College Money Matters has a very clear mission: to help students and their families get smarter about paying for college, so they can avoid a lifetime of debt.
Our vision is that by providing clear, honest, and unbiased information in an engaging and easy-to-understand way, we can help more and more people make the right choices for their futures.
Here are just some of the things we hope you and others learn to do from our site
- Consider the cost of a college to be as important as other common decision factors, such as size, location, type of student body, and grades required.
- Know how to differentiate between wants and needs.
- Calculate what a loan really costs over time
- Gain a good estimate of the total cost of a college, including such non-academic factors as transportation, living at home versus on campus, lifestyle expenses, and more.
- Understand the cost and career benefits of graduating in 4 years, as opposed to 5 or 6 years.
- Recognize that FAFSA serves two entirely different purposes: One, to qualify students of any income for low cost government loans and scholarships, and two, to qualify needs-based students for Pell Grants
- Begin to apply for scholarships even before applying to colleges, despite how counter-intuitive that might seem.
- Explore better options than taking out loans that can’t comfortably be paid back in ten years.
There’s much more to learn on collegemoneymatters.org than this short list, and the more you go through the site, the more you’ll discover. And if there’s more you’d like to know, you’re welcome to contact us anytime with your questions and ideas.