Reduce Your College Tuition Cost

Five Best Financial Choices For College Students (Forbes)

Financial Aid Guru — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:45:15 +0000

This is an interesting article about a few topics near and dear to many college kids. I remember being on campus and seeing the Chase credit card company on campus giving away free stuff if the kids sign up for a card. Credit cards are the kiss of death to many college kids. They are just too easy to ring up a large bill and start off behind the 8 ball before even graduating college. Forbes.com has some good advice to use credit unions. The big banks are well, just that big banks that really don't care about their clients just the bottom line. If they did care would their top interest rate be 29.99%? Credit unions have been around but in this day when banks are looking for more reasons to charge higher fees, I think that they can be a better solution for many people. The fact is most credit unions are not for profit so members can help to control their costs. If your a college student I would higher recommend that you look into a credit union that is close to your university. Smartest credit cards, checking accounts and more.

College requires international study (The Daily Aztec)

Financial Aid Guru — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:36:15 +0000

America is under the gun right now. Foreign countries across the globe are challenging our financial position. Let's face it, if we don't do something different then others will pass us by. An old coach of mine once said: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result." I've traveled to about 90% of Europe. (I've not been to Greece but that's top on my list to go back and see). The biggest complaint I've heard from foreigners is that American's expect special attention and don't understand their way of life. That we impose our standards on them. You could probably argue both ways but the fact is few Americans have traveled outside of Canada and Mexico. I think college is a great spot to gain experience of foreign cultures. Take a look a this article and let me know what you think. By: Janel Bruan, Staff Writer More undergraduate students will need to study abroad soon The College of Health & Human Services can be added to the growing list of programs San Diego State offers that require international experience. Next fall, CHHS will be requiring its undergraduate students to have international academic experience to...

Financial aid woes (Scarlet & Black)

College Funding — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:19:56 +0000

Pretty shocking to see what could be done with $46,325. The first point here is to NOT look at sticker price of the college. I've explained why in the past so I won't get into this for now:) This article does make a good point as to how the federal methodology does disproportionality penalize the middle class. The formula is highly income driven. The formula will assess a family's income between 22 to 47% (after taxes paid and a family income allowance). For many families, however, this is still a very huge burden on them. I think it's only going to get worse. The changes being talked about in Washington will make the formula more intensive on the family income. Planning however, can help! The new sticker-price to attend Grinnell and live on-campus, $46,325 could buy 52 round-trip plane tickets from New York to Tokyo. Or 3,750 DVDs, maybe 4,000, if that seems more practical $45,012 could pay for two and a half years at some top-tier state universities, like instate tuition at the University of Iowa. Even though [...]

Forum gives students first stop on career path

College Admissions — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:30:25 +0000

I stumbled across this article on the net. WOW. Finally a state gets how to help families reduce the cost of college and increase a child's chances of college success! I'll have to check more into this program but it sounds like it has great potential. The program is helping kids to see what careers they are interested in in the 8th grade. The program then continues to match up the child's career interest with colleges that have those programs. VERY COOL. Career searching is the primary reason I suggest to all families that the 8th grade is the best time to start preparing for college. The reality is no child know what they want to do in 8th grade but we can eliminate a whole lot of them. There is nothing wrong with going back as they age to see if their interests have changed.

Here is the college planning real hinge point!

Starting career search in 8th grade allows your child to tailor their activities. You see colleges look at extra cirricular activities. If your child's activities are in line with their prospective major, they have an upper leg on their competition (not China:) but the other kids). Also, in doing activities that relate to their career interest they can have a first hand knowledge if they really want to do this career. How many times have you seen a child start in college in a program but then change it. These changes will increase the time till they graduate. Eliminating one year of college will save $25,000 per year at most state universities. A community forum was held at John F. Hodge High School Monday to introduce parents and students to the Missouri Connections career-planning program. The program is provided free by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and allows students to plan a career path that will take them from eighth and ninth grades all the way through college. Guest Speaker Larry Nash, from the Rolla ...

