<p>One of the most important things for you to do, is to start talking with your parents about how your family plans to pay for college. Do you have a college fund? If so, what kind. If you don’t, does your family have other savings, investments, etc. that are ear-marked for your education? If your family doesn’t have savings, how much can they pay each year out of current income? Are they able and willing to take out loans for your education? Are you expected to take out loans for your education? If so, what kind of long-term loan burden will your parents think is too much?</p>
<p>I say this because every year smart, hardworking students just like you end up posting sad questions in April along the lines of, “I just found out that I can’t pay for any of the schools that admitted me. What do I do now?”</p>
<p>Your parents should run one of the on-line FAFSA calculators, and one of the CSS Profile calculators to get an estimate of what the colleges and universities will expect your family to be able to pay. According to the experts at the Financial Aid forum, this year the most accurate calculators are at the College Board website:
[College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>How Much Will College Cost – BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>Encourage your family to be brutally honest with you about how much money there is for college. Encourage them to be brutally honest with themselves about this too. Don’t be dismayed if it takes them a while to accept the financial facts. It took me amost a year. It is hard for parents to learn just exactly how much money college can cost, and then have to face the fact that money may well determine where their children will be able to study.</p>
<p>Encourage your parents to create their own usernames and passwords here so that they can stay up to date with information on the Parents and Financial Aid Forums. You don’t have to let them know what your username is if you don’t want to.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>