<p>Is it okay to contact a school if you have specific questions, before you apply? My issue is that I do not know what we can afford. My husband is going to transfer his GIBill benefits to our son and I dont know how they are applied to costs. The GIBill website is unclear, as are every college website on the face of the planet. I dont really want son to visit/apply to a school that we will not be able to afford to send him to.</p>
<p>So. Have you contacted schools and asked specific questions before you even applied?</p>
<p>Financial aid officers will sometimes do an “early read” for you … that is, they will give you an approximation of what your bottom-line costs will be even before applying. At the very least, even if you don’t get a complete early read, you can make an appointment to meet with an aid officer (on campus or on the phone) to get some questions answered before your son decides whether a college will stay on his list or not.</p>
<p>Contact the financial aid office of any college that interests your son. Ask if you can make a phone appointment to speak with a financial aid officer. (If you live close enough for an in-person appointment, that’s even better). Make sure you mention that your questions focus on the GI Bill. That may help get the best possible staff member assigned to the meeting. </p>
<p>Ask if there is any information you need to send in advance of the “meeting” or, if not, which figures you should have in front of you when the session begins.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, however, that the answers you get to your questions from one college may not necessarily apply at another. But at least your first meeting should get you going in the right direction, and you can try to schedule additional meetings with aid officials at other colleges, if needed.</p>
<p>Definitely makes sense to me. We really wanted S to get signicant merit award to help reduce college costs. Prior to applications, we contacted two of the schools we were interested in and asked them hypothetically for the likelihood of what % or amount of merit award for someone with his stats and class rank. They frankly said they would NOT award any merit for someone with his lowly class rank, so he didn’t bother to apply and got accepted at several more highly-ranked Us that awarded him significant merit award, renewed for 4 years. </p>
<p>It worked well for us to get clarification. It is useful if you keep a record of names, dates and phone numbers/contact info, in case you need to contact those individuals again.</p>
<p>Yes. Throughout the process, you will get better answers from their web sites or contacting them directly than you will get anywhere else. And only a few, prestigious schools keep a log of your contacts with them.</p>