3 Biggest Changes In The NEW FAFSA

1. The Student Pin Replacement. As of May 10, 2015, FAFSA has dropped the four-digit PIN for making an electronic signature to the students FAFSA. Now, a student must go on the FAFSA and arrange for a broader security arrangement. The student will be asked to keep this information private from every member of the family. They will be required to select from a populated field of questions and provide answers to two questions. Then, the student will be required to come up with their own questions and answers. The student will definitely want to write these down EXACTLY as prepared on your FAFSA.

While this serves as a greater security measure, it will become a challenge for many students if they don't keep record of their answers exactly as stated on the FAFSA. Before, you simply needed to know your four-digit pin, which could have been the last four digit of your social security number or anything as simple as your favorite year.

2. Older tax data will be accepted. The current FAFSA filing system requires students and parents to complete the federal form as soon as possible after Jan. 1 -- typically before they've filed the previous year's taxes, which aren't due until April. Families often have to estimate their income and other data and then update their information later.

A new policy, announced by President Barack Obama in September, aims to rework that fraught process.
The fresh timeline will take effect beginning with those who apply for financial aid for the 2017-2018 school year. 

Applicants and their families will be able to start the FAFSA in October 2016, using the same data they reported on their 2015 tax returns. The use of older data means families can start the process earlier and most won't have to rely on estimates. 

The aim is to reduce inaccuracies and the need for verification, give institutions more time to review documents and potentially allow them to mail award letters earlier in the application cycle. 

3. Asset protection will plunge. When parents report their financial information on the FAFSA, a portion of their assets -- certain savings and investment funds -- are not counted by the federal government toward the amount of money they are expected to contribute to their child's education. That can mean a higher federal financial aid award than their student would otherwise qualify for. However, that protected portion will plummet next year, continuing a downward trend.
The sheltered asset amount varies, depending on the age and marital status of the student's parents, among other factors. For the married parents of a dependent student, where the eldest parent is 48, that asset protection amount is $30,300 in 2015-2016. The next academic year will see their allowance nearly halved, to $18,700. That change could hit families in the pocketbook. 

This is worrying news for middle income families.

4 Schools will lose a data point. When students file the FAFSA, they can choose up to 10 colleges to get their financial details. In the past, when students sent their FAFSAs to multiple institutions, those schools could see the other colleges on the mailing list. Starting with the 2016-2017 application, universities will lose that insight.

That's likely good news for students. Some experts worried that universities used the list to make financial aid decisions. For example, a school may have interpreted a student's decision to list that institution first on the FAFSA as an indication the student would be more likely to attend and less likely to care about the financial aid package. School officials could have then used this as justification in awarding that smitten student fewer institutional dollars.

THE 10 SNEAKY COLLEGE TRICKS THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT!

#1 Just because a school encourages you to apply doesn’t mean they actually want you.
High school students who are inundated with personalized letters and emails (and even partially filled-out applications) from colleges urging them to apply may mistakenly think that the institutions contacting them are intending to admit them. In reality, schools often encourage students to apply so that they can reject them.
The aim of the game for colleges is to boost the number of students who apply and can be rejected. By doing this, the schools see their acceptance rates fall, making them appear to be more selective—which helps them rise up the U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Take Northeastern University in Boston. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the university sends nearly 200,000 personalized letters to high school students each year. The institution then follows up these letters with emails, making it seem that the school is wooing these individuals.
These tactics appear to be paying off. Nearly 50,000 students applied to Northeastern this year for 2,800 spots in the fall 2014 class—“more than in any previous year and a ratio of 18 applicants per seat,” the university boasted in a news release.

#2 A college may not be as selective as it seems.
Another way that colleges attempt to appear more selective than they really are is through use of the Common Application, a standard form that students can use to easily apply to multiple colleges. Colleges have found that they can use the Common App to inflate their applications in order to lower their acceptance rate—one of the measures used to determine an institution’s ranking in U.S. News. As it turns out, the proliferation of the Common App has enabled students to easily apply to more than one school even if they are underqualified. Indeed, students are applying to more schools than ever before. In 2000, just a couple of years after the online Common App was introduced, only 12 percent of students applied to seven or more schools; in 2011, 29 percent did.
The University of Chicago provides an example of the factors behind this trend. For years, the university publicly rejected the use of the Common App. In fact, it marketed its own application as the “Uncommon Application.” But by 2007, Chicago officials caved to the demands of looking as competitive as the other schools using the Common App. As the vice president and dean of college enrollment told the Brown Daily at the time, “We took note of the fact that two of our major competitors, Northwestern and [the University of Pennsylvania], had decided to accept the Common Application.”
What was the result of the University of Chicago allowing the Common App? By 2013, the school increased the number of applications it received by more than 20,000 and reduced its acceptance rate by over 24 percentage points. This helped move Chicago from being ranked number nine nationally by U.S. News in 2007 to number five by 2014—ahead of its competitors Northwestern and the University of Pennsylvania.

