The College Search and Four Important Lessons for Parents

I was searching Google blogs this afternoon and ran across this gem, which I urge parents to read: Four Fatal Errors Parents of College-Bound Students Make.

The post on College Search GamePLAN - The Blog is short, sweet and oh-so-right-on-the-money. It's a quick read but in case you don't have time to click on the link, here's a quick overview of the key tips offered:

1. Make sure you have a sound financial strategy in place before beginning your college search.

2. Billions of scholarships DO NOT GO UNCLAIMED each year - furthermore, the way scholarship funds are allocated by colleges means that value of the scholarship could actually be deducted from the financial aid package, resulting in a zero net gain

3. It's a fallacy that only highly visible (top U.S. News ranked colleges) offer the best educational opportunities

4. College selection and admissions has become so complex that many families don’t start soon enough - start at the beginning of a student’s junior year

Please note: This article was written by Howard Verman, director of Strategies for College, and published in collaboration with Lauren Starkey of Examiner.com

Image by Cecile Graat

Student Loans: Borrower Beware!

Michelle Singletary, the personal finance (and nationally syndicated) columnist for The Washington Post, issued some dire warnings in her September 20, 2009 column, After College, Student-Loan Sinkhole Awaits. According to Singletary, the current financial crisis in mortgages, business lending and credit cards also extends to student loans, as follows:

The percentage of those loans in default grew to 6.7, up from 5.2 percent in 2006. The figures represent borrowers whose first loan repayments came due from Oct. 1, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2007, and who defaulted before Sept. 30, 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

In other words, the department reported, nearly a quarter-million student-loan borrowers went into default during that year.

Gulp. And there's more...

Go to StudentLoanJustice.org and read the stories of "victims" living under crushing student loans. Also go to http://www.defaultmovie.com and watch the poignant trailer from "Default: The Student Loan Documentary." The feature-length film chronicles the stories of borrowers who, years after leaving school, are trying to repay loan balances that have ballooned to two or three times the amount they borrowed.

For so many, the heavy borrowing is unsustainable... Until there is a sustainable solution, there has to be a sea change in the view by many parents and students that college at any cost -- no matter how unaffordable -- is worth the years of financial burden and perhaps ruin.

The more I learn, the more discouraged I get. People at either end of the economic spectrum have access to money to pay for college, but if you're somewhere in between - even struggling to pay bills and keep your head above water financially - you'll be hard pressed to afford a college education for your child. Borrower beware, indeed.

How Does Your Child's College Search Differ From Yours?

Things change... and so it goes with the college search. Protocols that existed for generations have changed dramatically over the past 25 to 30 years and our children are conducting their college searches in very different ways than we did.

Take me and my son, for example. We didn't discuss colleges when I was growing up, outside of college football, that is (my parents didn't attend college). I chose my alma mater because it was convenient (in the city where I lived) and affordable (I put myself through school).

Conversely, we've discussed college with my son as long as he can remember. When it comes to the college search process, he and I are learning together because I never participated in any of the usual college planning activities. Furthermore, we are doing a great deal of research online and when I was in college, computers were still a novelty and NO ONE had a home computer.

Leave a comment and tell us about your college search. How "old school" was it? What aspects are more different today? What hasn't changed a bit?


Laptop photo by Simon Wong

Tuition-free Colleges are Real!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus - and this time he's bringing a tuition-free college education. You don't necessarily have to be destitute to be eligible, either. It seems too good to be true, but it is.

In researching these colleges, a good place to start is the list of 8 Tuition-Free Colleges on mentalfloss.com. Be sure to note that tuition-free doesn't necessarily mean expense-free: "Free" may not extend to room and board, incidentals, travel, etc. Furthermore, "free" might require work-study. Some schools offer limited majors, such as the Curtis Institute of Music. Nonetheless, if paying for college is a concern then taking a look at these schools is a worthwhile investment of your time.

As I dug around looking for an up-to-date list of tuition-free colleges, I found that the list of eight schools is frequently cited but not exhaustive - by a far stretch. A far more extensive list is 100 Free College Rides You Don’t Need Daddy to Pay For on advantageedu.com. Be sure to review this list! Although it may be dated (it was posted in January 2008), much of the information is sure to still be valid. Besides colleges in the US the list also includes a handful of schools in other countries.

Please leave a comment if you know of other colleges and universities that have tuition-free programs or other programs to help offset college costs.

Photo by Thomas Campbell

What Resources Do I Use Most for Our College Search? "The Choice" is One of the Best

Today I'm going to introduce you to The Choice: Demystifying College Admissions and Aid, a New York Times blog whose lead writer is Times Education Writer Jacques Steinberg (pictured at left). He also authored The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College.

Since its inception in March 2009, dozens of posts have been added from an array of experts, including William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard College, and Marty O'Connell, executive director of Colleges That Change Lives, as well as first-hand accounts of the college admissions/acceptance/aid process from six young adults who are now college freshmen.