Additional financial aid available for students

Financial Aid Guru — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:58:38 +0000

This was a pretty interesting story about another university trying to figure out how to make sure their college students with a documented financial issue get aid. The key phrase here is documented financial issue. Typically a documented issue is layoff of parent, reduction in salary, divorce, death, medical bills. These are the more "typical" financial issues. The issue most families run across is they don't make it very easy for the financial aid officer to make a decision. I always write a well thought out letter giving time line of events, documents to prove my case, and organize everything so it's easy for the person looking over my clients case to make a decision. The fact is these days there are many reasons to ask for an appeal of your award letter, but we have to make sure that we properly document and present out case. Remember fist impressions make a difference. If you have any questions, shoot me an email. DU has the financial resources to help students whose families are experiencing documented financial difficulties. "The institution is working very hard to have more resources available to students over the course of their time here," said Barbara Marshall, director of financial aid.

Computer error costs state need grant (The Observer)

Financial Aid Guru — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:04:43 +0000

Watch your FAFSA Aid

I warn families every year to watch the award letter given to them by the school. This article proves that college and the computer programs they use do make mistakes! If you catch the mistake early enough, then you may be able to reverse the decision. In an earlier article I wrote about why you want to have your FAFSA Aid Form in early.

There is a formula

The college are using a formula to distribute the money. The formula starts with filling out the FAFSA Aid form. They take that information and then use it to give your family the aid package. Consider this, most large state colleges have 30,000 students and they have to process the FAFSA form each and every year your child is attending their college. Do you think there might a chance they could make a mistake on your family's aid package. You bet. This article proves it. The moral of the story here is watch the package they give you and compare it to their historical package to make sure no mistakes were made on your family! Each and every family I work with, I estimate for them the expected aid package from every university their child applies to. So when the official aid package does come in we can compare it against our expectation and if it's off, we can appeal. One other important note.....in the article, it says that some of the kids who's grant was revoked actually did not qualify for it in the first place. So if you get a really fair package....don't go and appeal it. They may realize they made a mistake in your favor and they can reverse it. Let me know what you think about this post. A computer error caused students who were not eligible for it to receive a state need grant, and now those students must find a way to pay for the balance.

How Twins Might Help Your College Funding Plans

Financial Aid Guru — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:27:45 +0000

We celebrated this past Christmas at my house. My girlfriend had here family over. It was stressful because my girlfriend’s view of clean is different than mine. Perhaps you can relate, but I decided this year to help out as much as I could. My girlfriend was out of town for work till December 23^rd. Her whole family was over including her twin sister. At one point during the day, I glanced over at them as they were talking and noticed how similar they both are. Many times we look at people but really don’t notice them. Well this day I did. I was thinking to myself what some parents must go through if their twin children are going to college. It’s not like other families because the children are at least staggered. My girlfriend never graduated with a 4 year college degree and neither did her sister, so her mom and dad were spared that stress you might be under. Other parents with twins are not as lucky. I’ve seen different sets of twins be accepted to the same college.

But the good news as we all now know: “College is a business”

Twins could help your college funding plans!

So the world is not ending yet. There is some good news for you. The fact is that the EFC the colleges will try to make your family pay will be split between your children.

There is another fact that I’ve been investigating. Since I understand the business of college, I’ve always thought some colleges would give a “volume” discount if mulitple syblings attend the same college. Why would they offer a volume discount? Here is a short business lesson. Another student does not have much more variable cost to the university. In other words if you have two kids from one household, it’s not costing the university much more. The classes have the same amount of seats right? Additionally, the university will have two syblings that will come back as alumni. The colleges really like alumni. A LOT. Of course for this to work, the college has to want both or even one of your children.

I would suggest searching and apply for a twin or multiple scholarship.

I, however, know that not all colleges will get this but there are some that do. There are numerous colleges that offer discounted admission when one or more of a set of multiple children attend their school. The amount of the scholarships will vary from full tuition to a moderate scholarship. For example Eastern Michigan University has the Furlotte Twins Endowed Scholarship is for upperclassmen enrolled in the College of Education Elementary Education Program with a minimum 3.0 GPA that exhibit promise, creativity and academic conscientiousness. Preference of this scholarship is given to to twins. Other schools like George Washington University, Washington D.C. has a family program that offers a 50% discount for a second sibling. That’s cool!

There are other clubs specific to twins. Many times these organizations have scholarships. Here are a few to check out. National Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs and Northwest Association Mother of Twins Clubs

Of course you could always start a reality show to show the world how great your family is, then divorce and TMZ will have two stories to report on.

