Customer Reviews

Paying for College without Going Broke, 2009 Edition (College Admissions Guides)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
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Chany explains upfront that the most financial aid goes not to the "neediest" but to those who best understand the financial aid process. This happens for many reasons including the many financial aid loopholes. Structuring your finances to maximize aid awarded to your children entering and in college is legal and ethical says Chany. He argues that just as making decisions to legally minimize taxes is ethical, so too is maximizing aid so long as you tell the truth in aid applications.

Colleges and their financial aid officers don't explain the often mysterious process and formulas by which financial aid awards are determined. Chany has filled this void in his comprehensive book.

Chany is one of a handful of nationally recognized experts on how the college financial aid process works and what you can do to maximize your child's aid. His book, which has been in print since the early 1990s, is updated annually. Chany also discusses the college selection process, how state aid works, and he walks the reader through how to complete all the major aid forms.

For a more detailed summary of this book, please see my website (www.erictyson.com)

- Eric Tyson
Best-selling author of Personal Finance for Dummies

I wish I'd found this book 15, 10 or 5 years ago but even so, with my son in his junior year of high school (a CRUCIAL year in preparing your financial aid info), I am very glad I found this book! Why you ask?

Because it has detailed and easy to understand information about filling out those FAFSA application ~ yes! BUT MORE than that, because it tells me what to do in this year, the base year that the college where my son will be going and the FAFSA people will be using to determine how much the financial aid should be for the four years of college.

No, this isn't for students and it doesn't give you a list of places to apply for financial aid - this is mostly about the FASFA application, although it touches on others and goes over common ways to put money aside.

This book gave me sound advice on what to do and not to do with the assets I have now (I'm a low income self employed single parent - but it also tells what many other parents in other situations can do), explains what will and won't count and how differently FAFSA assesses your assets and values than the government does when you fill out your tax forms. I think reading this book and using it when I fill out the forms next year could save me thousands of dollars and a lot of time and heart-ache.

If you are the parent of a child heading off for college within the next 1 - 15 years, this book is VALUABLE in terms of telling you how to strategically, legally and ethically plan to do so -- how to play by the rules.

Crucial, excellent, valuable -- I can't say enough! I am eagerly waiting for October when the 2010 edition comes out, as it will help me fill out the forms for that year, but even on my tiny income, this edition was one of the best investments I made toward my son's college education.

I'm a recent college grad that paid for college, and completed the financial aid process, on my own. I was reading this book specifically to review it, and was actually a little depressed. Not because the book is bad (that's far from true), but because I saw all the places where I could have done things differently, and gotten more money for school (and thus decreased the huge debt load that I'm now paying off).

I disagree with the reviewer that said there isn't much here for the average parent or child - I think there's more than plenty here for the average college applicant's family. The problem is that a lot of it has to be taken into account a few years before the student starts college. If you take "average" to mean "families that put off thinking about college until the last minute," then yes, there's less here for those families than forward-thinking ones. But there's even some information procrastinators can use.

All-in-all, I feel that the book breaks down the process really well, and that there's at least a little something for everyone: from parents of newborns looking for long-term planning, to current students looking to beef up their aid package next year.

My criticism of the book is this: it's very much written for parents. There's very little in it targeted at students directly. Students who are living through my situation, and doing it all on their own, may come away from this book thinking there is very little they can do on their own to increase their aid. That's not true - the book just requires a lot of "translating" for students in this situation.

This book is a must read for every parent that has a child going into high school. If your child is already in their final years of high school or in college, it is still helpful, but many of the best suggestions need to be taken into account 4-8 years before your oldest child's junior year of college. I have been advising friends on how to get the best financial aid package they can for over 10 years (when our daughter was a junior in high school I read the earlier edition of this book from cover to cover) and every time I tell them to "run don't walk to your computer and buy this book from Amazon". The advice inside it is clearly written, easily understandable and helps parents not only negotiate the difficult task of filling out FAFSA forms but understanding how the aid formulas work and how to correctly and legally place your assets in such a way as to maximize financial aid for your student (and help grandparents wanting to help not to jeopardize scholarship aid). It is worth every penny. I have the 1998 edition, the 2003 edition and now I am buying the 2010 edition as well. I have read through many other books on financial aid, but this is the best of the best!

The book gives a solid step-by-step detailed walk through the financial aid forms with helpful hints. It should prove to be very useful when the time comes to fill out the forms. The timing may be hard to believe, but it makes sense that this book would be even more helpful if read the 2d half of sophomore year/1st half of junior year, which is earlier than most people would think of it.

Informative for parents of all students who plan to go to college. Should be read before they finish their junior year of high school.

I did not use this product,but sent it to my son who has a college bound daughter. He thought it quite useful.

Read entire book used all tips but got 0 financial aide or loans.
Too time consuming. Not worth it

Some good info contained, but 90% of what is there the AVERAGE parents/students cannot use. Not worth the purchase price in my opinion.