Admissions decisions are arriving, as are offers of financial aid. As parents sift through the offers and the potential costs, here are three reminders:
1. Make sure you compare the awards. Financial aid packages aren’t all free money. Many of them include work study and/or loans that must be paid back. The award comparison tool available from Finaid.org lets you plug in the numbers and find out which offer is actually the most generous.
2. I’m often asked if it’s possible to negotiate with a financial aid office. Sometimes it is, especially if you receive two radically different award packages from two similar schools. Mark Kantrowitz gives you the well-substantiated longer answer here.
3. Ignore any advice claiming that one college will provide better earning power than another. Your student’s work ethic and character combined with what he does during and after college will have a much bigger impact on future earning power than the name on his degree will.