are private financial aid counselors worth it?

Paying for College
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<p>Right that’s what I meant - whatever the highly recommended consultant ‘helped’ us get in aid and/or scholarships, his contract specified we would pay him a percentage. (Obviously colleges will not make out financial aid checks to consultants.) I think he wanted 5%, and not just for the first year either. Yikes.</p>

<p>Parents facing this process for the first time are overwhelmed, at least I was, and these consultants are right there to take advantage. OP, I called my child’s guidance counselor and she let me know the school would be bringing in some panelists to talk to parents about these issues as well. I am thankful I got out of this guy’s office with my wallet intact.</p>

<p>You do NOT need a consultant. However long it takes you to earn the consultant’s fee, use that amount of time to educate yourself using the tools mentioned here. You will be much better off.</p>

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<p>To kind of high jack the question (sorry OP), what are some good financial aid books for transfer students? </p>

<p>I see lots of books that are for frreshman applicants, and most of them have good general info, but very few of the ones that I’ve seen touch on or have detailed info for transfers. I need more info, ya’ll!</p>

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<p>No, you don’t need this help. FA application, FAFSA and CSS, are something that you can do by yourself and you will probably get better help from free sources of information. The one exception is when people have businesses that they merge with their private assets. If you have your own business it is worth getting help setting your business up so that business assets do not look like personal assets and that the parts that are effectively your retirement savings are officially retirement savings. This generally requires a professional, and it really should be done anyway. You don’t want someone to sue your business and take your home and retirement savings. You don’t want to fall out with your partner and find that your family’s financial health is in danger because it is unclear what is yours and what is the business’s.</p>

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<p>I not the OP but I’ve really enjoyed this thread. I went to a free lecture form one and did learn a few tidbits of information (I’m sure I would have learned them here if I’d dug a little longer). This guy offers a free private one hour consultation so we are going to hear what he has to say. I have no intention of paying for his services and I was clear about that from the beginning but he seemed interested in giving a free consultation anyway. He commented that I seemed to be very knowledgeable about the college financial process and asked how many kids I already had in college. When I said that this will be my first one, he was surprised and asked how I knew so much. I told him about CC and he claimed to not know about this site. I find that hard to believe…</p>

<p>The main question I’d like him to answer is, if you have little or no <em>need</em> and you plan on looking for merit aid why would you try to invest in such a way that it looks like you have more need? If you get merit aid it will just cancel out the need that you have created. Sounds like a big waste of time and energy to me. Am I missing something here? I also want to ask him his thoughts on maximizing merit aid chances at the schools we are looking into. Does anyone here have any insight into these questions? Anything else I should ask during this free consultation?</p>

<p>Here is our situation, D is only a sophomore this year so I don’t have firm stats yet. She is a straight A student taking AP and Pre-AP classes.
Current GPA unweighted is 97.81 or 3.97 , weighted is 105.25 or 4.73
She got a 5 on the Computer Science AP test.
She is in a very academically competitive, out of district public school. She had to take the PSAT as an 8th grader for scores to apply as an out of district student. She got a 189, she will be taking the PSAT again this year as a sophomore for practice. She’s taken two practice tests over the summer, one at home and scored 236 and one in a proctored testing setting and scored 228 so we are hopeful that when she takes the test in her Junior year she will be eligible for National Merit Scholarships. She will be taking the PACT, SAT Math level 2 test and SAT test and World History AP test this year. She has strong EC’s and plays in several orchestras and ensembles, is in several clubs and volunteers. She wants to be a research meteorologist.</p>

<p>Her current top picks are #1 OU - Norman, #2 UA - Huntsville, #3 TAMU (our financial safety - in state) and U-Miami which is a big financial reach and a wildcard. Here are my notes about the schools, the figures are ball park, merit aid is assuming she makes NMF. Of course she might not make it and these school could change their merit scholarships by then but at least it’s a start. Anything else I should be looking into? We plan on visiting TAMU this spring and she hopes to attend a music camp at OU in the summer.</p>

<p>TAMU - $17,598 (COA) acceptance rate 63.5%
- Ranked in top five for major
- no program for her instrument
- after potential merit aid COA around 10K a year
- less than 4 hour hour drive
- program size 130 under grad 57 grad
- merit aid will cover semester abroad, will stack merit aid
- Apply TX $75 (Aug 1 -Dec 1) weighted and unweighted GPA Class Rank</p>

<p>OU -$29,925 (COA) acceptance rate 81.9%
- Ranked in the top five for major
- good option for instrument
- after potential merit aid COA around 10k a year
- about 6 hour drive from home
- program size 300 under grad and 100 grad
- ties to National Sever Weather Center
- NMS gets 5th year can be applied to grad school, merit aid will cover a semester aboard, will stack merit aid
- Common APP $40 April 1 but decisions are made as early as Sept 1 (un-weighted GPA on 4.0 scale and class rank)</p>

<p>UA-Huntsvile -$34,160 (COA) acceptance rate 77.4%
- Ranked in the top 10 for major
- no program for her instrument
- after potential merit aid COA < 3000 a year
- about a 13 hour drive (travel mainly air)
- program size 30ish combined grad and undergrad
- ties to NASA/ new research radar facility
- will stack merit aid
- UAH online app $30 Dec 1st (weighted GPA)</p>

<p>u-miami - $58,782 (COA) acceptance rate 38.8 %
- Ranked in the top five for major
- good option for instrument
- after potential for merit aid good, could only consider if w/aid can get COA < 15k
- about a 22 hour drive (travel mainly air)
- program size 35 grad, under grad less than 100? (can’t find a number on line)
- ties with the National Hurricane Center
- will not stack merit aid, all outside aid WILL reduce school sponsored aid
- Common APP $70 (Early Action Aug 1st - November 1st) - notification Feb. 1st ALL SAT scores must be submitted (weighted GPA and class rank)</p>

<p>Two other schools that would be considered if price was no consideration are Penn State and Florida State but given the cost of Out Of State tuition and lack of potential merit based aid they are not realistic options. Florida State my be an option for grad school as they waive OOS tuition costs for Texas residents for her major on a grad school level.</p>