Ask Kim
Don't Short Change Financial Aid
My son will be starting college in a few years and I think I earn too much to qualify for financial aid. Is it still worthwhile to file the forms?
By Kimberly Lankford, Contributing Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
August 11, 2005
My son will be starting college in a few years and I think I earn too much to qualify for financial aid. Is it still worthwhile to file the financial aid forms?
It's definitely worthwhile to submit the forms. You may qualify for more than you expect, especially if your son wants to go to a pricier private school.
For example, 93% of students in the class of 2008 at Princeton who applied for financial aid and whose families earned between $120,000 and $139,999 a year were eligible for aid. The average grant was $14,000 (grants are higher for families who earn less).
In 2004, almost 60% of undergraduate students shared $122 billion in financial aid, according to the College Board. The average full-time student received $5,840 in loans and $3,986 in grants.
To see if you qualify for need-based aid, run your numbers through the expected family contribution calculator at Finaid.org. You'll get an estimate of how much your family will be expected to pay for college expenses.
And even if you don't qualify for need-based aid, there may be other sources of help. Ask your child's high school guidance counselor about scholarships and check out several Web sites that provide free scholarship search services, such as FastWeb.com, CollegeBoard.com, Petersons.com and Collegeanswer.com (you may need to register to get the information). Finaid.org also has a good list of financial aid resources.
And find out if your state offers money for students with high grade-point averages or standardized test scores. Georgia residents who earn at least a 3.0 grade-point average in high school and college qualify for free tuition at Georgia state colleges or a $3,000 discount at private schools in the state. Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and several other states offer sizable scholarships to residents who attend state colleges and have good grades or scores.
If you still have college-planning questions, dial Kiplinger's How to Pay for College Hotline from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. eastern time on Friday, or again on August 26. Members of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors will be standing by to take your calls and answer your questions. Normally, these planners charge clients $100 to $250 an hour. But on those two days, you pay nothing -- not even for the phone call. Just dial 888-919-2345.