I have spent hours on this blog, reading through posts, comments, Q and As, and more. I find a lot of merit in learning about others' first-hand accounts, which is why I highly value the information available inThe Choice.

What kinds of resources have you found to be helpful? Please leave a comment and tell us about them.

The Worst Sweet 16 Party Idea I've Found (So Far)

My daughter's birthday is next month and we're planning a Sweet 16 birthday party. Because I'm her parent, any suggestion I make is "bad," "stupid" or some other form of social suicide. So I turned to the Internet for non-lame ideas.

Wow! Some of the suggestions on the web, apparently posted by teens or their parents, aren't just awful, they're totally inappropriate. Let me start by telling you that I'm not a prude: We allow our daughter to watch Gossip Girl, albeit with much discussion about how the show is unrealistic and the behavior is out of line and shouldn't be emulated by any teen.

Now that we're all on the same page, get a load of the theme I found on one website: Cocktail Party. What?!! The mom who posted the idea noted that frozen drinks (non-alcoholic, of course, so "parents don't need to worry") would be served from plastic martini and margarita glasses. And mom and one of her friends would wear white button-down shirts with black slacks and vests and serve as bartenders for the evening.

Are you kidding me?! Allow me to suggest some games for that party. How about a round or two of "Can You Pass a Roadside Sobriety Test?" or "The Best Pick-up Line Ever?" Perhaps mom can give them a drink in a to-go cup, so they can enjoy it as they drive home. Good times.

Some people argue that a Shirley Temple sets a bad precedent for children. I think the sugar is the worst part of that concept. But a Cocktail Party theme is just flat-out wrong. Shame on mom!

Photo by Jasper Greek Golangco

How Will Paying for College Impact Your Federal Taxes? A New Section of the IRS Website Has the Answers

There is nothing easy or simple about the US tax code. So when you start paying for college and want to take advantage of IRS deductions or credits or whatever, figuring out FAFSA is a piece of cake by comparison.

But to help taxpayers sort through the quagmire, the IRS has added Tax Benefits for Education: Information Center to its website. The new section has info about various different tax breaks in one place, making it easier to find and, dare we hope, understand. Included are tax credits, tax deductions, savings plans, scholarships and fellowships, and exclusions from income.

Looks like I'll be calling my accountant.

Photo by Darren Shaw, http://www.whitespark.ca

A White House Staff Report: "Barriers to Higher Education"

Hot off the press from the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families is a look at why the average American has such a tough time paying for a college education.

In an appearance today at Syracuse University, Vice President Biden made a town hall presentation about the importance of a college education to our country's middle class. Two key issues are getting into and paying for college.

"Barriers to Higher Education" examines how much merit (ability) determines access to a college education, "Because a clear pathway to a college education is a clear pathway into the middle class." Beyond the issue of merit, the report also delves into questions about the high cost of higher ed and struggles many families face trying to afford a college education.

The report includes links to previous reports and studies on the topic and is worth a read; let's hope some initiatives are put into work soon - say, in time for Fall 2010?!

Photo by Christian Carollo

Finding a College for Your High School Senior

As my 15-year-old daughter would say, "Good luck with that."

OMG - who knew that a bright, talented 17-year-old young man would be so reluctant to engage in a process that will define four important years of his life? Where he lives, how he spends his time, the foundation for his career (hypothetically, anyway). This is big stuff. Important stuff. And HE'S DRAGGING HIS FEET AND IT'S MAKING ME CRAZY!

Apparently I'm not alone. It's not just boys - I hear that girls are similarly afflicted.

As much as I'd like to ignore the matter and leave it in his hands (a tough-love tactic: you-made-your-bed-now-lie-in-it), I won't. He doesn't have the judgment to realize the consequences, even though next year, magically, he's going to have enough good sense to be able to survive on his own at college. God help us.

I'm going to chronicle some of our experiences and want to invite anyone and everyone to join in the discussion by leaving comments. WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET!

Let's start at what some experts consider a second-stage of the college search process - considering different colleges (we're going to leave the "what's your major" discussion alone for now).

Loren Pope wrote a terrific book, "Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges." Don't be surprised if you think about college differently after reading the book. Previously I was focused on finding a good school that offered my son's preferred major, particularly something VERY AFFORDABLE, and I expected that he'd end up at the state university about two hours away that is a flagship in our state university system.

But after reading this book and considering things on a broader scale, the paradigm shifted. Maybe a small college would be a feasible option that offers him the chance to more easily create close relationships with professors and be challenged in different ways. It's not that this isn't possible at a large college or university. But a small college offers a different atmosphere and he might really thrive at one.

Be forewarned: Pope is considered to be a bit anti-Ivy League and the focus is on small schools. It's still worth a read. Be sure to visit the Colleges That Change Lives website, too.

The book also helped me realize that we might be able to afford something besides a state university, that small colleges might be a financially viable consideration after all. But more about that on my next post.

What books can you recommend for college-seeking students and parents? Please leave a comment.


Photo courtesy of Garrison Photography