Author archives for Graham Archer
Blog
Comparing Award Letters Can Save You Money
Back in December of 2018, I wrote a blog that focused on helping parents understand that they don’t have to settle for the first offer a college makes in the initial award letter presented to their student.
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Blog
How to Negotiate What You Pay for College
If you have a high school senior, they are likely excited about getting acceptance letters in the coming New Year. And, if awards are offered – what I call “free money” – most families will take those offers at face value and accept them outright.
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Getting the Right Mindset
The students have to do the work, and we have to hold them accountable for doing it. When we do, they won’t drop out, give in to peer pressure, or take six years to get a four-year degree. And we’ll save a small fortune.
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Home for the Holidays
Having your college student home for the holidays is the next evolution in family traditions. It just includes more food, more laundry detergent and zero expectations of seeing them before noon. But it’ll still be worth the wait!
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Self Awareness Is Your Student’s Super Power
Self-awareness is one of the 12 critical components in any successful college plan. But self-awareness is an EQ (emotional intelligence) element, not an IQ element, so the typical high school curriculum doesn’t really address this.
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3 Categories of Available Scholarships
Few elements of the college project plan are as misunderstood as scholarships. Substantial resources are available for students to access, but knowing where they are, who controls the purse strings, and how to get them is important.
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Post College Success: Your School Doesn’t Determine This, You Do
Scholars at Stanford Graduate School of Education, wrote “A ‘Fit’ Over Rankings” that indicates that students themselves determine their destinies, not their schools.
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Making a Difference
Often times the full benefit can only be seen on the back end of everything, in the rear view mirror. Never Pay Retail for College isn’t just a book title – it’s literally the operating system for what we do on a daily basis. But parents need to see what I see so they can understand what we do.
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FAFSA Filing and Giving Yourself Financial Options
As I mentioned in a previous post, October is the time of year for families with high school seniors to file for financial aid. Families should be filling out their FAFSA and CSS Profile (where applicable), and it can be more stressful than filing a tax return. Given how complicated the process is and the need to reveal your financial life to strangers, no one would blame you for not wanting to participate.
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Blog
FAFSA Filing
This is an exciting and stressful time for families with seniors. So, take a deep breath and remember that getting into college is not the end goal. It is the start of the process of adulthood and independence for our children.
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