Should I Pay for Financial Aid Assistance?
Dear Betsy,
My daughter will be a senior in high school this year and though we have a school picked out, we haven’t entirely determined how we’re going to pay for it yet. We’ve received some letters in the mail from some companies who offer to do all our financial aid paperwork for us and/or find scholarship money for my daughter to go to school. The fees range from about $20 to several hundred dollars. Is it worth it? Thank you in advance for your advice.
Carol
Dear Carol,
The short answer is—probably not. While the paperwork required to qualify for financial aid may seem daunting at times, it’s actually pretty straight-forward and there’s lots of free assistance out there if you have questions. A good place to start is your daughter’s guidance counselor or even the financial aid office of the college your daughter’s picked out. Some great free online resources for paperwork questions, financial aid calculators and scholarship searches include http://www.finaid.org and http://www.collegeboard.com.
If you’re still looking at one of these offers you’ve received in the mail, make sure you do your homework 1st. Look them up at the Better Business Bureau at http://www.bbb.org and ask other parents if they’ve ever dealt with the company or heard of them. Many of these companies promise increased financial aid funds which never materialize and all of them provide services you can most likely get for free elsewhere.
Good luck!
Betsy
