Tips For Paying For College

Paying for college can be a daunting task especially as some private colleges approach the $100K mark. Here are some considerations when building your school list and looking into how to afford the costs.

Know your budget

Be honest on how much you can afford for college and understand that high amounts of debt can be crippling especially if your child plans on a job that may not be high paying.

Use the Net Price Calculator (NPC)

Most colleges have the NPC on their website where you can put in your financial information and get an estimate of your out of pocket costs. This is helpful to get an idea if a school will be affordable to you. Most NPCs are close to the amount you can expect to get from completing the FAFSA form.

Complete the FAFSA and CSS

The FAFSA is a free application to learn if you are eligible for federal grants, scholarships, work-study programs and loans for college. The FAFSA is now open for the 2026-2027 school year. Since the platform was updated two years ago it is easier to complete. If you file taxes your information will be pulled in from the IRS. Then you just need to fill in your asset information including balances from checking and savings accounts and investments. FAFSA does not ask for your 401K or home value.

The CSS Profile, maintained by the College Board, is used by some private schools with endowments to provide other non-federal institutional aid. This form requires a fee of $25 for the first college and $16 for each additional school you add. Families with an adjusted gross income of under $100,000 can get a fee waiver. The CSS asks for more detailed financial information than the FAFSA and doesn’t pull in IRS data, so it’s important to gather all your documents and have a record by date of all the information you will need to submit. This includes:

• Tax returns
• Savings and checking account statements
• 529 accounts
• Investments
• Retirement accounts
• Home value
• Sibling information such as value of 529 plans
• Business or farm information
• Child support payments received

It’s easier to pull all this information into a spreadsheet broken down by savings, investments and 401K to help calculate the numbers if you have multiple accounts.

Learn about loans

If you will need to take out loans to offset the cost of college, know that students have a cap on the loan amounts they personally can take each year.

• Freshman year: $5,500
• Sophomore year: $6,500
• Junior or Senior year: $7,500

The rest of the costs will either need to be cash-flowed or parents will need to take out personal loans to pay the rest. Check out the Federal Student Aid website for a more detailed breakdown.

Look for school generous with merit

Many people are chasing merit to be able to afford college, but not every school is generous. Ivy league schools and other schools with low acceptance rates meet all financial aid meaning if your Student Aid Index (SAI) is low or a negative number, that shows the highest level of financial need, qualifying you for the maximum amount of need-based aid. Schools will provide that aid, but they do not offer merit scholarships.

Public schools also do not provide much merit money. The most merit money is generally from private institutions. Check out the school’s Common Data Set. There you will see how much non-need based institutional aid the school gives out in the form of grants and endowed scholarships. Most private schools (besides Ivys) have a high number in that section, so you can check to see if they have money to give. Many schools also have separate scholarship applications with requirements such as additional essays and/or other qualifications. Check a school’s website for those details. Some schools automatically put you in the running for a merit scholarship with the application, others ask for you to apply, so do your research.