#3 You may be rejected or wait-listed at a college simply because you are not wealthy.
Every year, a substantial number of private colleges reject or wait-list a certain proportion of applicants not because of grades or test scores or because they would not be a “good fit,” but, rather, simply because their families aren’t rich enough to pay full freight. These schools, in other words, are “need aware” when admitting a share of their students.
This may seem unjust. But colleges say they have no other choice because they have only a limited amount of money to spend on financial aid. “While financial aid is one of the top three expenditures at Oberlin, the amount of funds available is still finite, and we do have to take that into account in the admissions process,” says Elizabeth Houston, who works in the admissions office at Oberlin College.
“If, for instance, we admitted a class comprised entirely of students who could make no financial contribution to their education, we simply couldn’t afford it,” explains Houston in a blog post on the college’s website. “That’s an extreme case, but even taking into account the natural mix of income levels a college might see in their applicant pool, there are still very few institutions that are wealthy enough to afford to be completely need-blind and still meet 100 percent of demonstrated need.”
According to colleges, this typically doesn’t affect low-income students who are at the top of their class. Finances are only taken into account with more marginal students, they say.
Still, in a survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed in 2011, 19 percent of admissions directors at private liberal arts colleges reported that they admit full-pay students with lower grades and test scores than other applicants. These colleges are, in other words, providing affirmative action for the wealthy, despite all of the extraordinary advantages that these students have over their less-fortunate peers.

#4 Low-income students are not always better off at need-blind colleges.
It’s true that the most elite and wealthiest private colleges, like Harvard University and Amherst College, meet the full demonstrated financial need of their low- and moderate-income students. But many other colleges that boast about being need-blind don’t come close. Instead, they leave students with a hefty gap between what the government says they should be expected to pay and what they are being charged.
New York University, for example, admits students regardless of their financial need. However, NYU students from families making $30,000 or less face a daunting average net price—the amount students and their parents must pay after all grant aid has been exhausted—of $24,265 per year. (See “America’s Affordable Elite Colleges” page and our full rankings at washingtonmonthly.com, which calculate net price of attendance based on three-year averages.) That means that the lowest-income families are on the hook for an amount that is nearly equal to or even more than their yearly earnings.
Financially needy students who qualify for admission at NYU may actually be better off at “need-aware” schools that meet the full demonstrated need of the low-income students they do enroll.

#5 Need-blind schools are not really blind about their applicants’ need.
Administrators at purportedly need-blind colleges don’t necessarily need to know an applicant’s family income to know if he or she is poor, because they have plenty of other clues.
For example, admissions officers know where applicants live and what high school they attended, and whether or not they worked after school or participated in a plethora of extracurricular activities. Admissions staff members also know the occupations of the applicants’ parents and whether they attended college, and, more importantly, whether the student is a legacy. And these administrators can learn a lot about students’ backgrounds from their college application essays.
So if a need-blind school is looking to admit a much larger share of affluent students for budgetary reasons, it could easily do so without knowing exactly how much an applicant’s family earned last year.

#6 It isn’t always free to apply for financial aid.
Come financial aid season, many students and families realize that they must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in order to get a financial aid package from their school. What many families may not realize is that very selective, elite institutions often require a student to fill out another, more extensive form for financial aid. And unlike the FAFSA, this secondary financial aid application—the College Board’s CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE—isn’t free. The PROFILE is expensive, costing a student $25 just to register and send it to one college, and then $16 for each additional college.
Over the past few years, the U.S. Department of Education has been simplifying the FAFSA in an effort to reduce the barriers that low- and middle-income families face when filling out an unduly complex form. As a result, the number of questions asked on the FAFSA has been reduced, and parents can now use a data-retrieval tool through the IRS to pre-fill answers to many of the questions. These changes have significantly reduced the average time students and families take to complete the application.
But the simplification of the FAFSA has been cause for concern among selective colleges who are hesitant to part with any institutional aid dollars. This has pushed many institutions to require the PROFILE in order to determine institutional aid eligibility. Since FAFSA simplification has removed some questions regarding a family’s assets and savings, institutions have adopted the PROFILE to understand exactly how many assets a family owns—including in many instances their house and the make and model of their car—before giving them any aid.