Click Here to learn how to receive a tuition discount regardless of your income….but you have to know the rules

Applying early doesn’t help chances of receiving aid (TCU Daily Skiff)

Financial Aid Guru — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:18:31 +0000

College funding lessons to be learned.
This was an interesting post that I ran across and there are a few lessons to be learned from it. The author of this article is responding to an article from SmartMoney.com. In the SmartMoney.com article they speak how it's best to apply early to get more free money for college. If you read this article it might lead you to not worry about the fafsa aid deadlines. The first lesson is this, get the form done by the end of January.   It's true that I have not seen getting the form in after January mean a larger award BUT the school will work on the forms submitted earliest first. This will give you sometime to go back and appeal to the college for more money. This article did make one point the schools do run out of money. You want to make sure that you have gone through the appeal process as early as possbile, while the college still has money to give. The second lesson can be found from the Bre Akers story inside this article. In the article they quote her "I feel that half the stress that I have is because of my school finances," Akers said:
"I have this guilt built up because I feel like I am taking away everything my parents have worked (for). The past two-and-a-half years have been nothing but tight budgets and headaches every semester to figure out how to make each month's payment."
In the article the author says Akers knew her choice of school prior to hearing of her aid eligibility. The lesson to be learned here is we can
predict very accuratley the fafsa aid package from the college.
There is no need to sit on pins and needles wondering if you should accept a college's aid package or for that matter what kind of aid package they will give. Everyone family I work with has an estimate BEFORE their children even apply for the college. So do get your FAFSA aid forms in early and DO research on the aid package the college might give your BEFORE your child applies to the college. If you need some help, just drop me a line. Contrary to findings from an article out earlier this month on SmartMoney.com, applying early to some colleges might not be a sure bet to secure adequate financial aid, a university official said. Mike Scott, director of scholarships and student financial aid, said while the university did have an early action application deadline in November, decisions from his office on financial aid would not ...

College Admission Mistakes

Financial Aid Guru — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:23:14 +0000

2009 has ended. In not sure, in the Chinese calendar, what 2009 was about but for many it was the year of “hit me in the gut”.   Thank goodness and good riddance. This year has been both challenging but exciting and I think we have all learned a lesson or two. I see a lot of kids though who are still wondering which college they are going to apply. So I thought I would talk a little about college admissions and some of the most common mistakes that I see.

Probably the number 1 college admission mistake.

I see is kids miss deadlines. They have the plan to fill out that application; it’s even sitting on their desk under the Lady Ga Ga CD cover and their laptop computer. If your child misses the deadline, their chances of getting in decline. So it’s ok mom and dad to push your children to finish the application. After all, what they do can and will affect your pocket book. I had a post a little bit about about college admissions. A local paper quoted an admission counselor from Wayne State. Essentially, he said that it’s the job of the financial aid department to “make it happen”. Psst. What he is saying is if the admissions office wants your child, they will push the other departments to give you a financial package that will make it very difficult to not accept. If your child misses deadlines, do you really think the admission office is going to be excited about your child? Nope.

The common app is gaining popularity as well. I like the application but I think it also has a drawback. I think if something is too easy we don’t really value it. I’m always telling parents and kids alike, that even though you sent an email, it does not mean the person got it, read it, or ignored it. I receive 100 emails a day. I scan them. Sometimes I miss important emails. This is why you should always follow up with the university to make sure they have everything. Also on the form you will designate your child’s high school counselor and in addition your child can designate the teachers who will do their letter or recommendation. As soon as your child hits the button, have them call the counselor at the high school to make sure they actually send out transcripts. The college may not let your know they still need them.

Then have them walk up to the teachers they have designated to do their letters of recommendation and thank them ahead of time. Now the teacher will be aware they should check their email and they won’t be surprised. Before I jump off this point, make sure your kids give the teachers ample time to complete the letter of recommendation. Don’t expect the teacher to finish it in a weekend. Give them at least 2 weeks.

Some people would say that the application is the responsibility of the child to take the initiative.

Yes I agree they should be doing 90% of the work. But let’s keep something in mind here. They are still 16 year old kids that have doubts, fears, and a heck of a lot of uncertainty about their decisions. Besides…..if they make mistakes, it will cost you the parent and in the long run themselves. You’re going to find that the college is going to include you in the financial side of this. Take an active role but don’t be overbearing. You know your child so help them through the steps.

