Fancy web sites, glossy brochures, and colorful college view books certainly contain good information, but they can also disguise some negative features important to you and emphasize others that are positive, yet have no bearing on your decision.  Don’t rely primarily on information provided in marketing material such as pamphlets, brochures, web pages, and catalogues.

So how do you know if a college is right for you? Today it’s critical for college-bound students to actually visit college campuses as part of their college planning process. To get a real feel for the college or university where they will be spending the next four to five years of their lives, nothing beats actually visiting the campus.

What you do in preparation for the visit and what you accomplish while touring the campus will determine the value of the trip.  Plan ahead, have a game plan and follow through.

Here are some things to think about:

How’s the Fit?

Visiting the campus allows you to get a real feeling for a school.  By immersing yourself in the school’s atmosphere you can discover if it’s a place where you will be comfortable on a daily basis or a place you can’t wait to get away from.  A one or two day visit can’t possibly tell you everything you want to know about the school, but it does provide an inside look into the different academic, environmental, and social aspects of the university.

Don’t limit yourself by just strolling the grounds during your visit. Go inside the buildings and snoop around.  Visit different classes.  Talk to professors and students.  Taste the dining hall food and hang out at the student commons.

Involve Your Family

College visits are a great way to spend some quality time with your family.  Seek their perspective.  Ask their advice and opinion on the campus.  They need to feel comfortable with the college as well.  After al1, this may be the place you’ll be spending the next four years; it wouldn’t hurt for your parents to know the area for when they officially visit their full-time student.

Have a Plan

You should gather as much information as you can prior to visiting the college. This will make it a successful trip.  Don’t arrange your visit during end-of-the-semester finals week.  Everyone will be too busy and stressed to pay you any mind, even if you just want directions.  Plan on a fall weekday during September or October because classes will be in session, and the campus will be in full operation.  You’ll be able to get more attention from the students and professors earlier in the semester.

Packing Your Bags

You’ll want to make a lot of phone calls before your trip.  Find out if the school offers a campus tour during your visit and if there will be time to schedule a meeting with an admissions and financial aid officer, in case you want to arrange interviews.

Ask what materials you will need to bring with you.  For example, if you’ve requested an interview, the staff member may want to see a copy of your high school transcript and test scores.

Before visiting the campus:

1  Make sure the day and the time to visit is convenient and practical.

2  Arrange for a campus tour if required.

3  Request an interview if appropriate.

4  Ask that school information be mailed to you.

5  Ask if you need to bring any information with you.

6  Write out questions you want to ask and information you want to gather.

7  Find out if special accommodations are available or make motel reservations.

8  Request a course schedule and activity calendar.

9  Determine the driving time between your home and the college.

10  Get the names and numbers to contact once you arrive.

A two-day visit requires a place for you and your family to stay. Does the college have special dining and sleeping accommodations?  If the school does not provide housing, ask about local hotels, including their phone numbers.  Lastly, but probably most critically, find out the driving time between your home and the college.  If it’s a lengthy drive, you may want to fly instead.

First Impressions

Don’t allow your first impressions to dictate your overall feeling for the

school.  Whether it’s everything you expected it to be, or nothing like you imagined, there are so many places to visit and things to accomplish (classes to visit, people to talk with, and facilities and buildings to explore) before forming a lasting impression.

During the campus tour, pay close attention to the tour guide.  Oftentimes, he or she will give you tips on the best places to study and where you can eat to escape the infamous dining hall food.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  They are there to help prospective students.

After the tour is over it will be up to you to find your way around campus. Visit the student commons.  Here you will find a myriad of things: students lounging on the sofas, game rooms, retail food joints, the campus post office, meeting rooms for student organizations, and bulletin boards announcing group meetings, concerts, festivals, want ads, and ride requests.

The bookstore, the library, and the computer labs are places you’ll want to visit.  While in the bookstore, check out what’s for sale.  If you think the new books are too pricey you can probably find used ones to buy.

The library should be on your itinerary.  Check to see if students really study there or just hang out to socialize.  If it’s a large university it will probably have several specialized libraries.  Visit as many as you can to see which ones would suit your studying style.

The computer labs would be a great stopping point to see if there are enough computers for the students or is there a long waiting list to get on.  Does the attendant know what’s going on?  Is he or she helpful?  What are the lab’s hours of operation?