#7 The order that you list colleges on the FAFSA may come back to haunt you.
Even if a student is lucky and only has to fill out the FAFSA to get financial aid, he should be wary about the order in which he lists the colleges where he’d like to send the application. According to a recent article in Inside Higher Ed, “Some colleges are denying admissions and perhaps reducing financial aid to students based on a single, non-financial, non-academic question that students submit to the federal government on their [FAFSA].” It turns out that colleges see exactly the order the student listed the schools on the FAFSA and have become savvy at admitting, wait-listing, and packaging aid depending on the student’s ordering.
Enrollment managers and management firms—the people charged with figuring out just how many students to admit to “yield” a class—have discovered that students often choose colleges on the FAFSA in preferential order. Inside Higher Ed reported that Augustana College, for example, found that 60 percent of the students who list the school first on the FAFSA end up enrolling, compared with 30 percent of those who list it second, and just 10 percent of those who list it third. Like Augustana, some schools look at a student’s “FAFSA position” to determine admissions decisions—completely unbeknownst to the student. A school does this to improve its yield rate, to ensure that it is able to enroll exactly the class it wants.
Some schools may also be taking the “FAFSA position” into account when awarding their own financial aid dollars to students—providing less generous aid packages to students who list the college first on the FAFSA. These colleges don’t want to waste precious institutional aid dollars on students who are already likely to attend without the help.
The problem is that not all students necessarily list schools in preferential order, or there may be very little difference among a student’s number one, number two, and number three option. Worse yet, the whole process is completely opaque to students. They have no idea that their chances of being admitted and receiving a generous financial aid package may ride largely on the order in which they list schools on the FAFSA.

#8 Financial aid award letters may make options seem more affordable than they really are.
Colleges don’t always come clean about how much students and families are going to have to pay to attend an institution. The “financial aid award letters” that colleges send aid applicants they’ve accepted often make their schools look more affordable than they really are.
One problem is that many colleges and universities package both grants and scholarships with loans and work-study allowances. This blurs how much students and parents are going to owe, often leading them to believe they are getting a great deal when in reality they are taking on a large amount of debt. Some colleges and universities include Parent PLUS loans in the “aid” packages they offer students, in order to bring their purported price down to zero. The Parent PLUS loan, which parents borrow on behalf of their children, come with a higher interest rate and less repayment flexibility than other federal student loans. Additionally, parents have to undergo a credit check to get a Parent PLUS loan. This means that a student and his or her parents may accept the financial aid package, put down a nonrefundable deposit to the institution, and then suddenly find themselves facing steep gaps in financial aid if the parent gets rejected for the loan.
Adding to the confusion over financial aid packages is that each institution has developed its own award letter, making it difficult for students to make an apples-to-apples price comparison among the institutions to which they’ve been accepted. This could lead them to make a suboptimal choice in terms of which school will provide the best aid package while also still being a good fit academically and socially.

#9 Some aid packages are designed to dissuade you from enrolling.
Many colleges offer extremely generous aid packages to the students they most desire, and leave large funding “gaps” for others in whom they are less interested. In the parlance of enrollment management, this is called “admit-deny,” in which schools provide students with aid packages that don’t come close to meeting their financial need in order to discourage them from enrolling.
“Admit-deny is when you give someone a financial-aid package that is so rotten that you hope they get the message, ‘Don’t come,’” Mark Heffron, a senior vice president at the enrollment management firm Noel-Levitz, told the Atlantic Monthly back in 2005. “They don’t always get the message.”
Under this model, top students receive substantial amounts of grants and either need-based or merit-based scholarships. Those who are less desired have to take on a substantial amount of debt if they want to attend—either through private loans or federal PLUS loans for their parents.
Schools that engage in these practices don’t tend to advertise them. An exception is Muhlenberg College, a small private college in Pennsylvania, which includes a page on its website entitled “The Real Deal on Financial Aid.”
“It used to be that you could try for that reach school and if you got in, you didn’t have to worry because everybody who got in, who needed money, got money,” the college’s financial aid office states. “Today, however, as colleges are asked to fund more and more of their own operation with less and less assistance from government, foundations, and families, they are increasingly reluctant to part with their money to enroll students who don’t raise their academic profile.”