One additional thing…..keep yourself organized. Write down the deadlines on a calendar and keep your kids on track. You’ll be glad you did.
Click Here to learn how to receive a tuition discount regardless of your income….but you have to know the rules. Visit our site and join us at your FREE College Planning Workshop

Copyrighted 2009, All Rights Reserved. college financing, how to pay for college, college essays, entrance essay, college admission essay, free money for college, college savings plans

Q&A: Navigating the college-application process (Boston Globe)

Financial Aid Guru — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:11:19 +0000
test By Globe Staff With college application season in full swing, higher education reporter Tracy Jan asked Brad MacGowan, director of the Career Center at Newton North High School, for some tips to help high school seniors as they navigate the...

ACT Deadline Is Approaching

College Admissions — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:30:00 +0000

Registration for the ACT test is coming up. IF you child needs to take the test on Feburary 6, 2010 they need to be registared by January 5. These pesky deadlinesJ If your just starting the college admissions process, then check out my other post about college admisison mistakes

This is a pretty big test that will have a lasting affect on your child’s college academic life.   It’s one part of the admission process but also it’s used to give out the FREE the merit money. Yep, the college will use the ACT as one factor in giving out free money for college. Yet, many kids go into this test blind and under preparred. I hear many parents say their high school has taken care of preparing their kids for the ACT. Don’t believe them! No I’m not saying they don’t educate our kids or even give them preperation for the test but I am saying that a little more does not hurt.

I’ve worked with hundreds of families over the years and the biggest mistake I see families making is beleiving that the high schools, colleges, and even the government can take care of this for you. The fact is they just get the ball rolling. Many times, it’s just that little extra that makes all the difference.

You say your son or daughter has already taken the test and really does not want to take it again. I understand that one. I remember going to take the test. WOW, what a releif when it was over. This is a very important test but it’s also a very long test. 3 hours and it’s not like sitting through the movie Avatar with popcorn and free refills on your Pepsi. So it’s not wonder that your children don’t want to take it more than once. The ACT test has four sections — English, mathematics, reading and science. There is also an optional writing section. The difference, however, between a 24 and a 28 could mean $5,000 a year in scholarships.

I always recommend an ACT prep course in addition to the prep the children get in high school. Some of these prep courses take them through weeks up weeks of prep. I’m sure this helps a few kids. There is a prep company in my office building. I’ll come into my office on a Saturday morning and I pass by the kids. They all look board and miffed that they have to wake up on a Saturday morning. Let’s face it our kids are pretty busy these days. The kids have mentioned to me that these classes are a big burden to them. These test classes can also be expensive but I do believe that ACT prep is a good invetment.

On the otherhand there are other test prep that can be done online and do more show than tell.   Showing is a better way for the kids to learn. There are programs that will show the kids exactly how to solve the problem or what the correct answer was and why. Also, the ACT prep course may not go at your child’s pace. They will go at the pace of the teacher.

One other area to watch out for is the program should track your children’s strengths and weaknesses. The ACT test is a standard test, if we can focus their energy on the areas of weakness, then they should do much better on the test.

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10 Tips for Starting Your College Search (usnews.com)

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Click Here to learn how to receive a tuition discount regardless of your income….but you have to know the rules. Visit our site and join us at your FREE College Planning Workshop

Copyrighted 2009, All Rights Reserved. college financing, how to pay for college, college essays, entrance essay, college admission essay, free money for college, college savings plans

Common Application Review: Teacher Recommendation

College Admissions — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:38:51 +0000

If there are any misspellings in this post, I can’t take responsibility. My dog is at my feet snoring and the cat thinks I should be petting her instead of typing on a keyboard. She’s discovered that she likes to sit on the keyboard:) Animals really have their own unique personalities. I’m looking forward to today because the weatherman is saying today’s high will be 54 degrees. Not bad for a November day in Michigan. Really bad if you live in Florida:)

Last week, I left a workshop and I was totally swamped with questions. One that I get a lot from families is should I fill out the Common application or fill out the universities application. You can go to www.commonapp.org to see the common application. If you don’t know me my response to this question in the past has been to fill out the universities applications.

