Free College Planning Workshops: Unlock College Financial Aid Secrets and Strategies
Ecliptic Financial Advisors offers free college financial aid workshops that reveal how to beat the high cost of college and navigate the financial aid maze. By attending a workshop, you will gain valuable information that can make college affordable, help you through the complicated application process, and provide tips to selecting the best college.
The Importance of Strategic Planning to Help Pay for College
If you have a child approaching college age, we urge you to attend one of our free college financial aid workshops. It’s one of the smartest financial decisions you can make for your child’s future.
Many parents think college tuition is an inflexible proposition. You apply to the schools your child is interested in, and if, once accepted, you can afford the tuition with the grants and scholarships offered, your child can attend that school. If the bill is outside of your budget, you apply for as large a loan as you can possibly get and pay what you are asked to pay. Or, they don’t go.
This is the old way of approaching college costs, and it has led to a mountain of student debt. It may surprise you to know many families are paying less for college and taking out smaller loans than in years past. They can do this due to solid financial planning.
Our free workshops will cover many common parent concerns about the college admissions and financial aid process. Even if your child isn’t in high school yet, it’s a great idea to take an evening to attend one of our workshops. The earlier you start planning for your child’s education, the better position you will be in when the time comes. Our workshops are free, so you have nothing to lose!
Common Concerns About College Funding and Admissions
Ecliptic Financial Advisors will address some of the most common concerns parents have about college funding and admissions, including:
- Not Developing a Funding Plan: Developing an effective college funding strategy is crucial to making sure you can pay for your child’s full college costs without being saddled with back-breaking debt for years. Ecliptic Financial Advisors can work with you to develop the most logical plan for your situation.
- Hurting Your Child’s Admission/Financial Aid Chances: Many parents worry about making a mistake that prevents their child from getting into a school or getting the financial aid they need. Our experienced team at Ecliptic Financial Advisors can help you navigate those concerns and give you peace of mind. We’ll make sure you have a sustainable funding strategy that will work for your situation and maximize the amount of aid your child may qualify for. We will also provide guidance on how to choose a school that will allow your child to accomplish their goals and maintain financial stability.
- Making Form Errors: There are a lot of forms to fill out and a lot of information will need to be included, so any inaccuracies could hurt or delay your financial aid reward. Ecliptic Financial can help you fill out the forms correctly and accurately to maximize your possible financial aid qualification. Please understand that Ecliptic Financial Advisors cannot guarantee you’ll receive any specific amount of aid, just that you might qualify for that amount. It’s up to each of the colleges/universities to determine a student’s aid award.
- Missing Deadlines: Learn how to ensure you are able to meet deadlines, know what the deadlines are and if there is any early application benefit (e.g. you should submit the FAFSA form as soon as possible, even if you have to amend it later). Ecliptic Financial Advisors helps you stay organized and understand the system so that you make those deadlines.
Understanding the College Funding and Admissions Systems
Learn the reasons behind some of the most confusing aspects of the system, including:
Why Is College So Expensive?
If you think back to your own college experience, you may wonder how costs got so out of hand. For one thing, less money is available from government sources today. And, competition between schools has increased costs to cover new technology, infrastructure, maintenance and other efforts to stay competitive with other schools.
Understanding the Statistics
College costs increase each year faster than the rate of inflation, about 7 to 8%. It’s important to keep this in mind when creating the college funding strategy and calculating your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). At one of our workshops, you can learn more about the EFC, why it is so important and how to calculate it.
Why Is Understanding the System So Important If My Child Is Only in School for Four Years?
Those few years could have major financial consequences for many years to follow. Without proper planning, your retirement finances could be in jeopardy. It’s well worth taking the time to understand this system.
Learn About College Financial Planning for Free
We design our college planning workshops, held in more than 20 locations throughout New Jersey, to give you guidance through the college financial aid maze that you can’t get anywhere else. We’ll teach you the tips and tricks, facts and fictions about the entire financial aid process. Don’t forget the best part — it’s free!
You say your child’s college years are still a few years away? Perfect! The sooner you start planning to pay for your child’s college, the better. In fact, even if you’re new parents and college is the furthest thing from your mind, you can still pick up a few tricks from one of our workshops that you’ll be happy you found out about later down the road!
We can’t do it all with a college planning workshop, which is why Ecliptic Financial Advisors offers a wide range of college planning services for you to take advantage of including a free, no-obligation consultation (valued at $200).
Consider one of our local workshops for college planning. You have nothing to lose but a mountain of future debt. You’ll learn these valuable college funding secrets:
- Where to get money: Learn about grants, loans, endowment funds, preferential packaging, and other funding sources from state and federal governments, as well as private and public college funds.
- How to apply for aid: We’ll address all of the forms you will need including the FAFSA, the CSS/Financial Aid profile and registration form, schools’ institutional forms and supplemental forms.
- How to choose a college that will give you the best deal: You’ll learn how to spot the differences in funding before you apply, how to negotiate for the best possible package, and how to get more need-based aid for college.
- The opportunities and pitfalls you have to watch out for: We’ll tell you how complicated laws and tax provisions can impact many areas of college funding and how they can directly affect your educational costs.
- The difference between tax credits and tax deductions: Learn how you can make changes in your personal tax provisions to increase your eligibility for aid.
- Why college financial aid officers can’t help you: College financial aid counselors won’t help you pick out schools or fill out forms. Find out why.
- How to qualify even if you think you make too much money: Learn planning strategies that are available to reduce your out-of-pocket costs.
- Why your accountant is not a good resource: Find out why using an accountant who does not specialize in college financial aid planning to fill out financial aid forms can actually cost you money.
- When you should start planning: We’ll guide you to the optimum time to plan and when to take the next step.
All this information could potentially save you thousands of dollars on your child’s education. Our professionals will help answer all the questions you have about the sometimes-overwhelming college and admissions and financial aid process before it’s too late, significantly reducing your stress.
There’s no time like the present to start planning for your child’s college education. To attend a workshop in your area, click to register for a date that works for you now, or give us a call at 732-502-9700 for more information.