Tools to Find a College (Pt. 1)

Submitted by Larry Frank Sr. on Mon, 01/27/2014 - 3:00pm

Initial shopping for a college confuses you enough without bedazzling last-minute offers of help for a price. In this first of two articles, here’s what to watch out for and how to start your own cheaper search. Recently a college application service approached a couple, who are my clients, about higher-education planning for their high school junior. Like most parents in a similar situation, they realized that some 18 months until tuition comes due is a little late to save more to pay for college. That’s the hook many private counseling services work on: They can save you money or find the right school at the last minute for a fee. These consultancies typically offer such services as application assistance and college or financial aid searches, as well as test preparation and reviews of admissions essays. They work a ripe market. Reads the Amazon page for Start Your Own College Planning Consultant Business, “a record 21.6 million students attended American colleges and universities in the fall of 2012. Of those students, the U.S. Census Bureau says, more than 4.4 million were in the 15-to-19 age bracket, the market primed and ready for the advice dispensed by college consultants.” And according to the Higher Education Consultants Association, “You may have read an article or seen a news report about educational consultants who charge exorbitant fees for their counseling services. Luckily, the majority of professional educational consultants offer reasonable prices for their services. Some consultants offer all-inclusive packages for a single fee, others will work with families on an hourly basis.” As a parent who searched for colleges for two of his children and as a financial planner who at one time considered offering these services (until

I saw the hidden agenda), I’m a skeptic. Your prospective college students’ exploring their own options prepares them better to make a decision that comes with lifetime consequences. You the parent must also recognize that someone else shouldn’t do this important work – especially when college-search professionals often look at the same resources you can use, too. You look not just for a college but also for ways to pay for education – and, before either, you discover the prospective student’s interests and career leanings. One good kickoff question: Are kids like yours unsure about their eventual professional interest? Probably. How would they know what kind of jobs and careers are out there, since they’re teens still relatively lacking in life experience? Here you enter the career-search phase. Why waste time exploring schools and majors that don’t fit your situation or child’s interests? Online resources can help determine a child’s skills and aptitudes: K-12 Student Resources from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This government site lets your student explore interests, states’ economic outlooks, job-search terms and what different jobs and occupations pay. Use the search box to pinpoint such details of a job or career as wages, training sources, general work environment and others. EducationPlanner. This site from the Pennsylvania Higher Education

Assistance Agency and its student-loan servicing operations offers high school students information on careers and colleges – including ways to pay tuition – with what it calls “simple search tools, clever interactive exercises and straightforward instructions.” The site also provides information and tools for parents and counselors. O*NET Online interest profiler. Your student likes or dislikes various activities – from building kitchen cabinets to helping people with emotional problems to managing a retail store – to access interests. Best advice it gives for both you and your kid: “Try not to think about how much money you would make doing the work,” and “There are no right or wrong answers.” Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test. This

great tool for students to see where their interests and personalities fit in our economy carries no obligation to the military. Use free career-interest resources already available and save money for what you really need it for: your kid’s education. (In part two we examine how to pinpoint colleges and find sources of financial aid on your own.) Follow AdviceIQ on Twitter at @adviceiq.

Larry R. Frank Sr., CFP, is a Registered Investment Adviser (California) in Roseville, Calif. He is the author of the book, Wealth Odyssey. He has an MBA with a finance concentration and B.S. cum laude in physics with which he views the world of money dynamically. He has peer-reviewed research published in the Journal of Financial Planning. http://blog.betterfinancialeducation.com/. AdviceIQ delivers quality personal finance articles by both financial advisors and AdviceIQ editors. It ranks advisors in your area by specialty, including small businesses, doctors and clients of modest means, for example. Those with the biggest number of clients in a given specialty rank the highest. AdviceIQ also vets ranked advisors so only those with pristine regulatory histories can participate. AdviceIQ was launched Jan. 9, 2012, by veteran Wall Street executives, editors and technologists. Right now, investors may see many advisor rankings, although in some areas only a few are ranked. Check back often as thousands of advisors are undergoing AdviceIQ screening. New advisors appear in rankings daily.

Topic: Career Management College Funding Costs