The stats for the common application, however, are becoming pretty interesting.

Over 1.6 M students have submitted applications. The average student submits to 3.87 universities. There are 391 members in 42 states. As you can see it’s catching on. Why? Simple, why write the same thing four times when you can do it once!

There are some interesting things about the common application.

For instance you can sign up your teachers and councilors on their system. The system will send an email to them requesting their evaluation. The teacher and councilor have an option to fill out the form on-line, refuse, or fill a paper copy. If they opt for a paper copy your child will have an additional step.

The evaluation form of the common application has a section for the teacher to rate your child in a number of different categories from “Below average” to “One of the top few I’ve encountered”. Examples of these ratings are integrity, leadership, maturity, reaction to setbacks and more.    The teacher can also write, in 149 characters or less, how long they’ve known the student and another 149 characters to talk about their first words that come to their mind about your child. What I don’t like about this is the last sentence was 36 characters over the limit! This simply means their answer has to be very concise and short. The common application does make up for this short fall because it allows the teacher to write a letter and upload it to the system. So if the teacher can really talk more about your child and I think this is a great feature they added.

It’s always my preference that we give the teacher or councilor as much room to write as possible. The more they write the better the school has an idea more about your child. Your child should help their teacher or counselor to write a glowing review of them! Have list accomplishments and activities. That way they have a thought starter. I would even give them examples that highlight their abilities in the different rating areas that I referenced above. The schools will see these ratings. Don’t leave it up to the teacher to fill out an evaluation or the forms using just their memory! Take the initiative to help them write the best review of your child!!

In the end the common application according to their website has about 390 participating colleges around the country. A very small percentage. If you do choose to use it, I would call the admission area of the university you’re interested and ask them what they think of the form.

The bottom line is my preference between the Common Application vs. the university application will depend. First if you’re having trouble getting your child to fill out one application, the common application will make your life easier. In the end, however, my preference would be for the application that allows your child to give the most personal information. The more the university understands your child and can see how they will benefit the university the better!
Click Here to learn how to receive a tuition discount regardless of your income….but you have to know the rules. Visit our site and join us at your FREE College Planning Workshop

Copyrighted 2009, All Rights Reserved. college financing, how to pay for college, college essays, entrance essay, college admission essay, free money for college, college savings plans

Twitter and Your College Application: Two birds of a feather?

College Admissions — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:31:40 +0000

I was at Best Buy today to look at TVs. It’s been a while since I shopped for electronics. I’ve caught the digital bug. I forgot how much fun it is to shop for electronics and technology….especially if it makes your room into a simulated concert hall or movie theater:)

The College of Charleston has taken the college application process to a new level.

They’ve incorporated a Twitter, which is a relatively new technology. By the way if you want to follow me on Twitter, find the link on this blog.

It’s clear that technology will continue to evolve our lives. In this case, the applicant tweets the college and tells them in 140 words or less why they are perfect for the college. If the school likes their tweet, the college will follow you back and begin a direct message conversation.

If you’re a parent reading this and this makes no sense, I’ll give you the 10 second lesson on twitter. Twitter allows you to “follow” someone. If you find someone or a group you can click a button and you will be following them. This allows you to see any updates from this person once you’ve logged onto your account. You can also send a message to anyone that is on twitter. The public message, however have to be under 140 characters. These 140 character discussions are called tweets. (Look on the side post for my tweets). Not so bad so far right?   All these conversations are public. Google will even find them. If you want a private conversation you start a direct message. Stop your timer, was that 10 seconds. If I had to explain twitter is 140 characters: “Sign onto twitter and follow someone to see what people are doing/saying. The 140 character posts are “tweets”. A direct message is private”

The colleges are trying to connect with students.

While this may seem controversial or even borderline ridiculous, the college is doing a few things. First it is connecting with students on a level they understand. See your kids are on twitter and the college is only going where their audience is. Second, the tweet is a very short interview with an admission counselor. If you ace the interview your application will get more attention.    This is a pretty cool use of technology on the part of the college.

