The Questions You Need to Answer to Avoid Paying More for College Than You Need To
Today, a family can easily exceed $250,000 in college costs for just one child! (Source: College Board 2025 data analyzed by Collegiate Funding Solutions, Inc. Includes tuition, fees, room and board)
There are two different prices for a college education – one for the informed buyer and one for the uninformed.
Which price will you pay?
Making well-informed college savings, planning, admissions, and funding decisions can help you send your child to the right college, potentially save significantly on out-of-pocket college costs, and help you avoid suffocating student loan debt.
Effective college planning requires answering questions most families have never considered.
Uninformed decisions, mistakes, and missteps can significantly increase your college costs. With Mission Park Capital's help – as an ongoing GrowTogether℠ client or a one-time CollegeCostsTogether℠ client – you’ll gain greater clarity to these vitally important questions and how they fit to your particular planning scenario:
• Will we have to pay the school’s sticker price?
• How much will we realistically be expected to pay out-of-pocket at selected schools?
• Which schools should our child consider in order to get the best financial deal in the form of financial aid and scholarships?
• Will we qualify for financial aid?
• How much financial aid could we expect?
• How much free money (scholarships and grants) could our child receive?
• Can we increase our financial aid award? How?
• If our income is too high to qualify for financial aid, what strategies can reduce our out-of-pocket college costs?
• What merit scholarships at selected schools is our child eligible for? How much could they expect and what are the requirements?
• How can we increase the likelihood of earning scholarships?
• What mistakes should we avoid that could significantly increase college costs?
• What strategies can help us maximize free money for college?
• What is the best way for grandparents to help fund college costs?
• Are 529 Plans an appropriate choice for our situation?
• Which other savings strategies may be better given our circumstances?
• Will we qualify for education tax credits? How much could we receive?
• Can we leverage our business to reduce college costs? How?
• Would test preparation benefit our child? In what ways could it reduce college costs?
• How can we maintain or increase cash flow during the college years?
• What are the most appropriate funding strategies for covering any shortfalls?