For many Connecticut parents, this is the time of year when college-bound seniors start receiving award letters from colleges. All the hard work required to visit colleges, take the SAT and ACT while juggling all the applications finally paid off. However, the joy and excitement of receiving the award letter quickly turns into a bitter realization. The only financial aid the university has given his family is in the form of a high-interest loan that the family simply can’t afford.

Why did this happened?

How can you, as a parent, tell your student that he has tried his hardest by earning excellent grades in college prep classes, that he has spent every summer and weekend improving his extracurricular activities, and has taken off the SAT pants and now you might not get it? to attend the college of their dreams that accepted them.

For all intents and purposes, everyone did their job. The student was accepted into the school of his dreams. It sounds like a job well done, until you realize you only have five weeks before you commit to the financial aid award and you only have five months before school starts. It wouldn’t be so bad if schools actually gave your student some help in the form of grants and scholarships, but the most he ever got was a Parent Loan for College Students (PLUS) loan.

This is the time of year when families call my office crying because they don’t understand the Department of Education’s eligibility rules for financial aid. As a result of not understanding the financial aid rules, they were unable to position their finances to maximize their eligibility. We have to do everything we can to appeal the awards or help the family put together a college financing plan to pay for the cost of college without living on peanut butter and jelly for the next four or six years.

It only takes us a few minutes to review the award letter to acknowledge that the family’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC) was too high. The EFC is generated when you complete your financial aid forms (the FAFSA and CSS profile, usually). Unfortunately, many families receive this same type of result, and in many cases, the EFCs are even higher than the cost of attendance. Many parents become even more frustrated when they realize that this mistake could have been easily avoided with simple planning.

If the first time a family is calculating EFCs is in the fall or spring of their senior year of high school, then they are just asking for trouble when it comes to getting the free money in the form of grants and scholarships. The EFC must be calculated for the second or third year at the latest. This will allow you to put together a financial plan to pay for each and every college on your student’s list before you submit your first application. By the way, don’t be surprised when your starting EFC is a very high number. You have the time, and if you contact us, we can help you get your EFC down to a manageable number. As a general rule, the lower your EFC, the more aid you will receive in the form of grants and scholarships. Even the best schools in the best schools in the country will be at your fingertips.

As a parent of a college student, it is very important that you understand that some schools, particularly private and selective ones, simply have more money to offer than others. Their prizes are usually more grants than loans. If done correctly, you don’t have to burden yourself or your student with a mountain of student loan debt from the start. More importantly, you should know that most schools award grants and scholarships based on need and not merit. This means that you have to know the rules of the game to show a need, because after all, we all need some financial help when it comes to paying for college tuition. You must have a game plan before you start submitting your applications.

After receiving your first college tuition bill, it’s not hard to understand that college financial planning is just as important as admissions counseling and SAT preparation. Why should you spend all your energy getting into a great university, but find you can’t afford to help your child introduce himself on the first day of school?