This school has found a unique way to find their audience and is demonstrating they look at more than just grades and ACT scores when they determine admission. You see colleges have a model student. Once we identify their model we have a better chance at receiving tens of thousands in free grant money for college. The College of Charleston is looking for someone creative, interesting, concise, and open to try new things. I bet if you walked on campus you would see a lot of kids that have these qualities.
Click Here to learn how to receive a tuition discount regardless of your income….but you have to know the rules. Visit our site and join us at your FREE College Planning Workshop

Copyrighted 2009, All Rights Reserved. college financing, how to pay for college, college essays, entrance essay, college admission essay, free money for college, college savings plans

College Tuition Help Directly From the Federal Government

College Admissions — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:19:56 +0000

I was reading the paper today and the house is set to vote on their version of the health care bill. The next story was talking about expanding the control the fed has over large financial firms. You see the climate in America has shifted to the government taking control and make sure we all play nice together. Enough about politics, I’m feeling dirty.

The push is on to pull the student loan responsibilities from the private sector and handing it over to the federal government.

A lot has happened over this past year and it’s natural for people to be searching for a change. The fact of the matter is we need balance. The Federal Government has been subsidizing private lenders for years.   In the past the government felt the market could more efficiently handle itself. Recently the House of Representatives has voted to stop this practice and the Senate is due to vote soon.

18 months ago there was a lot of uncertainty about the credit market.

Many of the private student loan companies just left the business. There was a lot of concern about the availability of the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program loans for the 2008-2009 academic year. Congress, in this case, acted quickly and provided the Department of Education temporary authority to directly finance loans made through the FFEL program lenders. These loans are called Direct Loans. These were not free goverment grants but loans. The goal was to protect the students and universities to make sure if a lender did go out of the business there would be loans available for the students for college tuition help. This I applaud!!

The Education, Secretary Arne Dunan, has taken it upon himself to send a letter to colleges asking them to prepare to use the government’s direct loan program. Even President Obama is sounding in by pushing for 100 percent direct loans. My guess this will happen during the term of President Obama. I don’t agree that the Education Secretary should be sending a letter to push the government loan program.

So what does this all mean to you?

Probably not too much. As long as there is money in the system, to underwrite the loans, you don’t have anything to worry about.

I’m not going to get into the pros and cons and the politics of this debate. They run deep and there are definitely pros to the 100% Direct Loan program and conversely there are pros and cons to the Private sector loans. We all know this to be true, absolute power corrupts absolutely. No one person or group should have absolute authority over this or any process. I would caution switching completely to a Direct Loan Program. The private sector would make loans to people that otherwise would be hard-pressed to get a loan. I.e. .convicts and people with poor credit. One con for the movement to a direct loan system is that these direct loans cannot be discharged in a bankruptcy. We don’t want to encourage a bankruptcy but sometimes things happen like loss of job or medical issues.

I also do not expect the interest rates to go down from their current level. Right now, depending on the loan, you could expect around 6 to 6.5% interest rate. Even though the government can borrow more cheaply (at least until inflation), I don’t think the savings will be passed onto us because we are at a record deficit.
Click Here to learn how to receive a tuition discount regardless of your income….but you have to know the rules. Visit our site and join us at your FREE College Planning Workshop

Copyrighted 2009, All Rights Reserved. college financing, how to pay for college, college essays, entrance essay, college admission essay, free money for college, college savings plans

NEWS TO USE: How to get dollars for college (Detroit Free Press)

College Funding — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:43:27 +0000
This article, which talks about college tuition help, makes a short reference to two points I always harp on with my students. The adage in real estate is location, location, location. Free grant money for college can depend on Position, Position, Position. Al Hermsen, the director of Financial Aid at Wayne state was quoted in the article, "If the school wants you, the job of the financial aid office is to make it work." Here is where positioning comes in. Each school has a model student. It might be based just on grades and ACT but it will more likely also be based on leadership, where you grew up, race, first child to go to college. You see there are more things that a university looks at! The author also writes that it is important for the student to "nail the essay." Let's face it, your children are much much more than the application and the college can only see that through a good college essay. Grammar and structure will be important but more important will be the content! Many kids loose it here. It's OK to stand out! If they don't, how do you think the college will see their value to the university. Remember Hermsen's quote...."It's the job of the Financial aid office to make it work"....if they want your son or daughter. The author of the newspaper article should have put more emphasis on this....but don't worry, you can always come back here for more information. College scholarship dollars run out fast. Here are tips for upping your chances of nabbing that money: