Parents Should Plan for College Financial Aid Early (Now Would Be Perfect)

College financial aid consultant Trevor Ramos advises parents and students who want to receive a college education, to plan for financial aid early to determine if they are eligible for assistance and how much aid money they are going to receive.

“Even if you’re not sending your students to college this year or next year, it is very important for parents to understand the idea of financial aid forms and how the system works,” Ramos explains. “Basically, these financial aid forms are calculators that determine what your out-of-pocket expenses are going to be in going to college, which also means how much money the college is going to give you.”

Ramos says it is crucial for parents to know the bottom-line cost of sending their kids to college as early in the process as possible because it’s very difficult to save for college if we do not yet understand how much college will cost our family. In turn, Ramos can calculate how much money the parents can expect from the specific colleges where they want to enroll their children.

Another important point: Financial aid is allocated virtually on a first-come first-served basis so turning in these financial aid forms as early as possible makes a huge impact on how much money the schools can offer them and their child.

“It also lets them know just how committed you are to their school,” Ramos says.

The deadlines for most financial aid forms this year start cropping up February 1, with the bulk due no later than March 1.

The “game in financial aid,” as Ramos calls it, is all in the planning and the better you plan, the better the results will be.

In fact, Ramos says parents simply cannot plan too early. He advises parents of all high school students to get serious now about college aid planning — even if their child is only a freshman.

We need to understand what our game plan is going to be. And determine the best school for both the parent and child. We all need to agree that this is the right school financially, academically and culturally? The day to commit to a school is May 1st. So everything is really coming to that date when we have all the offers that we’re looking at, from all the colleges. On May 1, that is the big day!” Ramos says.

To better understand how the system works, Ramos advises parents to request his “How-To Guide” that he offers for free on his College Funding Remedies web site at www.collegefundingremedies.com.

The guide book explains what parents can expect throughout this process, whether they have children in the 8th grade or high school seniors, or even children already in college and who need to turn in new financial aid forms for the next academic year.

Besides the guide book, Ramos offers parents one-one-one audits. He conducts sit-in personal consultations to college aspirants or their parents to make sure that the financial aid forms are turned in properly.

Called Financial Aid Form Audit Sessions, the results are customized to the specific needs of a family, Ramos says. These sessions allow each family to have a better understanding of the dates, timelines and strategies they need to know in order to send their children to college and get the money they need to attend.

Even if your child has been accepted to college but did not get the money needed, Ramos says there are still alternatives.

“This is called an appeal process,” he says, and he knows its intricacies well.

Ramos says there have been many, many instances he has encountered where a college awarded financial aid to a student but the money was not enough to cover the entire education. The appeal process has enabled Ramos to convert a $5,000 financial aid award into a $37,000 financial aid awards on more than one occasion, he says.

Ramos’ “bottom line”? Educate yourself about how to pay for a great college education!

For more information, visit College Funding Remedies website at www.collegefundingremedies.com or call (866) 568-8647.