Your teen is getting ready to apply to college. You're proud of their accomplishments and excited for this opportunity to launch them into adulthood with a college degree.

But you're also worried about the enormous cost of college and the news about so many families going into crushing debt to pay for it.

How can you save yourself years--even decades--of financial debt and angst? In just a few hours, this course will help you understand the key concepts of financial aid so you can make informed decisions about which colleges make academic and financial sense for your student. 

Most families make the mistake of letting their teen apply to a list of colleges without considering what financial aid each college will offer their student. They assume that the student must apply first and then hope the college will be generous with their financial aid offer. And too often, they're shocked and disappointed by an outrageously expensive outcome in spring of the student's senior year.

There is a much better way, one that can save your family thousands of dollars. 

In this six-module, video-based course, parents join me for a clear and concise explanation of how college financial aid works. Then I'll give you the tools and the data to dig up the details you'll need to estimate what any college on your student's list might actually cost you. By the end of this course, you'll understand:

• the difference between public and private colleges and how that affects costs
• the wrong way (and the right way!) to build the college list
• what the cost of attendance is and why you shouldn’t let it scare you
• what the FAFSA is and why it’s the critical document in financial aid calculations
• how to calculate what the government thinks your family can afford to pay for your student's college
• how to estimate, before your student applies, what you’d pay at each college on your student’s list
• how to build a college list based on your income and asset level

You'll also get access to a customizable spreadsheet to run your family's numbers for each college and links to information to easily find the financial details (cost of attendance, average need-based aid award, average merit-aid award, percentage of students receiving aid, etc.) from almost 200 of the popular colleges in the United States. 

Here is my promise to you for this course. I promise that if you watch the videos and do the exercises:

--you'll understand the key factors that influence your student's eligibility for financial aid

--you'll know how to find out, before your student applies, what financial aid you're likely to get from each college

--you'll be able to add or remove specific colleges from your student's list based on each college's financial outlook for your family

Feedback on this course from a parent whose student is in the Class of 2023:

"Really good information that is key, and you explain all the different acronyms and scenarios.  EXCELLENT!" --BK