any good books or websites to help navigate/guide through financial portion of college? (schools, best)

[amyla]

Hi-hoping for some advice on what to expect with fafsa or applying for scholarships? Not sure where to begin.... thanks

[Pitt Chick]

FAFSA is a form you fill out... all there is to personally expect from it as your estimated financial contribution. The schools will decide what they will do for you on their end.

[toobusytoday]

With my first child we encouraged her to apply to all kinds of scholarships and she did. The only one she got from an outside organization was one awarded to her from the local Lions club. The largest amount of money usually comes in the form of grants or scholarships directly from the Colleges. Most colleges will award students that money simply by applying and filling out the FAFSA and/or the CSS profile. I would look at the links at the top of this forum for more suggestions on the colleges search process. A quick answer though for scholarships is to check out this site: Fastweb : Scholarships, Financial Aid, Student Loans and Colleges

A good book? http://www.amazon.com/Paying-College...+financial+aid

[amyla]

Thanks-so the colleges send you the info if they accept you? If the Fafsa is not due until jan/feb of senior year then when do the colleges accept/reject you? What about something called early decision? Im going to make an appt with the guidance counselor in the next month. She's in 10th grade right now but Im not working for the next month so want to do some research while I can-she's my oldest.

[toobusytoday]

Here's the general time line for the college search/admissions process that worked for our family. I'll say that while we do not qualify for need based aid, we cannot afford to pay the sticker price so finding the best college that was affordable and that my kids actually wanted to attend, was a true search!

Sophomore year - take PSAT's, summer AFTER sophomore year start visiting local colleges to get a feel for different colleges (small, large, public, private, urban, rural, etc.)

Junior year - Take the PSAT's in fall and SAT's / ACT's in early Spring. Visit colleges throughout Junior year refining the list. Buy one of those oversize books like this: College Handbook 2013: All-New 50th Edition: The College Board: 9780874479805: Amazon.com: Books Since you have three kids, you'll get your moneys worth! Check out other books at the library. Start lurking on this bulletin board: Parents Forum - College Confidential At the end of Junior year student should ask two teachers if they would be willing to write recommendations in the fall.

Senior year - Applications can be started in August and should preferably be done before December 1st. Acceptances vary considerably. My kids heard as early as October and as late as March. Preliminary financial aid may come in with acceptances or shortly thereafter, but final financial aid packages arrive around March. April is accepted student visit/program month.

Early Decision should ONLY BE DONE IF YOU DON'T NEED FINANCIAL AID. It is a binding agreement that you will attend that school. Early Action, OTOH, just means you applied early and would like to know early. I'm a big fan of the latter. Early Decision & Early Action

[golfgal]

Parents Forum - College Confidential

Better than a book....

[amyla]

Thanks everyone!