#10 Often the financial aid you receive your first year will be less generous the following year.
Students and families beware: the plum financial aid package you receive your freshman year may not be quite as impressive your sophomore year. The bait and switch of financial aid packages from year to year is known as “front-loading financial aid.” According to Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert, about half of all colleges front-load grants and scholarships so that students receive a bigger discount their first couple of years but then face a financial aid package filled with loans in subsequent years.
Part of the problem is that many parents and students are unaware that they must apply for financial aid every year they are in school and that the price they pay can vary dramatically from year to year. A scholarship may come with a GPA requirement, for example, but it could also just be a one-time award given to incoming freshmen to attract them to the school. Think of it as a signing bonus—or tuition discount—that disappears by year two.
According to a study done by Kantrowitz, enough colleges front-load aid that the average net price for returning students—the price students pay after grants and scholarships are accounted for—is about $1,400 more. He also found that the more selective a college is, the less likely it is that it will front-load grants. What’s the best way to figure out if you’ll be the victim of a financial aid package bait and switch? Ask the college. Only problem is that some colleges will be less honest than others.

Stephen Burd and Rachel Fishman teamed up on this article. Stephen Burd is a senior policy analyst with the New America Foundation's Education Policy Program. Rachel Fishman is a policy analyst for the program.

The Sneaky Little Secret Colleges Use!

Believe it or not, some colleges are looking at your FAFSA and seeing "where" you have listed them on the FAFSA to determine how much money you're going to get!

Applying for financial aid is no picnic, but in addition to the general confusion, some colleges also use sneaky tactics that can greatly affect your chances of being able to afford attending—or even gaining admission to those schools. Washington Monthly has a list of ten things you might not know about the admissions and financial aid process, including the fact that the order you list colleges you want the application to be sent to could be used against you. Some colleges look at which schools you list first and make admissions and aid decisions based on that sometimes arbitrary listing:

[Some] schools look at a student's "FAFSA position" to determine admissions decisions—completely unbeknownst to the student. A school does this to improve its yield rate, to ensure that it is able to enroll exactly the class it wants.

Some schools may also be taking the "FAFSA position" into account when awarding their own financial aid dollars to students—providing less generous aid packages to students who list the college first on the FAFSA. These colleges don't want to waste precious institutional aid dollars on students who are already likely to attend without the help.

The problem is that not all students necessarily list schools in preferential order, or there may be very little difference among a student's number one, number two, and number three option. Worse yet, the whole process is completely opaque to students. They have no idea that their chances of being admitted and receiving a generous financial aid package may ride largely on the order in which they list schools on the FAFSA.

While this may NOT be true for ALL colleges, it is a good thing to consider as a "tactic" or strategy to maximizing your financial aid opportunities!

7 Smart Ways To Repay Student Loans

For new college graduates who borrowed to help pay for their bachelor's degrees, the clock is ticking. These grads have six months before the federal government expects them to start repaying their students loans.

Here are seven tips to make sure that these young borrowers avoid any trouble as they begin paying down their debt: 

