How to Save Money on Your Child's Post-Secondary Education

Last month we talked about the importance of planning for life after high school starting as early as 8th grade, and how you--the parent--are a critical factor in influencing your child to choose courses that are challenging and will help them with their goals for the future.

This month we'll talk about how to pay for a post-secondary education.  Not only do I have the privilege of speaking from my experience as an educator, but as the parent of a college student myself.

Step 1:

Go on college visits, starting in your child's junior year. 
Doing so not only helps you and your child decide on what they're looking for in a college experience, but also gets you asking informed questions about what it really costs to attend college.

Step 2:

Ask questions about what it really costs to attend college. 
Seek out friends and co-workers who have sent kids to college.  Talk with them.  Ask our counselor, or ask me, what we know about tuition rates, financial aid, savings plans.  Best of all, ask the colleges themselves.  A couple of calls to their financial aid office will yield a wealth of information that you can use as you make a plan.

Step 3:

Make a plan, with your child, about how their education will be paid for. 
First of all, there are many options from which to choose, right?  Community college, four-year university, public or private, military first...Those college visits you took in Step 1 will help with this! 

How much of their education will you pay out of your own pocket?  How much do you expect them to pay for themselves, and will they earn that money primarily in the summers, or will they work and go to school at the same time?  I worked full time while attending my last three years of college--it was not much fun, but it sure cut down on the amount of debt I burdened myself with.

Step 4:

When making your plan for funding this investment, come at it from the perspective of, "How can we do this with as little debt as possible?"

Don't let your child make this mistake:  "Well when I graduate I'm going to be a doctor/lawyer/movie star, and I'll be able to easily pay off any loans."  That is just plain wrong thinking.
Instead of focusing on ways to pay for an education, think about ways to reduce the cost up front.  Encourage your child to test out of lower level college classes before they take them--boom, there's hundreds of dollars savings.  Encourage your child to take carefully selected PSEO courses in high school--hundreds more dollars saved.  Perhaps living at home and attending a local community college works well at first--thousands of dollars in savings. 

Step 5:

Meet or beat all deadlines. 

First of all, unless you're going to write a single check to pay for a full year of tuition, meals, and lodging, you must complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).  The earliest you can complete it is January 1 of the year in which your child starts (or continues) their education. 

My advice from personal experience?  Set an alarm for January 1 and complete it that day!  You'll only be able to use financial estimates because your taxes won't be done yet, but getting the first draft of that FAFSA completed early puts your son or daughter in line for financial aid.  The later you complete the form, the farther back in line you go.

Hopefully you and your child will be actively scrounging the internet for scholarship opportunities--those all have deadlines, too.  My son missed out on a potential scholarship from ISU because we started looking in March, but that particular scholarship had a February deadline.

Step 6 (the most important, and it starts TODAY, no matter how young the child is)

Your child should always take challenging courses, work hard, keep their nose clean, and pursue a variety of experiences as a high school student.

This develops habits of a strong work ethic, the ability to interact successfully with a variety of people, effective time management, and decision-making skills.  All of these increase scholarship eligibility, and are qualities that support a successful entry into life after high school.