This is my plea to parents of 7th-10th graders: get a financial
reality check for college now! Yes, I know it might be scary and your expected
family contribution (EFC) may be more than you feel you can afford. It's easy
to put off unpleasant tasks and pulling out your tax returns and filling out financial
estimators is not anyone's idea of fun. But hey, those taxes for 2012 should be
just about filed by now, and this is the perfect time to use that paperwork for
another purpose.
Your student deserves to know before he or she creates a
college list what the financial parameters are. If you get tough news now, at
least you will still have a few years left to deal with it.
Use the Expected Family Contribution calculator on a site
like finaid.org.
Calculate the numbers twice--once using federal methodology and once using
institutional methodology (save the info!) You'll have a ballpark idea of what
is expected of you, and you and your student can make rational decisions about
next steps.
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