1. Identify outstanding loans
The first step for borrowers is to know what they've borrowed. Debtors can access all their federal loans by logging into the National Student Loan Data System. Keeping track of these loans can be harder than you think. Students could have eight federal loans (one for every semester) or more after graduating from college.
2. Consider the federal repayment options.
There are a variety of ways to repay student debt. The standard method is to make monthly payments over 10 years. Borrowers, however, can be eligible for other repayments plans. The graduated repayment option requires lower payments in the early years with the payments usually growing every two years. Individuals who have borrowed at least $30,000 can qualify for an extended repayment plan, which will stretch the payments to 25 years.
3. Check eligibility for income-based repayment.
One of the big benefits of borrowing through federal student loans is that the federal government provides a safety net for those whose salaries can't realistically cover their debt obligations. Eligible borrowers can essentially repay their student loans based on what they are making rather than what they owe. These programs can be invaluable for students who graduate without a job or are underemployed.
"Pay-As-You-Earn" is the newest repayment program and the one with the most favorable terms. Under the plan, participants pay no more than 10 percent of their discretionary income each month to cover their student loans. The federal government will forgive any debt still remaining after 20 years (unless you're a government employee...then it's only 10 years!).
Keep in mind that these repayment programs won't always be the cheapest solution because the interest keeps accruing throughout the repayment period. If a person loses eligibility for the plan by earning a higher salary, he or she could end up paying more over the life of the loan.
4. Use the Repayment Estimator
It can be confusing for individuals when faced with various repayment options. Before choosing, borrowers should use the "Federal Reserve Estimator" to see which would be the ideal plan for them. The estimator will calculate a person's monthly payments and the potential lifetime cost of the loans.
5. Check out the loan forgiveness program.
Individuals should also check to see if they might qualify for the federal and/or state public service loan forgiveness program. Americans who work for a government entity or a nonprofit can have their loans forgiven after 10 years of payments. Those eligible for the program work in such fields as public education, public libraries, law enforcement, public interest law, early childhood education and public health services.
Borrowers can find out if they are eligible for this loan forgiveness program by completing the Employment Certification form on the U.S. Department of Education's website.
6. Repay loans automatically.
The best way to avoid missing payments is to make them automatic.
7. Consider emergency options.
With all the safety nets, there is no reason for troubled debtors to just stop paying. It can lead to tough late fees and ultimately default, which will ruin a person's credit score and can lead to wage garnishments. Defaulting can also shrink the chances of getting an apartment, obtaining a cell phone plan and even finding a job.  To avoid default, borrowers should explore requesting a deferment or a forbearance from their loan servicer.  With a deferment, a borrower temporarily stops making payments and the government will pay interest during this period on federal direct subsidized loans and federal Perkins loan.
A second, less desirable alternative is obtaining a "forbearance" that allows a person to stop or shrink payments for up to a year. The borrower is responsible for all interest that accrues during this period.

 

This article is from MoneyWatch.com

The Pitfalls of Student Loans!

Whatever you do...don't ever IGNORE your student loans!

Here's 9 good reasons why:

1) You’ll get deeper in debt. Interest will continue to accrue and your balances that seem so daunting now will get even larger. Loans that go to collections will incur additional collection costs of up to 25%.

2) Your credit scores will suffer. Late payments will appear on your credit reports and your credit scores will go down. Negative information may be reported for up to seven years, and for many graduates their credit scores are more important than their college GPAs when it comes to real life.

3) You will eventually go into default. Most federal loans are considered to be in default when a payment has not been made for 270 days. Once you are in default, the government has “extraordinary powers” to collect, as we’ll describe in a moment.

4) You may lose your tax refund every year.  If you have a federal student loan in default, the federal government may intercept it. 

5) Your work income could be garnished.  If you are in default with a federal student loan, the government can garnish up to 15% of your pay. 

6) Co-Borrowers are in as much trouble as YOU. Anyone who co-signs a student loan for you is on the hook 100% for the balance. It doesn’t matter if it was your 80-year-old grandmother who co-signed for you; she is going to be pressured to pay and may be at risk for the same consequences you face.

7) You could be sued. Lawsuits are less common with federal loans than with private ones. (After all, why would the government sue when it has so many other ways to collect?) But a lawsuit is always a possibility especially if you ignore your student loans. If you are sued, you may find you need the help of an attorney experienced in student loan law to raise a defense against the lawsuit.

8) Student loan debt NEVER goes away!  Student loan debt will not go away if you ignore it. There is no statute of limitations on federal loans, which means there is no limit on how long you can be sued. State statute of limitations do apply to private student loans, however, limiting the amount of time they have to sue to collect. But it doesn’t stop them from trying to collect from you — and if you don’t know your rights it may go on indefinitely.

 

9) What to do...when you CAN'T afford to pay on your student loan?

