What is a College Planning Consultant?

A relatively new and specialized area of financial planning are planners who help families through the financial aid process. There has been some controversy regarding the practices of financial aid consultants, particularly from the colleges.

First and foremost, financial aid consultants are not scholarship search services. In my opinion, the bad press these services receive is well-deserved. The need and importance for a legitimate and competent financial aid specialist can be demonstrated by the term I call, "financial aid perspective."

Case in point: Mrs. Brown, the financial aid administrator at a local independent college, has a reputation for doing everything possible to help the students attend her school. Unfortunately, she does not have an unlimited budget and must stretch the grant money out as far as possible. Although Mrs. Brown's sincerity is beyond reproach, there are two inherent perspective problems.

First and foremost, Mrs. Brown is employed by the college, not the student. Within her means, she will be accommodating, but her means may be limited and she may be dealing with thousands of students.

Second, despite Mrs. Brown's dedication, will she suggest applying to other schools? Will she explain techniques of negotiating a financial aid package, or will she offer suggestions to help increase your financial aid eligibility, knowing that her school doesn't have the means to meet the student's increased need?

A "college planning" consultant works for you. He or she has no vested interest in any particular school, governmental agency or lending institution. The consultant is employed to help the family receive the best financial aid package legally possible and has only one vested interest--the client.

The end result can be hundreds or thousands of dollars in increased aid eligibility. This is accomplished by having a thorough understanding of the financial aid process and employing sound college financial aid planning principles. This is analogous to tax-accountants suggesting tax reduction strategies to their clients.

They are neither unethical or immoral, they are informed. Knowledge is power. With the college costs families are faced with today, you need all you can get.

Excerpt from College Financial Aid-How To Get Your Fair Share by

Peter V. Laurenzo, Certified Financial Planner

Why Use A Consultant?

Families hire educational consultants for a variety of reasons, and their services can vary depending on the needs of particular students and their families. For example, a student might need assistance with narrowing down career options. A consultant can work with the student, through counseling and more formal assessment tools, to explore their career interests and aptitudes. These can be compared against comprehensive information about the rewards and demands of different occupations, as well as projections about future employment outlooks, to help the student to discover realistic career options that make sense for him or her and also offer a reasonable probability of future employment.

When a student has some specific career options in mind, the consultant can work with the student to explore different ways of preparing for those careers, and their associated advantages and disadvantages. For example, a student exploring a nursing career has a variety of options for professional training in terms of educational setting, as well as possible specializations and levels of training. These choices will have a great impact on future employability and earnings potential, as well as future personal and professional growth. The same applies to students interested in computing, business, and a variety of other fields. The consultant can work with the student in order to find the colleges and universities that will meet their needs.

There are literally thousands of schools in the United States alone, each with its unique personality and educational offerings. Finding a school that will provide for a student’s happiness and personal growth, as well as preparing them properly for their chosen career, is a daunting task - there’s a tremendous amount of information to sort through, and it’s an important decision with enormous potential impact on the student’s future. Schools need to be compared on a variety of factors, such as the overall quality of the school and it’s educational programs; whether the school has the specific programs that meet the student’s goals and interests, and the quality of those specific programs; the personality of the school and it’s surrounding environment, and how that matches up with the student’s needs and desires; and such practical matters as distance from home and affordability (this is not simply a matter of comparing "sticker price"). While it’s possible that simply applying to Podunk University down the street might fit the bill, it’s not very likely - it’s better to give the decision the time and thought it deserves, and an educational consultant can be a tremendous asset in this process.

Once some possible schools have been identified (it’s best to have some options to work with), the next step is the lengthy and complex process of narrowing down the field to the one school that the student will end up attending. The student is looking at several different schools, and the school is looking at several potential students, and both have a lot of choices to make. The school is looking for a quality student who has the potential to do well in their particular environment and programs, fits the "freshman profile" as a potential asset to the quality and diversity of the student body, and who will hopefully become a faithful (and generous) alumnus someday. The student is looking for a school that will meet their educational needs and that they will enjoy. There are a wide variety of factors that go into this decision. These include such things as size of school, educational programs offered, enrichment programs, cost, and location; as well as a long list of other factors. Some students and their families are very organized about gathering and sorting through this information, others are not, and those who are not can waste an awful lot of time and money as they stumble through and learn from their mistakes. Again, a qualified consultant can be a real asset - a consultant can provide organization and a coherent process to work through, help the student and his family to figure out what exactly they’re looking for (many high school students don’t honestly know the answer to this question), help them to efficiently gather and sort through the information they need, and point out the pitfalls along the way as they try to make this important decision. A good consultant can also assist the student in figuring out how they match up with what the school is looking for, and how to present this to the school so it can make the best possible decision about admittance. Ultimately, this is a service to the school as well - they want students who will do well and be happy enough to stay there for four years, and an informed student is much more likely to be a happy one.

Finally, a good consultant can be a tremendous asset in working out an answer to that all-important question ‘how in the world am I going to pay for all this?’ A college education is one of life’s most important purchases, and one of the most expensive ones as well, with a total sticker price that can reach $120,000 or more. The price is usually more than worth it in terms of increased lifetime earning power, especially for those who go on to graduate school, but it’s still a huge expense that very few can afford ‘out of pocket’. Financial aid is a virtual necessity for almost everybody. There is a tremendous amount of financial aid available out there, but as in all other matters where the government and large amounts of money are placed in close proximity, unfortunately there is also a tremendous amount of bureaucracy and the proverbial ‘red tape’. There are a wide variety of government financial aid programs on all levels, as well as an even wider variety of private sources, and of course each individual school has it’s own resources as well. The process of financing college is a complicated and cumbersome one, and the end result is that it's not necessarily a fair one. It’s almost like buying an airline ticket - nobody gets the same deal as the person he ends up sitting next to, and the logic of it all frequently seems to be nonexistent. The good news is that there is a logic here, a ‘reason to the madness’ if you will - it’s just that it’s complicated, and it takes a great deal of study and expertise to make it work efficiently (in other words, to your best benefit). A qualified consultant has taken the time to learn and keep up with the process, and has the expertise to help a student get the best deal possible, much as a qualified tax accountant can help get the best deal with the IRS. This is a closer analogy than you might think- the financial aid system is almost as complex as the U. S. tax code, and just as difficult to navigate successfully. Like taxes, it is possible to do financial aid yourself, but if you do it yourself you’re just as likely to pay too much.

College is an incredibly important step, with tremendous rewards in terms of increased earnings potential and quality of life. It only makes sense to get all the help you can along the way to making your college education a reality.