Moving about the campus, keep in mind that students and professors can answer any question you may have.  Ask students for their opinion of the school and campus life and whether they have encountered difficulties during their first year.

Find a couple of professors to ask how tough the classes are and what they expect of their students; what qualities they think a student should possess to do well academically.

Write It Down

It’s critical to take good notes during your visit.  After being on campus for a day you will probably feel like you’re a real college student, but remember that you’re still only a visitor and won’t be coming back for some time.  So any impressions you have of the campus will more than likely fade over the next few days. It would be a good idea to take notes during your visit.  Write down anything that comes to mind.  Did you get all of your questions answered? Write it down. Any information you put down will be helpful  later as you weigh your options and make your final decision.

A Photo is Worth a Thousand Words

It’s also not a bad idea to bring your camera and take pictures.  Comparing photos will help you remember your likes and dislikes when you’re trying to choose between several different colleges and universities.  In conjunction with your notes, photographs are a great way to remember distinct features of the campus.

When the Dust Settles

Once you’re back home and have a chance to relax, contemplate your visits and start formulating your initial impressions.  Write a thank you letter to your tour guide and interviewer.  Expressing your appreciation for their time and valuable insight is the polite thing to do and gives you a chance to ask any additional questions.  Plus, your thoughtfulness may just get mentioned to those in decision making positions.

Can’t Get Out of Town?

While it’s extremely beneficial to actually visit the campuses of those colleges and universities you are thinking of applying to, sometimes it is just not possible due to family circumstances, time restrictions, or even finances. Don’t worry.  There are alternative methods offered by schools and guidance offices that will help you make your college decisions. 

Many colleges and universities offer videos and CD-ROMs.  Check your

career center in the guidance office or library for the materials.  The college will even send you a free copy.

The Internet is another good alternative.  Browse the school’s web site.  There are normally pictures of the campus as well as facts about the college, the students, faculty and the degree programs.

And don’t forget those college fairs.  You can gather a great deal of information on a number of schools in a very short time, and there are representatives, admissions officers, and alumni on hand to answer all your questions.

Even though there are alternatives to a campus visit, it is still strongly recommended that you make every effort to see the college or university first hand before you sign on the dotted line.  Remember, “Never buy sight unseen.”

Juniors, you’re going to be high school seniors before you know it, and with the first grading period comes the anxiety of filling out college applications.  At this point, you should have a pretty good is of the college and universities you’re going to apply to.  Visit their web sites and find the requirement for an essay or personal statement.  Some won’t be published yet for the next school year, but there is enough that are provided that you can get a good start on your writing.

The first thing to do is compare all the writing requirements.  Write them down and look to see how any of them are similar.   Consider how the same basic essay may be used for different requirements just by changing the opening and closing sentences.  Some schools will except any sort of personal statement  or one you’ve written for another school.  Get it organized so you know exactly what you have to write and how much, and start brainstorming ideas. 

Your essay is a tremendous opportunity to showcase yourself as a person and a community member, but for goodness sakes, if the instructions tell you not to send an essay, don’t send an essay.  To do so will only demonstrate to the college that you can’t follow instructions.  

Here are some tips provided by the College Board:

A great application essay will present a vivid, personal, and compelling view of you to the admissions staff. It will round out the rest of your application and help you stand out from the other applicants. The essay is one of the only parts of your application over which you have complete control, so take the time to do a good job on it. Check out these tips before you begin.

A great application essay will present a vivid, personal, and compelling view of you to the admissions staff. It will round out the rest of your application and help you stand out from the other applicants. The essay is one of the only parts of your application over which you have complete control, so take the time to do a good job on it. Check out these tips before you begin.

Dos

Keep Your Focus Narrow and Personal

Your essay must prove a single point or thesis. The reader must be able to find your main idea and follow it from beginning to end. Try having someone read just your introduction to see what he thinks your essay is about.

Essays that try to be too comprehensive end up sounding watered-down. Remember, it’s not about telling the committee what you’ve done—they can pick that up from your list of activities—instead, it’s about showing them who you are.

Prove It

Develop your main idea with vivid and specific facts, events, quotations, examples, and reasons. There’s a big difference between simply stating a point of view and letting an idea unfold in the details:

§  Okay: ”I like to be surrounded by people with a variety of backgrounds and interests”

§  Better: ”During that night, I sang the theme song from Casablanca with a baseball coach who thinks he’s Bogie, discussed Marxism with a little old lady, and heard more than I ever wanted to know about some woman’s gall bladder operation.”