For starters, get your free annual credit reports so you can see which loans are being reported by whom. Then get your free credit score using a service like Credit.com so you have a clear understanding of how this debt is affecting your credit. You can also use the National Student Loan Database to track down your loans.   For federal loans, you can get back on track with a reasonable and affordable payment plan. Start the process at StudentLoans.gov. (Be careful if you talk with a collector or servicer about your options. Some provide borrowers with accurate information, but some do not.) Here’s a guide to options for paying off student loans.

For private loans, you may want to talk with an attorney who understands how to discharge certain private student loans in bankruptcy. It can be tough to qualify, but not impossible. If that’s not an option, you may be able to try to negotiate a settlement.

This article was found on:   Thu, Jun 5, 2014, 4:09pm EDT 

What Happens If I Ignore My Student Loans?

By Gerri Detweiler

Good College Strategy: Roll Your Old 401k Into An IRA

One of the most exciting things about what I do is not only show families how to save thousands of dollars on the cost of college, but to show them financial and/or tax strategies that they'll greatly benefit from.

For example, I've had numerous families that have come into my office showing me an old 401k sitting out there with their former employer.  One of the first things I ask is, "How well is the old 401k doing, and do you think you may have to potentially tap into some of those funds for college expenses?"  Almost all families have the same response, "Well, we don't really want to touch our retirement dollars unless we have to."  I couldn't agree with them more. The sad part, however, is that many families have had to tap into their old 401k to help their kids with unforeseen college expenses.

If spending money out of your old 401k is something that could potentially happen to you, then you may want to seriously consider rolling that old 401k into an IRA position.  Doing it is easy!  And, it is NOT a taxable event.  Plus, turning it into an IRA can provide you with more college-friendly options that what an old 401k can afford.  The savings could be significant!

Here's why you may want to seriously consider turning your old 401k into an IRA:

1) First, the Internal Revenue Service is nice enough to allow greater flexibility with an IRA than they do with 401k's!  Believe it or not, the IRS will allow you to pay for you or your children's qualified college expenses with IRA money without having to pay a 10% pre-59 1/2 distribution penalty.  That's huge!!!  With a 401k, you'll have to either take a loan out (up to 50%) and pay the money back with interest within 5 years.  Or, you can take the money out to pay for college expenses and be charged the 10% IRS penalty tax! Remember though, with either plan you'll have to pay taxes on the money received.  But, with an IRA there is NO 10% penalty tax.

2) The IRA also has more flexibility in withdrawing money for other needs as well!  For example, if you lose your job (God forbid!) and you haven't turned 59 1/2 yet, you can still avoid the 10% penalty tax by using an IRS approved strategy.  Your old 401k won't allow you to do that.

3)  IRA's provide many more investment choices and opportunities than do 401k's!  Thus, your earnings potential could be much greater.

4) An IRA also can be a much better estate-planning tool!  One good example is that, if you die, your beneficiaries will have more tax-favored options in receiving those hard-earned dollars than they would with your old 401k.

5) Your old 401k probably has management fees and various charges.  Many IRA's don't have either - thus saving you a lot of money!

6) Most 401k's have greater risk issues than do some IRA's since they are mostly tied to stock market values.  Some IRA's will offer you stock market gains without any downside risk.  In other words, there are some IRA's out there that will contractually grow your money along with the market but will lock your gains in each year.  If the market goes down, you don't lose anything.  Then, when the market goes up, you receive some of the gains.

But, before you throw your old 401k money into any IRA, please give our office a call.  We'll provide you with some great information and options that can provide the most college-favored programs available.  It's free, and there's no obligation!

College Costs Are Soaring!!

Colleges, year by year, are becoming more financially dependent on parents paying for out-of-pocket expenses than ever before! Endowments have taken a big hit, which has left even elite schools, including Harvard and Yale, facing steep cost-cutting. State universities are also facing steep slashes in government funding. All of which means  it will be even harder for colleges to meet demands for financial assistance next time around.

The bottom line...parents and/or student are going to need to find money to pay for college some how!

The current aid crisis only underscores the never-ending problem of soaring tuition costs. As MONEY magazine and many other publications have frequently pointed out, colleges are jacking up tuition costs at twice the rate of inflation; education expenses have far outpaced inflation for more than two decades.

Meanwhile, most families are less prepared than ever to meet those bills. Numerous surveys have shown that few have the cash stashed away to pay the five-figure tuition amounts required by many schools. So expect aid applications to soar again!

If there is ever a time to seek the help of college funding professionals, it is now!