In this week’s episode you will hear

In the News (12:28) :In this week’s “In the news” segment, a blog article from the Josiah Barlett center of Public Policy entitled, by Andrew Cline “Is College Worth Is: Usually but not always” Dave and Mark discuss the statistics the blog article shares as they debate if college is worth it. (Length 20 minutes)

https://jbartlett.org/2021/10/is-college-worth-it-usually-but-not-always-new-study-finds/

This week’s question (32:30) Mark and Lisa discuss two questions, one from a dad from Colorado and one from a high school student. Here are the two questions: First question- How can you evaluate whether a school does better than its peers at looking after First year students-Dave from Colorado.

Second question-I attend a small school and two of my peers committed to Duke as athletic recruits, will Duke consider taking 3 students from my small school or will their commitments hurt my chance of admission? Anonymous female student (Length 26 minutes)

This week’s interview (58:30) Mark interviews two financial aid experts: Michael Ireland, Associate Director of Financial Aid and Courtney Hatch Blauvett, the Director of College Counseling at Miss Hall’s school and the former financial aid officer at four different colleges. Michael and Courtney answer 13 questions that listeners to YCBK sent in over the last three months on all topics related to paying for college, financial aid, scholarships, etc. This is part 5 of 5. Preview-Part 5: (1) Courtney and Michael continue their discussion about common mistakes they see a lot on the FAFSA and the PROFILE. Michael finishes up with the FAFSA and then he transitions to the PROFILE, (2) Courtney shares the most common mistakes she experiences both when she did financial aid and now that she is a Director of College Counseling, (3) Courtney and Michael answer the question, “Are you experiencing more schools requiring the FAFSA for merit aid”?, (4) Courtney-If my student will be starting college in the fall of 2022. I have heard that we should pay as we go for the first two years and use very little of our 529. The reason for this is that the colleges use your prior prior year taxes for FAFSA. Because if we wait for the last two years to use the money for the 529 it will not have any tax impact because he will be completed by then. So basically what I’m saying is we can use a lump sum toward his college and it not be held against us,

(5) Mark puts Courtney and Michael on the hot seat with some lighthearted non financial aid questions, (6) Courtney returns for a 15 minute addendum to really emphasize some things about federal loans, student loans, parent loans and graduate student loans. (Length 14 minutes)

Mark’s recommended resource of the week (1:12:14) Our recommended resource for episode 206 is a great source for understanding how Federal legislation will impact what students have to pay for college. If you like following the technical aspects of student aid, the NASFAA Off the Cuff podcast may be for you.

College Spotlight: No college spotlight this week. Next week we will discuss, Sewanee: The University of the South

Don’t forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to: questions@yourcollegeboundkid.com

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Every episode of Your College-Bound Kid will align with a chapter from the book 171 Answers to the Most-Asked College Admission Questions. To get a copy visit 171answers.com and if you want to see what future episodes will cover just click the red button “See exactly what 171 Answers covers”.