Be Specific

Avoid clichéd, generic, and predictable writing by using vivid and specific details.

§  Okay: ”I want to help people. I have gotten so much out of life through the love and guidance of my family, I feel that many individuals have not been as fortunate; therefore, I would like to expand the lives of others.”

§  Better: ”My Mom and Dad stood on plenty of sidelines ’til their shoes filled with water or their fingers turned white, or somebody’s golden retriever signed his name on their coats in mud. I think that kind of commitment is what I’d like to bring to working with fourth-graders.”

Don’ts

Don’t Tell Them What You Think They Want to Hear

Most admissions officers read plenty of essays about the charms of their university, the evils of terrorism, and the personal commitment involved in being a doctor. Bring something new to the table, not just what you think they want to hear.

Don’t Write a Resume

Don’t include information that is found elsewhere in the application. Your essay will end up sounding like an autobiography, travelogue, or laundry list. Yawn.

§  “During my junior year, I played first singles on the tennis team, served on the student council, maintained a B+ average, traveled to France, and worked at a cheese factory.”

Don’t Use 50 Words When Five Will Do

Eliminate unnecessary words.

§  Okay: ”Over the years it has been pointed out to me by my parents, friends, and teachers—and I have even noticed this about myself, as well—that I am not the neatest person in the world.”

§  Better: ”I’m a slob.”

Don’t Forget to Proofread

Typos and spelling or grammatical errors can be interpreted as carelessness or just bad writing. Don’t rely on your computer’s spell check. It can miss spelling errors like the ones below.

§  “After I graduate form high school, I plan to work for a nonprofit organization during the summer.”

§  “From that day on, Daniel was my best fried.”

This article is based on information found in The College Application Essay, by Sarah Myers McGinty, which is available through the College Board online store. 

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/education/article/VCUU30_20100429-221804/341099/

An independent student generally includes an individual who:

·      is age 24 by December 31 of the award year,

·      is an orphan, in foster care or a ward of the court (other rules may apply),

·      is an emancipated minor,

·      is a war veteran,

·      is a graduate or professional student,

·      is married,

·      has legal dependents other than a spouse,

·      is homeless (other rules may apply), or

·      has special and unusual circumstances which can be documented to his or her financial aid administrator.

Prior to July 2009, a 529 plan was considered a resource of the student if a pre-paid tuition plan and an asset of the student if a savings plan.  While an asset is considered in the EFC formula, a resource directly impacts eligibility dollar for dollar.    

Why is this important?  As an independent student, only the student’s (and spouse if married) income and assets are considered when determining need-based financial aid eligibility.   The parent’s financial information is not required when calculating the student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

The formula counts the following financial resources as being available to pay college expenses:

o  20% of a student’s assets (money, investments, business interests, and real estate)

o  50% of a student’s income (after certain allowances)

o  2.6%- 5.6% of a parent’s assets (money, investments, certain business interests, and real estate, based on a sliding income scale and after certain allowances)

o  22%-47% of a parent’s income (based on a sliding income scale and after certain allowances)

Then need-based eligibility is determined as follows:

COST OF ATTENDANCE (COA)

-          EXPECTED FAMILY CONTRIBUTION (EFC)

=     FINANCIAL NEED

-          RESOURCES OF THE STUDENT

=     ADJUSTED FINANCIAL NEED

One can readily see that treatment as a parental asset is much more favorable (2.6% to 5.6%) as compared to a student asset assessed at 20%.  However, if the owner of the 529 plan is neither the parent nor the student, the savings account is not included in the calculation.  Anyone can contribute to a 529 College Savings Plan on behalf of the student and the owner need not be the parents.    

Consideration should be given to the ownership of such accounts in regards to their impact on the student’s ability to receive need-based financial aid.   Doing an estimated EFC calculation will help determine this as you compare the results to the cost of the colleges and university the student is considering applying to.

The biggest mistake families make is approaching the application and financial aid process separately. 

You can’t separate the two processes.  They affect each other.   Merit assistance, based on the qualities the student, is almost always a part of the application process.  So the college application is not only critical because it determines acceptance, it also determines merit assistance. 

