According to a 2008 Princeton Review survey, when it comes to worrying about their children and college:

• 71% of parents expect the cost of their student's degree to exceed $75,000
  
• 84% say financial aid will be "very necessary"
  
  

The College Family Advocacy program saves parents time, energy and resources by expediting the complicated financial aid process.

College Family Advocacy understands the pressures placed on parents today. Working, taking care of children's needs, running a household, tending to aging parents, church obligations and other commitments, families are stretched to the breaking point.

A lucrative financial aid award requires time, effort and patience. For busy parents of college bound students, all three are in short supply.

Even Arne Duncan, the next U.S. Secretary of Education knows what parents have known for years.

During his Senate confirmation hearing Duncan joined a chorus of critics calling for simplification of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA form.

“I don’t know if any of you have completed [a FAFSA] lately, but you basically have to have a Ph.D. to figure that thing out,” he said.

Successfully avoid the traps, landmines and trick questions. The financial aid system is at best difficult and unfair. There are strategies, that can reduce college costs. Parents need to know how to crack the code so they don't spend a dime more than they have to.

Financial aid awards are not keeping up with college costs. The vast majority of colleges and universities keep raising tuition and fees at three times the rate of inflation. Generous financial aid awards from Harvard notwithstanding, financial aid awards are not keeping up.

There are excellent affordable colleges. Most student's choose schools based on presitige, popularity, or where their friends are applying, without regard to cost or potential of financial aid. Students must find schools that are a good academic, social AND financial match. There are plenty of excellent schools that may not be as popular according to the Top/Best rankings in popularity, but are willing to offer more aid to attract students to attend.

Rankings don't mean much It's the job of admissions to to increase the number of student applications it receives. The more students who apply, and the fewer it admits, actually causes colleges to go up the rankings ladder. When demand far outstrips supply, tuition increases are better tolerated.

Competition for seats is fierce. 2008 represented the largest number of new college students ever. With grades and test scores increasing at an astonishing rate, students can expect admission and financial aid offers to be more selective.

The average student now submits ten college applications. This also means filling out many financial aid forms, with plenty of room for inconsistencies and errors that can kill aid offers.

Want to raise your blood pressure? In 2007, a study was published by Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government economists Susan Dynarski, an associate professor of public policy, and Judith Scott-Clayton, a doctoral fellow. The study is called "College Grants on a Postcard." They compared filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid also known as the FAFSA to federal income tax forms, stating that they were much more complicated. Free doesn't mean easy.

The FAFSA is longer and more complicated than the 1040. They "conservatively estimate that an average applicant needs ten hours to complete the FAFSA"-- and that's assuming that parents can get help from their accountants or other financial professionals, who may not know enough to complete themselves!

You won't know the price. Parents won't even know how much aid is available until months after applications are closed and admissions decisions are final.

Parents need to know if the financial aid offer that their student received is fair. Fair to their financial and personal circumstances, fair to their student's academic ability and record of extracurricular activities; all the while balancing that against the college's resources.

Parents need to know what steps can be taken to amend or appeal the award. College Family Advocacy was built on appealing to colleges for more free money for it's clients.

Sometimes problems come up. At a large state university, getting to talk with a financial aid associate can take a very long time. Usually, you will be asked by a machine to leave a message. It often takes up to three weeks to get a response.

Families financial situations change. When it does, because the forms were filed, the college can act swiftly.

Financial aid administrators agree, all families, regardless of circumstances, should apply for financial aid. Granted, the process isn't easy, but with the help of professional financial aid counselors and the personal administrative assistance parents receive, they are saved dozens of hours of uncertainty and the anxiety it causes.

Colleges/universities may require up to five financial aid forms. If they are not completed and filed accurately and preferably before the school's deadline, aid could be reduced or eliminated.

Time strapped parents carry the burden of "winging it" through the maze which is the financial aid system. Each college and university uses different forms and has different rules. All of this must be done during the holidays and tax season. They need help.

Why College Family Advocacy? In a Wall Street Journal article dated October 4, 2007, Tracy Simpson, associate director of human resources at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, said "We think it's a stressful point in people's lives, financially and emotionally. When something stresses you out emotionally, it could affect your work life as well."

Twenty-two percent of college parents sited juggling work and personal lives as their primary source of stress, this according to ComPsych, a guidance resource company.

Not knowing how much college is going to cost adds to the anxiety level. A contributor to the level of stress parents experience is not knowing if they can afford to send their student to college. Given the economy and tight credit market, you might not know until it's too late.

Can you imagine buying a car this way? Sane, rational people don't make large investments with no idea what kind of money is involved.

Parents are naturally concerned and their hearts may rule their heads Without the proper advice, parents can incur significant debt. This at the cost of their retirement savings.

Some parents have to take out three jobs. This is no exaggeration. If a parent cannot say no to their child and the child won't say yes to a less expensive school, somethings gotta give.

Experienced, sound advice that can be trusted is limited and not always locally available. College Family Advocacy is a specialty that can make college dreams come true.

