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College List BuildingUC Berkeley Common Data Set
Sifting through a college’s Common Data Set can take a lot of time. Instead, we’ve gathered the most important information from UC Berkeley’s most recent Common Data Set to provide you with the information you need at a quick glance. This guide contains key information from UC Berkeley Common Data Set 2025-2026. Berkeley Common Data…
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SurviveHow to Apply to College: A Mother’s Advice
Being a mother with a child going through the college process is a little like childbirth — while it’s happening it’s soo painful, but when it’s over you look back and think it wasn’t that bad (but it really was!). Parents love to share information about how to apply to college and pay for it. So if…
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ApplyThe 13 Most Haunting College Admissions Errors
Seniors who plan on applying to college early decision/early action should keep in mind that EARLY is the operative word here, and not wait until the last minute to apply. It’s always advantageous to get a head start and leave yourself plenty of time to think things through and get organized. If you’re applying early,…
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SurviveHow to Handle Rejection: What to Say When Your Teen Doesn’t Make the Team
It’s tryout season, so there’s bound to be disappointments. Know what to say and do to help get your teen over this hurdle.
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Apply4 Strategies to Improve Your College Admission Chances…Without Breaking the Law
Any parent who’s been through the college admissions process with their son or daughter can tell you how anxiety-ridden and stressful it is. So, we didn’t really need THE “College Admissions Scandal” a few years back to prove how the process could make families go to extreme measures to help their children improve (or in…
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FinanceReviewing Your FAFSA Student Aid Report
You’ve submitted your FAFSA, and now what? After it’s processed, you’ll receive a FAFSA Student Aid Report (SAR). If you put an email address on the FAFSA, you’ll receive the SAR via email. Otherwise, it will come through the mail and may take several extra days. What does the Student Aid Report look like…what does…
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ApplyThe Theory Of Supply and Demand in College Admissions
Why do you need to understand the basics of supply and demand in higher education? Because paying for college is like paying for any other service or product in your life. Higher education is a business, with its own marketplace, that abides (somewhat) by the basic principles you may have learned in economics. The sooner…
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ApplyColleges Marketing to High School Students: Annoying or Effective?
Has your high school student received one too many emails that look like this one? Dear Josh: Middle State College thinks you would be a great addition to our campus in the fall of 2025! We’ve heard about your excellent high school record and passion for community service. Please come visit us soon! Come hear…
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College Life6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting College
Freshman year at college can be one of the most thrilling, exhausting, exciting, stressful, and overall unforgettable years of any student’s life. For teens, leaving your parents’ nest for the first time for the unknown abyss of the collegiate experience can be incredibly daunting. Although you can never know for sure what to expect out…
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ApplyHow to Have a Successful College Visit
College tours have become an important stage in the college admissions process. And whether your child is planning on doing one or ten, college tours can be the source of both great anticipation and anxiety…for students AND parents. It just feels like there’s so much to know – and so much to keep track of.…
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Student & Parent LoansHow to Calculate Student Loan Payments
Student loan payments can sneak up on a student. After all, who really thought about what life with student loan payments would be like after college when they first borrowed the money? To help your student avoid that sinking feeling, it’s important to recalculate loans each semester. Here’s what you need to know to do…
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College prepPSAT vs. SAT: What’s the Difference?
When it comes to standardized tests, the PSAT and SAT are pretty similar. In fact, the PSAT is part of how your student can prepare for the SAT. When you dig a little deeper, however, you’ll find that understanding the purpose of these two tests and how they are used in your student’s academic career…
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Financial Aid AppealsTips for Handling Your Student’s Financial Aid Appeal
The financial aid letter just arrived at your home – and you feel deflated. The school your student is most excited about didn’t offer enough money, and now you feel like the Grinch. Is this it? Do you have to tell your child the school is a no-go? Not quite. Sometimes you can negotiate with…
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Apply10 Tips for Staying Sane While Writing College Application Essays
Writing College Admission Essays Writing college application essays is so different from the type of writing students are used to doing for high school classes. And while they may balk and protest, the summer before senior year is the perfect time for them to start writing essays for college applications. These essays are meant to…
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Paying Off LoansPublic Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): How You Qualify and Whether or Not to Count on It
What Is Student Loan Forgiveness? Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) provides welcome relief from student loan debt for students choosing a career in public service. No matter what level of debt they have, the remaining balance can be forgiven after 10 years (120 months) of on-time payments that are considered by the government to be…
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ApplyCollege Admissions 2019 Survey Results
More than 370 members of our Paying for College 101 Facebook group responded to our recent College Admissions 2019 Survey with College Ave Student Loans. These families had a variety of experiences in being accepted, as well as different experiences when it comes to navigating the financial aid process. Most of the parents taking this…
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Advice10 Ways Parents Can Help Their Students Deal with College Rejections
What you as a parent should do if your teen got rejected from his/her top college. First, take a breath, be positive, and follow these 10 pieces of advice.
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High school to collegeCollege Move-In Day: What Parents Need to Know
At the beginning of each school year, hundreds of thousands of college students descend upon cities and towns all around the country. Let’s Talk College Move-In Day These kids and their shell-shocked parents carry and drag carton upon carton of “stuff” with which to make their dorm rooms feel like home. And very often, at…
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FinanceHow to Pay for College Without Sacrificing Retirement
I woke up today deep in thought about college costs and all the aspects of a family’s life it impacts. It hit me how much making the best decision possible on where my kids go to college is key for the financial health of our family, and in particular our retirement. Here’s my backstory that…