On the need-based side, looking at schools without knowing your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) provides no financial basis on which to screen your list of desired institutions.                                     

These circumstances demand that planning is done ahead of the application process and the financial aid filing.  An analysis of the family’s finances with regard to the EFC calculation should be accomplished prior to January of the junior year of high school.  The base year for need-based eligibility is in part based on prior year’s taxes. 

This allows for better planning, looking at the cost of institutions vs the family’s fair share and any potential adjustments to the family’s finances which might improve the outcome of the EFC Calculation.

The shopping aspect of the college process is still the most important, but must include both financial and application considerations.

Lastly, families need to be careful of taking advice from private financial aid consultants without first checking out their credentials.   Financial aid, tax and investment strategies are not compatible.  One must understand more than just the EFC calculation to properly advise a family on their finances.  Your college consultant should have a background in the financial sector as well. 

A tax credit allows parents(or student) to subtract, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, the amount of the credit from your total federal income tax liability as a opposed to an income tax deduction, which is subtracted from income before taxes are calculated. Thus a tax credit normally results in greater tax savings.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) or the Stimulus Bill, expanded the existing Hope tax credit and changed the name to the American Opportunity Credit. The expanded credit applies to tax years 2009 and 2010. Previously the Hope Credit could be applied to two years of postsecondary education, the expanded credit can be claimed for four years.  It also expands income eligibility.

To claim this credit, the student must be enrolled at least half-time in a program leading to an undergraduate degree or other legitimate education credential.  

The maximum yearly credit per eligible student is $2,500.

The American Opportunity Credit is partially refundable, which means up to $1,000 could be paid back to lower-income taxpayers when the credit exceeds their total tax bill.

There is no limit on how many family members can receive the credit.

The amount of the credit begins to phase out if your modified adjusted gross income (AGI) is between $80,000 and $90,000 or more for a single return and between $160,000 and $180,000 or more for a joint return.

For parents or guardians to claim a Hope credit for their child’s college expenses, the student must be listed as a dependent on the tax form. If the student is not listed as a dependent on another person’s tax form, he or she can claim the credit.

For exact directions for claiming the American Opportunity credit, and information about a further credit available to students in specified Midwestern disaster areas, consult IRS Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education.

The Lifetime Learning Credit is available for all years of postsecondary education and for courses (even a single course) that is required or improves job skills.

The Lifetime Learning credit can only be used for tuition and fees. The credit can be claimed for 20 percent of the amount you pay (see maximum limits below).

A taxpayer may claim a tax credit for 20% of up to $10,000 in a combination of tuition and fees. This equates to a $2,000 tax credit in 2008 and 2009.

The amount of the credit begins to phase out if your AGI is between $50,000 and $60,000 for a single return and between $100,000 and $120,000 for a joint return.

Consult IRS Publication 970 for specific rules on eligibility and claiming this tax credit.

There are two basic types of financial aid:

1)      Self-Help aid which consists of interest subsidized loans and work study; and,

2)      Gift Aid, which consists of grants and scholarships.

The amount and type of financial aid is based on two factors:

1)      The merit of the student ( scholastic, athletic, musical, etc.); and,

2)      The financial need of the student. By far, this is the most important factor in determining financial aid. Most of the financial aid given by the Federal and State governments is based on the financial need of the student. Also, most of the financial aid given by colleges is need-based.

NOTE: The Ivy league colleges and other highly selective private colleges base almost all of their grants and scholarships on the financial need of the student and not the student’s merit.

So how is the financial need of a student calculated?

            NEEDS ANALYSIS is the process of determining the financial need of the student. It is calculated using the following formula:

                              COST OF ATTENDANCE (COA)

-          EXPECTED FAMILY CONTRIBUTION (EFC)

=    FINANCIAL NEED

-          RESOURCES OF THE STUDENT

=   ADJUSTED FINANCIAL NEED

EXAMPLE: If the ‘cost of attendance’ at a particular college was $12,000 and the ‘expected family  contribution’ was calculated to be $4, 000, the ‘Financial need” of the student would be $8, 000. In this case the student would be eligible to receive $8,000 in financial aid. Whether he receives a financial aid award for the entire $8,000 is up to the discretion of the individual college. Nonetheless the financial aid eligibility of the student is directly related to the financial need. If the student, had other resources to help pay for the college cost, the financial need would be reduced on a dollar-for-dollar basis for these resources. In this example assume the student had received a $1,000 private scholarship from the local Chamber of Commerce.  Since private scholarships (scholarships which are not given by the college), are considered a resource, the  $1,000 scholarship would reduce the financial need down to’$7,000. This means the student would now be eligible for only $7,000 in financial aid from the college.

