Financial Aid Book Review:

Paying for College Without Going Broke 2002, by Kalman Chany with Geoff Martz

Paperback - 312 pages (October, 2001) Random House

This is another in The Princeton Review's college-book series. It seems as though the big challenge today is to be able to pay for college without going broke. Chany and Martz present a step-by-step course in understanding the mechanisms of financial aid, complete with primers on filling our the FAFSA and CSS Profile forms, the two main vehicles by which families and students reveal their ability (or inability) to afford college. There is a mountain of detail to contend with in the financial aid process and this book offers one of the best and clearest approaches to understanding it that I've seen.

Of special interest is a section that speaks to students who come from single-parent families and those with a non-cooperative parent. The stress of the college admissions process is tough enough on high schoolers. Piling on woes from family issues can be almost overwhelming. That's where the wisdom here can be comforting. There's obviously no guarantee that this book can answer every question, but it can get you on the right track to getting the information that you need. It should be required reading for every parent of college-bound high schoolers.

Reviewed by Dave Berry

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