How we help is by breaking everything down into simple, single, and doable steps is key. With personalized expertise from a Certified College Planning Specialist or CCPS in financial aid strategies, parents are guided through the entire financial aid process.

A student applied Early Decision to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. While their daughter was accepted for admission, they were disheartened to find out they didn't qualify for any financial aid. Given the fact that the family couldn't afford the $47,402 cost of attendance (as of 2008), they were forced to send her to a lesser school.

Upon review, we discovered that the parents had made a critical error on their fiancial aid application-- a mistake so serious that it could not be corrected. Because Holy Cross meets 100% of a family's demonstrated financial need, that mistake lost them $60,000 in lost aid over four years. This loss could have and SHOULD have been prevented.

Adding insult to injury, the sixty thousand could have been used towards the parents' retirement. Compounded at an annual rate of return of 7.2% over 20 years, the total would have been over $240,000.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is filed at no extra charge. This value added service can save over 10 hours of frustrating work.

There can be as many as 30 steps a family needs to take to qualify for aid. By offering assistance and support in all aspects of the financial aid application process, we minimize what has become a major stressor which helps parents to maintain their focus, productivity, and peace of mind.

Some colleges exceed $53,000 per year. Parents have told their kids, "Do the work to get into a good college and we'll pay for it." They may be able to swing it for their first kid, but now realize they can't keep that promise to the rest of their children.

The system is complex. The cost of college is nothing less than obscene. Educational institutions are very slow to change their ways. It's not reasonable to expect that they will respond to calls for reform anytime soon.

The financial aid system can work for or against a family. The rules are not black and white, and financial aidhas alot of discresion on how income and assests are counted. Parents need personalized, sound advice from experts who know financial aid guidelines inside and out.

Financial aid formulas are not all created equal. To go it alone means knowing financial aid formulas (there are three major ones but every college has it's own spin). Take Boston College; we saw an over $30,000 diffence in financial aid than the one from the University of Rochester.

Financial aids special relationship to college admissions is a specialty. How a student ranks in the applicant pool can determine how much or how little aid they'll get.

The Client Care Center service doesn't end when the deposit is sent. We stay with you right up to setting up the dorm room.

Employees/members/clients receive the attention they need. They are supported through private telephone consultations and follow-ups, email, teleconferences, and providing a secure web-based application that provides families access to their college choices and financial aid records 24/7.

College Family Advocacy manages expectations. Better to check preconceived notions at the door. Parents need a reality check. Our experience tells us parents CAN handle the truth. The sooner they know it the easier it is to make smart choices.

Families who enroll in the College Family Advocacy program have a worry free college financial aid application experience. The process is often confusing and complicated. Our role is to save parents valuable time and money, by ensuring that everything that needs to be done, will be done, on time, and done right the first time.


Here are just a few of the benefits your employees, members, or clients will enjoy as part of our college parent community...

• Completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, at no cost
  
• Complete and file the student's CSS/Profile®
  
• Secure client website
  
• Assistance with school specific financial aid forms
  
• Parents are informed of all dates and deadlines
  
• All family data is reviewed for accuracy
  
• Telephone support
  
• Monthly eNewsletter
  
• Individualized financial aid counseling
  
• Provide a realistic cost for each college
  
• Calculate the financial aid value of the home
  
• Find up to three competing private colleges
  
• Review of all financial aid awards
  
• Finding and reviewing the best loans
  
• Appeal (negotiate) for additional funds
  

When used judiciously, technology can be a wonderful thing. But it shouldn't be the face of a business. Even a web-based business like us. We use the web to help families manage the financial aid process more efficiently. Too many organizations create a negative client experience. We've all been lost in voice mail systems, had our calls not returned or worse, ignored.

Our Client Care Center takes great pride in returning client telephone calls. Within three hours or the next business morning clients are called back if they get sent to voice mail.

Parents often tell us that calling back within a short period of time is an unexpected pleasure. It also provides them with the reassurance they need to feel comfortable throughout the process. We are proud that over 75% of those parents renew our services each year even through graduate school.

The traps and pitfalls associated with financial aid have all but been eliminated. When there is a problem, we usually are able to rectify it within a few minutes.

For 12 years, our Client Care Center has worked with thousands of students from every walk of life. Some of our students have been accepted to the Ivy's and many others to the most selective colleges and universities in the United States.

We anticipate each family's individual needs. We've worked with families from every walk of life. We've helped:

• Students living in a traditional two parent family
• Students living with separated, divorced, remarried, or widowed parents
• Students living with parents who have never been married
• Students living with grandparents, other relatives, or legal guardian(s)
• Students whose non-custodial parent refuses to help with college costs
• Students living with same-sex parents
• Students whose mother was artificially inseminated
• Students whose parents don't make a lot of money
• Students whose parents make a lot of money, or inherited money
• Students whose parents own a full or part time business
• Students whose parents own real estate
• The list goes on...

Our 12 years of experience moves parents expertly through the financial aid process. While completing all of the above steps can't guarantee a student will receive financial aid, or gain admission to the student's first choice college/university, the result of the program is to give each student the highest probability of success.

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