National Poll Confirms Family Confusion Over College Finances
by Mark H. Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA
A study conducted earlier this year, and recently published by the College Board and Art & Science Group LLC, indicated that students and parents are making decisions about college applications and matriculation based on financial aid information that is incorrect, incomplete, and inaccurate. In the survey, 59% of students indicated that they eliminated colleges after looking at the “sticker price” with no consideration given to possible financial aid and the “net cost” of attending. No wonder, as a quarter of all students said their parents were requiring them to attend the most affordable school and another 40% had parents insist they apply to ‘more affordable’ colleges. Of course, most of these determinations were based on published list prices. Only a small portion of the population had used any financial aid calculator to determine what sort of financial aid they might qualify for. Meaning most families were flying blind. Those who were thinking about financial aid were further off base. When asked to guess what sort of financial aid they expected to qualify for, most families significantly over-stated the amount of merit aid they thought they would qualify for, even for students with very low standardized test scores. While the national average for merit aid is about 15% of college costs, families estimated it would be one-third.
Even when faced with higher tuition than they felt they could afford, the survey found that families were willing to explore the possibility of a college. This was seen as a sign that under certain circumstances families are willing to stretch their definition of “affordability.” The qualities that get families to examine such out-of-their-budget schools: strong academics in their major, a place where students can fit in, a stellar reputation, and a solid record of placing graduates in good jobs or graduate programs.
It is clear that families need more and easier-to-comprehend information about college finances. With the cost of college rivaling only the cost of purchasing a home in a family’s financial history, clear and accurate financing information is an essential part of the college search process. Yet today, armed with faulty assumptions and bad information, and complicated by rules and regulations that confound rather than amplify, families are at a loss. Members of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), long seen as the most knowledgeable source of information about college selection, need to expand and enhance their services to provide students and parents with clear, accurate and understandable information on college affordability. We have asked our College Committee to develop materials for a new financial aid flyer for IECA members to provide to client families.
As an association we will post this basic information on our Web site to ensure it reaches everyone. We have also pledged to work with national organizations to assist in clarifying and simplifying the financial aid information available to families.
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Tagged: admissions, Art & Science Group, college application trends, college applications, College Board, college committee, college consulting, economy, educational consulting, Financial Aid, financing information, IECA members, LLC, Mark Sklarow, merit aid
These are exactly the reasons why we at Stratagee value our relationship with IECA and its members, so that we can work together to provide families with the best strategy to pay for the colleges that are the best fit.
Families (and many professionals) don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to college affordability, and unfortunately the myth persists that college affordability equates to financial aid and 529 plans, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
I just wrote a multi-part series on Bad College Advice for my column at Forbes (not yet published) that aims to give families perspective about the real world of college affordability and the key role that sound advice from admissions professionals plays in the overall process. The series includes quotes from IECA members.
Let Mark’s post be a rallying call to us all to step up our collaboration and focus on the four components of each family’s best strategy: College selection/admission, financial aid, tax aid and the family’s personal resources. Understanding what we call the Core 4, and how they interconnect, is the foundation of building a successful admissions and affordability strategy.