When I first started Collegewise in 1999, I enrolled in a course through the UCLA extension program to learn more about financial aid for college. I still remember one particularly pithy piece of information from the instructor, who’d worked as a director of financial aid for several prominent colleges and universities.
“Financial aid is designed to make up for a family’s lack of ability, not their lack of willingness, to pay for college.”
Financial aid officers treat paying for college as a responsibility that falls first on the family. The financial aid formulas determine the price a family can reasonably afford—it’s a snapshot of their ability to pay for college. When it works well, a financial aid package can make up the difference.
A family certainly has the right to decide that a particular college’s price is more than they are willing to pay. They also have the right to decide to live beyond their means rather than to save that money for college. But they can’t make those choices and then expect a financial aid package to make up the difference. That’s asking financial aid to make up for a lack of willingness to pay, not a lack of ability.
Given that every dollar you set aside for college is a dollar less that financial aid will cover, a family who diligently saves what they can afford to set aside, no matter what the amount may be, is taking more control of their college financial future. And they’re also demonstrating to financial aid officers that they have leaned into their responsibility. That willingness to save can increase a college’s willingness to help.
The formulas will calculate your need, but your actions can demonstrate your willingness.