Oct 13

College Funding Nightmares: Mistakes That Keep Parents Up At Night

Do money worries keep you up at night? The truth is, paying for college can be scary stuff. It can cause nightmares for parents. As financial planners who help college-bound families balance paying for higher education with their other goals (like retirement savings), our job is to help dispel some... read more →

Oct 08

Colleges That Don’t Offer Merit Scholarships

Updated October 2021. If we compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions we hear from our clients, one of the top among them would be: Do all colleges offer merit scholarships? The answer, in a word, is no. Let's dig deeper into what type of scholarship awards different... read more →

Oct 01

Early Decision College Applications

Updated 10/2021. It's college application season! When it comes to deadlines, colleges throw around several terms for when the application is due--early decision, early action, regular decision, and rolling admissions to name a few. Some colleges get even more creative with terms like "restricted early action" and others. In this... read more →

Sep 24

FAFSA Mistakes To Avoid

FAFSA will open and ready to be filled out, next Friday, October 1, 2021! In 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Education, fafsa.gov has enhanced help topics by providing images of the form along with relevant line numbers to help students navigate the form. Now, let's take a closer... read more →

Sep 17

Using the FAFSA Mobile App

Every fall, we spend some time talking about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA. Recently, FAFSA gave applicants a new way to apply--via their smartphones! The hope is that the FAFSA mobile app called myStudentAid will make the FAFSA more accessible to students who don't have a... read more →

Sep 10

Teaching Finances to Your Future College Student

Updated September 2021. Teaching finances to students is something we feel passionately about. In the State of Ohio, the legislature has gone back and forth about how to teach budgeting and financial concepts to students. They have left it to the local school districts to incorporate learning standards as they... read more →

Sep 02

College Fairs: A Useful Tool for All High School Students

We’re honored to be presenting this updated guest blog on college fairs from our friend Beth Probst, Founder and CEO of At The Core. At The Core helps students figure out what they want to do after high school through educational path planning, personalized self assessment, and career exploration. Visit... read more →

Aug 26

Grandparents and 529 College Savings Plans: What You Need to Know

Updated August 2021. Grandparents want to help. They see the expense ahead for their kids to pay for college education for their grandkids. The goal for everyone is to help the student get a great education, graduate with little or no debt, and live a fulfilling life. Many grandparents choose... read more →

Aug 20

Today’s Colleges: Sophisticated Marketing Machines

Updated August 2021. We have to warn you. The competition for your student is fierce. Many parents already know what we’re talking about. When your student reaches high school (often after they register for their first ACT or SAT exam), the deluge begins. The snail mail, email, phone calls, social... read more →

Aug 12

The Paying for College Paradox

Consider this: The Oxford Dictionary defines “paradox” in part as “a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.” To qualify for need-based financial aid, students obviously must demonstrate “need.” However, the reality is... read more →