had a lot of anger, perhaps hatred, and may have even been a radical.

How to Get College Financial Aid
Simple Strategies for Every Situation
Part Three

In parts one and two we discussed the first five strategies; in this final part we address the remaining three strategies.

6. Make the Most of Your Assets
Very few families can afford to pay for college tuition without some form of help. Even high-earners often have very little spare cash to pay an extra thirty or forty thousand dollars or more each year to send a child or two to a top private school. And lower income families frequently struggle even after receiving a generous award.

The fact is, the help you receive from the financial aid administration is rarely enough to see you through four years of tuition bills, and most families have to come up with creative solutions to find the extra money they need.

Now, there are lots of loans available and all sorts of ways to do that but we’ve found one method that’s proven highly effective for the particular difficulties faced by parents of college-age children. This method doesn’t work for everyone. But if it works for you, you could easily find yourself able to pay for your child’s tuition without raiding your pension or cutting back your lifestyle and do it all on a tax-favored basis. Sound good? Give us a call and let us figure out whether you can benefit from this truly helpful financing plan.