College Planning: Why “Going the College Route Alone” Gets You Bad Information

I was at a school function for my son the other day, when the topic of college came up because one of the other parents also had a high school sophomore and they were starting to think about college.

I mentioned that a lot has changed. Much more than she is even aware of and she said, “College can’t have changed that much since I went and now you can find so much information on the internet.”

Yes, that’s true, there’s a lot of information on the internet. And it’s often found on the types of sites where you can ask a question and people post various answers to “try to help you”. And a lot of it is TERRIBLE information that is either only half right or flat out wrong.

Couple that with the fact that the mom had gone to college over 20 years ago and thought she could “do what’s always been done” and you have a recipe for disappointment.

But let’s get back to the half-right and flat-out wrong you can find from the internet. Let me show you an example:

I found this question recently “What does average financial aid package mean?” The person, asking the question, David, was thinking about applying to MIT and Yale. He had a rather high opinion of his “skills” when it came to applying (most students do; unfortunately, they’re usually wrong) and was looking past the application part to the “paying”part.

Here’s part of his question:

- Does the average financial aid package mean the total money/scholarship you’ll get for one year (two semesters)?

- If that is the case, does it mean that average students pay around $2,000 each year for their tuition (ignore room, books, and other costs first)?

- So, if I’m lucky enough, does it mean that I can get a ride to college for FREE or almost FREE?”
And the “best answer” as voted on by “voters”:
“average is average. and yes it is for the entire year (fall and spring)
Keep in mind “finanical aid” also includes loans and Parent PLUS loans. So those are also included in those numbers usually.

These “average aid packages” it’s misleading really and means nothing really… because AVERAGE also means that some students get ZERO in financial aid, while others get much more than the amounts listed. Publishing those numbers are stupid.”

Now, grammar and punctuation errors aside, this answer is really only half-right. The explanation of “average” means some get zero and some get much more is right.

But, this is the answer David really needed:

Here’s what the “average financial aid package” truly means in financial aid lingo.

The average financial aid package is the average amount of aid offered to those who are found, by the college, to need it. So, at MIT and Yale, the Cost of Attendance is close to $64,000. When parents file their financial aid paperwork, MIT and Yale will run their financials through the financial aid formulas to determine how much they “think” the family can pay. Depending on how much money the parents have, they could be expected to pay the full amount or something less than the full amount.

Let’s say the colleges expect your parents to pay $30,000. It means that you could be eligible for $34,000 in financial aid. Since MIT and Yale both have an “average need met” of 100%, you would expect a financial aid package of $34,000.

“David” is searching for answers on the internet, spending a lot of time and effort to get half-right information, some of which will likely end up with him hurting his chances to get in.

There’s lots of information out on the internet, that’s true. However, in addition to the time it takes to find it, you’re going to have to take the time to figure out if it’s even right. Then, you actually have to use the information as well.