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I went to a free presentation on financial aid run by these folks tonight, with a very soft sales pitch geared at getting a free in-home visit where, presumably, the pitch for their services is made.

I'm wary simply because there are so many scams are out there. I'm also wary because I'd quibble about two things they said: the NCP generally not being on financial aid forms for most colleges and outside scholarship money being deducted from financial aid. That latter deserves at least an asterisk as some schools apply the scholarship totally against the loans, some split the deduction between loan and grants, etc.

The one service that sounded halfway interesting was that for $99 they would tell you how various colleges divide their aid between grants and loans...a useful data point...but I'm not sure if this data can't be extracted with a little legwork though I admit I haven't seen it anywhere.

Also, I'm not sure if it's worth using because daughter is already focused on a very small group of schools and won't shop outside the group for better financial aid offers.

The presentation did seem to use a lot of fear/uncertainty/doubt to make you want their services, such as the stat that 90 percent of FASFA's contain errors that negatively affect financial aid.

So...anyone have any experience, positive or negative with these people?

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Thursday, May 01, 2003 - 01:49 am: Edit

Did they tell you where they got their stat that said Fafsas were inaccurate?
try finaid.org for fianancial aid info and calculators
My daughter has recieved aid for two years and the simple calculator on this site has been right on with EFC
try fastweb.com for free scholarship search
you never need to pay for financial aid or scholarship information
US NEws will give you the info of what schools meet 100% of need, what schools have merit aid blah blah.
Itis up to the school and how much they want your student as well as what the circumstances are whether they give grants loans or work study. a third party cannot determine that.
Discounts and deals at top colleges by Bruce Hammond will give you info on endowments and how much each school has per student
with all the books and free websites out there you don't have to rely on a third party to get your info

By Calmom (Calmom) on Thursday, May 01, 2003 - 02:48 am: Edit

Thedad,
You are paying $99 for info generally available for free on the internet, or with a little research. For $15 or $20 it might be reasonable, assuming you need the info -- $99, in my mind, is a bit steep.

Personally, having been through the financial aid process, I have to say that it doesn't matter what colleges give OTHER students or what the averages or medians are. Each case is judged individually, and no matter what resources you have to tell you which colleges generally give better aid, the bottom line is what X college gives YOU compared to Y college -- and you don't get that info until the end of the process. So basically, by paying for statitistical info, you are paying for something that means nothing to you. MOST of the colleges my son applied to provided us with information from the financial aid department that turned out to be very accurate in giving a sense of likely aid amounts in the end -- so if your daughter has narrowed down her list of college choices, I think it would be much better to simply ask her to email or write the financial aids office at each college to ask for info.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, May 01, 2003 - 09:51 am: Edit

Thanks, all.

I feel that I've devoted so much time to immersing myself in the search & admissions process that I'm behind the curve on financial aid. Time to be doing that, I guess.

By Fiza (Fiza) on Thursday, June 26, 2003 - 12:36 am: Edit

kewl...