Plan and Finance Your Family's College Dreams


Book Description

Planning and paying for a college education is a daunting task for most parents. It is a stressful and costly process that needs a well-thought-out academic and financial strategy. This guide offers just that! Two of the nation's leading college planning and financing experts provide clear step-by-step guidance on how to successfully save, plan for, apply to, and finance a college education. Age- and grade-appropriate guidance empowers families with children of all ages, with detailed information on preparing, financing, and successfully applying to college. Financing a college education requires a good look at all available options: savings, free money, financial aid, and loans. Finding the right savings vehicle and investments is important. Learn the pros and cons of various savings and investment options, including Bank accounts, 529 Plans, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, and more-so you can begin to develop your plan. Easy-to-understand explanations help parents better understand college loans, including details about federal and private loans, consolidation and refinancing of loans, as well as a discussion on what it means to co-sign a loan. Based on the expert advice presented in this book, parents will be able to create a personalized college admission and financing plan that is unique to their family.




Plan and Finance Your Family's College Dreams: A Parent's Step-By-Step Guide from Pre-K to Senior Year


Book Description

Planning and paying for a college education is a daunting task for most parents. It is a stressful and costly process that needs a well-thought-out academic and financial strategy. This guide offers just that! Two of the nation's leading college planning and financing experts provide clear step-by-step guidance on how to successfully save, plan for, apply to, and finance a college education. Age- and grade-appropriate guidance empowers families with children of all ages, with detailed information on preparing, financing, and successfully applying to college. Financing a college education requires a good look at all available options: savings, free money, financial aid, and loans. Finding the right savings vehicle and investments is important. Learn the pros and cons of various savings and investment options, including Bank accounts, 529 Plans, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, and more-so you can begin to develop your plan. Easy-to-understand explanations help parents better understand college loans, including details about federal and private loans, consolidation and refinancing of loans, as well as a discussion on what it means to co-sign a loan. Based on the expert advice presented in this book, parents will be able to create a personalized college admission and financing plan that is unique to their family.




Plan and Finance Your Family's College Dreams


Book Description

Planning and paying for a college education is a daunting task for most parents. It is a stressful and costly process that needs a well-thought-out academic and financial strategy. This guide offers just that! Two of the nation's leading college planning and financing experts provide clear step-by-step guidance on how to successfully save, plan for, apply to, and finance a college education. -Age- and grade-appropriate guidance empowers families with children of all ages, with detailed information on preparing, financing, and successfully applying to college. -Financing a college education requires a good look at all available options: savings, free money, financial aid, and loans. Finding the right savings vehicle and investments is important. -Learn the pros and cons of various savings and investment options, including Bank accounts, 529 Plans, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, and more-so you can begin to develop your plan. -Easy-to-understand explanations help parents better understand college loans, including details about federal and private loans, consolidation and refinancing of loans, as well as a discussion on what it means to co-sign a loan. -Based on the expert advice presented in this book, parents will be able to create a personalized college admission and financing plan that is unique to their family.




Making College Dreams a REALITY


Book Description

This guidebook will explain to the reader the necessary information needed to to make planning for college easier, including valuable college planning tips which will be beneficial towards a student's future. Students, in your life you will be facing challenges as you begin preparing for college. This tool will empower you and your parents. Most questions you have about the how's, why's, and what's of college planning will be answered in this book.Parents and/or guardians, the "Nine Key Decisions for Better College Planning - Better Life: Making College DREAMS a Reality" are important for helping prepare your kids for college and making the transition from high school to college enjoyable.Nine Key Decisions to Better College Planning - Better Life includes:-Road Map for College Success-Self-Discovery -Mentoring and Coaching-PSAT, SAT, ACT Testing-Writing Winning Essays-Recommendation Letters-Personal Statements-Best Fit for College Admissions-Financial Assistance (FAFSA, State and Institutional)Author Shelly Rufin combines her ability to educate and motivate with her extensive experience in federal and state regulations and local policies. Shelly helps college-bound students complete admissions applications, winning essays, personality career assessments, financial aid planning, and more, to get results.




Teens' Guide to College & Career Planning 12th Edition


Book Description

With input from teens, parents, and numerous experts, Teens' Guide to College & Career Planning knows just how to talk to high school students about the important decisions involving life after graduation. This easy-to-read guide, with updated content, enables busy students to hone in on the right information for them. Whether it's mapping the road from high school to college, figuring out financial aid, determining if joining the military is the right move, preparing for an interview, or developing early career skills, Teens' Guide addresses each option available to young adults with meaningful information. Inside you'll find valuable advice from guidance counselors, instructors, college admission officials, military officers, and-most importantly-other high school students! Also includes, expert tips for interviews, resumes, and cover letters. With new content written by Justin Muchnick, current high school junior and author of Peterson's® The Boarding School Survival Guide, this guide will help you get ready for life after high school.




