<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I thought that this would be a good time to start a thread where the veterans of the college app process could include tips for parents of junior & younger students. </p>
<p>The distressed posts are starting to appear again from parents and students who are just learning that their EFCs are unaffordable, or that their NCPs won't contribute or fill out paperwork required by some schools, or some other sad situation that might have been avoided with some foreknowledge. </p>
<p>I thought we could "cum" the list. So, copy paste the prior post's list and add your own. :)</p>
<p>If you want to expand upon an existing tip...insert your tip and number it with an alpha (see example after #2). If you're adding an acronym, just add it in the right place. :)</p>
<p>Junior Parents......Things to start doing or learning about NOW... :)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Converse with your spouse and determine how much you can afford to contribute to your child's education. </p></li>
<li><p>If your child has a non-custodial parent (NCP), then find out how much he/she will contribute. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>a. Determine whether the NCP will be willing to fill out any requested NCP info (which may include the NCP's spouse's info.) </p>
<p>b. If the NCP refuses to contribute or will contribute far less than he can afford, then your child may need to avoid applying to schools that require NCP info.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Find out what your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is. If that number is not affordable, then you need to develop a strategy with your child to get college costs covered. </p></li>
<li><p>If merit scholarships are desirable, start researching which schools offer them and what stats are required or likely required. Many schools don't give merit scholarships, and some publics don't give much to out-of-state schools.</p></li>
<li><p>If need-based Financial Aid (FA) is needed, then understand that most public schools do not meet need for out of state students. Most state schools cannot meet the need of their own resident students, therefore they can't meet need of the high costs for OOS students. Virginia and NC are exceptions. </p></li>
<li><p>Even if you think that your child won't need any financial aid, have your child apply to 2-3 financial safety schools that your child likes. Family financial situations can quickly change because of job loss, asset loss, or sudden divorce. </p></li>
<li><p>????</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>Some acronyms or "short-speak" to know....</p>
<p>COA - Cost of attendance (tuition, room, board, books, fees, travel, misc, personal expenses.)</p>
<p>CC - sometimes means College Confidential and sometimes means community college. It will be apparent within context.</p>
<p>EFC - Expected Family Contribution (the amount that FAFSA determines that your family should contribute that year for the student's education - whether it's affordable or not.) An EFC does not limit what you'll have to pay, since most colleges cannot meet need. Many colleges can only give small amounts of fed grants (which only go to low-income) and Stafford loans. </p>
<p>Need - Determined Need - Need isn't what a family says it needs; it's what FAFSA and/or CSS schools determine as your need. </p>
<p>FA - Financial Aid - Many think that FA is free money. It often is not free money. Low income students get small amounts in fed grants. Ivies and similar elites have huge endowments and meet 100% determined "need" with little or no loans. Some lesser private schools (which there aren't many) may give a decent grant (say $15k or so), but that might not cover all of determined need. Over 75% of FA packages contain student loans, so when a school says that they give FA to XX% of students, be aware that that aid may be mostly loans.</p>
<p>Merit money, Merit $, Merit Scholarships, or Academic Scholarships - some schools (not ivies) give scholarships based on test scores and GPAs. Some schools that give merit scholarships do not consider need, but some do (and will ask for a FAFSA).</p>
<p>Full-Freight - an expression that implies that you are paying for the full cost of attendance.</p>
<p>W/S or W-S - Work-Study - Some FA packages will include about $3k in Work-study. However, there's no guarantee that there will be a campus job to work the Work-study </p>
<p>Gap - Many FA packages contain gaps, since most schools can't meet need.</p>
<p>CSS - CSS PROFILE - this is what many private schools use (in addition to FAFSA) to determine what a family should contribute. It considers more sources of income such as NCPs).</p>
<p>NCP - Non Custodial Parent - FAFSA doesn't consider the income/assets of a NCP, but CSS does. CSS also looks at the income/assets of step-parents. CSS also considers assets that FAFSA doesn't.</p>
<p>OOS - Out of State - State publics charge OOS students a higher rate of tuition - sometimes called non-resident tuition or OOS tuition.</p>
<p>ED = early decision. Applicant gets application into the school by an early deadline and will hear result from the school by mid-December. Applicant agrees to matriculate at school if accepted (except for instances where the financial aid offered by the school isn't enough to make attendance possible). Decision to matriculate expected by the beginning of January.</p>
<p>RD = regular decision. Applicant meets a later deadline and will hear result in March/April. No need to make a decision until May 1.</p>
<p>By submitting RD applications, an applicant will have heard from all schools and have the different financial packages to compare one with another. Financial packages have been know to differ quite substantially in their loan vs. grant content and in the actual aid awarded--some parents have had $20K per year differences in packages.</p>