<p>I want to get my head around the whole process so I am looking for an advanced book on college finances. We are a middle class, two earner family with two children (16 and 11). I know we will get hurt by them being 5 years apart:( My older daughter has pretty good credentials (3.97, 2100+ SAT, drum major, president of club, leads in musicals).</p>
<p>Any suggestions/recommendations for books? </p>
<p>Paying for College Without Going Broke. I’m not sure it’s “advanced” but it has good tips.</p>
<p>One thing you should do is look through the merit aid threads that have stick pins at the top of this forum. You will likely find some schools where your older daughter will garner merit aid to soften the financial blow.</p>
<p>As an FYI…you are not being “punished” by Having your kids 5 years apart. The only time this matters is if the kids are attending schools that guarantee to meet full need. If you have concurrent students at these schools, the meets full need schools will probably increase your aid when you have two in college (if you are eligible). BUT the VERY VAST majority of colleges do NOT meet full need. At those schools, your aid could still be a Direct Loan, and nothing else.</p>
<p>I agree with Thumper. You’re not being punished for having kids 5 years apart. Even the ones that meet need (few schools) will expect you to pay a good bit. EFC won’t be split in half at those schools. </p>
<p>chances are that both kids won’t get into “full need” schools anyway. </p>
<p>Those books can be helpful, but sometimes don’t make a lot of difference if you have an unaffordable EFC. Some aren’t helpful unless you have assets that can be “moved around” a bit…most people don’t have that option.</p>
<p>Do you know what your FAFSA EFC is (about 25-33% of gross income)? Your CSS “family contribution” may be higher since it can take into acct other things such as home equity. </p>
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<p>Your older D is a soph in high school. Does she ALREADY have a 2100+ SAT or are you estimating that? </p>
<p>How much can you and your wife pay each year towards college? $25k per year? More? Less? </p>
<p>I agree that Paying for College Without Going Broke is the best book in terms of understanding what to do to maximize the possibility of aid. In terms of understanding the process, this is my simple explanation: First and foremost, the family is expected to pay for the student’s education. The FAFSA is used to determine eligibility for federal aid, which is basically grants (Pell and FSEOG, for those with limited incomes), loans (up to $5500 for freshman year, with the possibility of a bit extra if the school has Perkins loans and awards one to the student) and federal work study (whether a student will get a FWS award, how much will be awarded, and whether he will actually get a job varies by school and individual student). The majority of schools use the FAFSA to award institutional need-based aid, although usually need-based aid is limited for higher-earning families at a school that only requires FAFSA. Schools with more money to award generally require the Profile, which they use to award their own institutional need-based aid. Sometimes families find that their Profile EFC is higher than their FAFSA EFC (not always the case, though). The school has a set Cost of Attendance (COA), and aid can be … not will be … awarded up to COA. Need-based aid can be (again, not will be) awarded in the amount of COA-EFC. Unsubsidized loans, Parent PLUS loans, and/or private loans can be used to cover the EFC, if necessary.</p>
<p>Most higher-earning families (by this I mean families not eligible for Pell) find that there is a gap between the COA and aid. In addition, many families find that they cannot afford their EFC. Merit aid if very often not tied into need in terms of awarding, so those families with high EFCs are wise to search for schools where the student would be either automatically guaranteed a scholarship or would be a strong candidate for a scholarship. It is important to realize, though, that most schools do not award the merit scholarships without regard to the need-based package … that is, if a student receives a $10,000 grant but then is awarded a merit scholarship of $12,000, often the need-based grant will be removed.</p>
<p>The wise way to search for colleges is to make sure any financial reaches are balanced out by true financial safeties - schools you know you can afford.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already read it, there is a stickied thread at the top of this forum that you could start with to understand some basics about finaid:</p>
<p><a href=“Financial aid FAQs - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Financial aid FAQs - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Thanks to those who actually answered my question.</p>
<p>Agree on Paying for College without Going Broke by the Princeton Review. Would also suggest The Financial Aid Handbook by Carol Stack and Ruth Vedvik. </p>
<p>Paying for College without Going Broke is a good book, but note that it only covers need-based aid. It has no information about merit aid.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Right.</p>
<p>the OP may think that some of our posts didn’t answer his question, but since these books tend to deal with financial gymnastics that don’t really work for those who have salaried incomes and regular savings and 401ks, they’re often useless. </p>
<p>The OP has expressed concern in other threads about paying OOS costs for his D who wants a big marching band school (which are often publics). Tweaking EFC isn’t going to affect those costs. </p>
<p>He’s also expressed concern that since he won’t have two in college at the same time that he will have to pay more. His issues seem to be better addressed by getting large merit.</p>
<p>Go to your local library. I have checked out a handful of books about college finance including the one mentioned above. There are also scholarship handbooks/index. I found a handful of scholarships that my D can apply from those books. Some books also list out the financial aids from schools that you will have some idea about the cost, % need met, average financial aid per student, etc.</p>
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<p>I agree as well. I suggested the Financial Aid Handbook by Stack and Vedvik because their philosophy reminds me of the philosophy of several veteran posters here: The authors discuss financial safeties and not just admission to a dream school. As an example, there is an entire chapter on Merit Aid.</p>
<p>@billcsho</p>
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<p>Are those scholarships for one year only (frosh year)? If so, then while those are nice, they’re not going to make a four year education affordable if they disappear after frosh year. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids
There are renewable and non-renewable ones from the books. Anyway, every dollar counts. There are actually more scholarships available from the school after freshmen year. Many of them are from the department or program that one needs to declare major first before eligible. Of course, it would be nice if you can get some renewable scholarship from freshmen year that you don’t need to keep looking afterward. </p>