Great Financial Plan For Your Child's College


Book Description

As parents of a child that is on way to college, have you ever had these feelings: Worried that you can't afford to send your child to college? Afraid that rising tuition costs will prevent your child from getting a much-needed education? Really want a debt-free future for both you and your child? If your answer is yes, read this book! It will bring you a comprehensive financial plan to cut your costs in half! After spending years solving fiscal challenges for corporate executives and small business owners, the author became a mom and discovered the insanely high tuition expenses predicted by the College Board's cost calculator. On a mission to reduce the burden on her own family, she consulted admissions counselors, financial aid experts, scholarship gurus, and a group of very determined parents to find a new solution. In this Financial Guide For College, the author provides a project management framework for families to find and finance the college experience of their dreams. Making use of these little-known tips, ingenious resources, and some careful planning, you can turn this easy-to-follow guidebook into an incredible 25 to 50 percent off coupon for college. Inside this book, you'll discover: The 12 critical elements required for a successful college plan How both parents and students can minimize debt in the long run How you can become a better-informed consumer of higher education How imagining the college funding process like a kitchen remodel can help you come in on time and on budget Why there's no need for any family to "pay retail" for college, and much, much more! This Financial Plan For College is your all-in-one resource for stretching the value of your family's college budget. Buy the book today to start planning for your brighter future!




How to Pay for College


Book Description

Providing your children with a good education is one of the best gifts you can give. But it’s not straightforward. Education costs and student loan debt are skyrocketing. In some cases, college costs upwards of $300,000 for four years. And calculations for financial aid and merit awards are complex and opaque. How do you find the best education options that fit your budget and are absolutely right for your child? And how do you save for your kids’ college without wrecking your own retirement, or putting your other goals completely out of reach? Ann Garcia—known as The College Financial Lady—is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and college finance expert, and is here to help. In How to Pay for College, Ann shows you how to develop a financial plan for college that really works, including: How to save and how much to save. How to find good college choices that fit your budget. How to get scholarships and tax benefits. How to talk to your kids about the costs and benefits of going to college. Plus invaluable information and inside tricks to help you crack the college financial challenge. Detailed explanations of the key elements in planning for college—the FAFSA’s methodology, merit awards, 529 plans, AP credits, student loans, financial aid awards, budgeting, and more—are paired with worksheets and exercises to give you a full picture of your family’s college financial position. This definitive guide gives you everything you need to give your children the best education possible, at a price you can all afford.




From Cradle to College (and Everything in Between)


Book Description

Organized both chronologically by stage of life and by issues, this book by the author of Money Doesn't Grow on Trees offers practical, simple strategies for choosing everything from housing to schools to child care. Worksheets designed to help parents prepare for future significant expenditures, both expected and unexpected, are included.




Refinancing the College Dream


Book Description

During the 1990s, rising tuition costs and inadequate federal grant aid prevented more than a million otherwise qualified, low-income students from continuing their education past high school. Education policy expert Edward P. St. John is troubled by this situation and argues that equal access to higher education is both feasible and just. In Refinancing the College Dream, he examines recent trends in public funding of education and explores alternatives to financing which would provide equal access to postsecondary education for all Americans. The growing gap in the rate of participation in higher education for low-income groups compared to upper-income groups over the past three decades, St. John finds, has been a direct result of the decreased availability of federal grants, even after taking into account such factors as an increased emphasis on strengthening high school graduation requirements. To reverse this trend, he suggests that policymakers refocus the debate over the public financing of higher education from taxpayer costs to principles of social responsibility and justice, along with economic theories of human capital. He then shows how improved coordination between state and federal agencies, expanded use of loans, and better targeting of grant aid can maximize access for low-income students while minimizing increases in taxes. Making higher education accessible to low-income students is one of the crucial challenges for citizens and policymakers in the early twenty-first century. Refinancing the College Dream offers a theoretical and practical foundation for boldly rethinking the financial strategies used by colleges and universities, states, and the federal government to accomplish this essential goal.




Parents' College Survival Guide


Book Description

PLAN, SAVE, SUCCEED 57% of students take up to 6 years to get a bachelors degree 37% of college freshman don't go back sophomore year 44% never graduate at all A Certified College Planning Specialist with 25 years experience, John Groleau helps families reduce their college education costs. It started with his mother, JoAnne, the first college graduate in his family. Now, together with his wife, Layla and their four children, the Groleau family helps parents and students with the many challenges of planning successfully for college. Their proven strategies have helped hundreds of families including their own, having successfully navigated through the college experience with their four children. In this timely book, the Groleaus, lead by John, share their extensive knowledge to help both parents and their children choose the colleges, pay as little as possible while getting the finest education and most importantly, thrive in their college experiences for a lifetime of success.