Top Financial Aid Mistakes to Avoid

‘I wish we were given this information a year ago! Why didn’t anyone tell us until now?’
  – Typical Parent of a High School Senior

The best time for families to get started with college funding is NOT when their child is a high school senior – rather a sophomore or 1st-semester junior.  That’s right!  The “Sweet Spot” is actually anytime during the sophomore year!  This comes as a big surprise to most parents. They incorrectly assume that there’s nothing to be done regarding college funding or financial aid until the senior year.  The truth is that this is often way too late to optimize this critical element of college preparation.

What is widely unknown is that there is often much planning that can and should be underway well before the senior year begins.  It’s just the financial aid forms that aren’t due until the senior year!  After attending our College Funding seminar the overwhelming response we hear from parents of seniors is one of concern and frustration in not learning this soon enough.

10 Statements Often Made By High School Parents

Do ANY of These Sound Like You?

• “Filling out financial aid forms would be a waste of our time.  There’s no way we’ll qualify.  We just make too much money.”
• “We have so much home equity, there’s no way we’ll receive any financial aid.”
• “I’m so confused about all this financial aid stuff.  I get different answers everywhere I turn.”
• “We’ve got to sacrifice our plans for retirement in order to help get the kids through college.”
• “I guess we’ll have to settle for a state school even though our child has great grades.  There’s just no way we can afford a private university.”
• “We’ve waited way too long to start saving and planning for college. I guess the kids will just have to settle for a junior college for a couple of years.”
• “I wish we hadn’t invested so heavily in UGMA accounts and 529 Plans.  I’m hearing now that we may not qualify for any financial aid.”
• “Our child has average grades.  We certainly won’t be getting any of that grant money we hear so much about.”
• “Being a single parent, I’m barely getting by as is.  I don’t know where to turn for help in getting them through college.”
• “We can’t file our financial aid forms until we have our income tax return prepared.  So how do they expect us to submit them in January?  We don’t even have our W-2’s yet!”

If any of these comments sound like you or you have expressed deep concern over the high cost of college, you are not alone.  As a matter of fact: you just might become an ideal family who needs a college funding counselor.

Costly Errors Committed By Parents & Students

Each year, families lose out on millions of dollars of financial aid (specifically, FREE money in the form of grants and scholarships from state and federagl government agencies as well as institutional funds) because of errors, omissions, oversights while undertaking the financial aid application process. Don’t let this happen to you!!!

Often, families do not seek professional help and undertake this seemingly simple process on their own. However, when they receive the financial aid offer letters and discover they didn’t qualify for as much funding as they were expecting or hoping to get, that is when they will seek professional help. In many cases, IntoWealth has been able to diagnose these families’ problem areas and take corrective action get them the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in gift aid that they deserve and are rightfully theirs in subsequent years. However, we believe that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Whether you decide to do it yourself, or are dissatisfied with your current financial aid offer & are seeking professional help to see how you may be able to lessen your financial burden for college, we have a service package that is right for you. Contact us for a consultation or learn more about us at an upcoming seminar to see how we may be able to help.

Below is a growing list of examples of errors committed by by our clients when they were going through the financial aid process by themselves. For your do-it-yourselfers, you are welcome to check back often as we will continue to make timely updates to this list.