This is a great article to put in perspective the misconception that one must attend a prestigious college or university in order to be successful. 

by Carol Hymowitz
Provided by CareerJournal.com

The college diplomas of the nation’s top executives tell an intriguing story: Getting to the corner office has more to do with leadership talent and a drive for success than it does with having an undergraduate degree from a prestigious university.

Most CEOs of the biggest corporations didn’t attend Ivy League or other highly selective colleges. They went to state universities, big and small, or to less-known private colleges.

Wal-Mart Stores CEO H. Lee Scott, for example, went to Pittsburg State University in Kansas, Intel CEO Paul Otellini to the University of San Francisco, and Costco Wholesale CEO James Sinegal to San Diego City College.

This information should help allay the anxieties of parents and their college-bound children who believe admission to a top-ranked school with a powerful alumni network is a prerequisite to success in the upper echelons of business management. Today’s crop of chief executives are, of course, at least a generation older than current college students, but they are in the position to hire and say they don’t favor job candidates with certain degrees.

“I don’t care where someone went to school, and that never caused me to hire anyone or buy a business,” says Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, who graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

What counts most, CEOs say, is a person’s capacity to seize opportunities. As students, they recall immersing themselves in their interests, becoming campus leaders and forging strong relationships with teachers. And at state and lesser-known schools, where many were the first in their families to attend college, they sought challenges and mixed with students from diverse backgrounds–experiences that helped them later in their corporate climbs.

Bill Green, CEO of Accenture, never planned to go to college. The son of a plumber, he took a construction job when he graduated from high school in western Massachusetts because he didn’t think he had the ability to pursue more education. He changed his mind when he visited friends at Dean College, a two-year community school near Boston.

“Walking around campus, listening to my friends talk, I realized they were being exposed to a big world–and I had a chance to take another shot at learning,” he says.

At Dean, he got help from faculty members who devoted themselves to their students, not “doing research and writing books like professors at four-year schools,” he says. Rather than post student-meeting times on their office doors, they posted their class schedules. “All the other time, they were available to any student who needed help,” says Mr. Green, who worked part-time to pay for part of his tuition.

Inspired by an economics professor who made the subject “fun and relevant,” Mr. Green went on to Babson College to earn his bachelor’s and M.B.A. degrees. But he credits Dean with teaching him to think analytically, to gain confidence in his abilities, and to learn to work with people.

“You can go to a top-end school and end up dramatically underperforming, or you can go to a place that cares and blow away what everyone thinks,” says Mr. Green, who still stays in touch with his economics professor, Charlie Kramer. A trustee at Dean, he feels angry when he encounters “parents who are afraid or ashamed to say their son or daughter is attending a community college,” he says.

Some 10 percent of CEOs currently heading the top 500 companies received undergraduate degrees from Ivy League colleges, according to a survey by executive recruiter Spencer Stuart. But more received their undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin than from Harvard, the most represented Ivy school.

Harvard’s nine current CEOs include United Technologies’ George David and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. Among Wisconsin’s ten current CEOs are Pitney Bowes’s Michael Critelli, Kimberly-Clark’s Thomas Falk, and Halliburton’s David Lesar. Carol Bartz, chairman and former CEO of Autodesk, majored in computer science at Wisconsin and used a scholarship she’d won for women gifted in math to help pay her tuition.

Some non-Ivy League schools have long been training grounds for particular industries. The University of Texas-Austin, the alma mater of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, has churned out numerous oil executives. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, is known for its computer-science graduates. But some of today’s most successful CEOs got their start on small, isolated campuses.

A. G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble’s CEO, chose Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., because he wanted a solid liberal-arts education and to be assured a spot on the intercollegiate basketball team. A history major who graduated in 1969, he was elected president of his sophomore class, became a fraternity officer, and spent his junior year studying in France.

“I learned to think, to communicate, to lead, to get things done,” he says, adding that those qualities are what he seeks in job candidates at his company. “Any college will do.”

Berkshire Hathaway’s Mr. Buffett didn’t even want to go to college. He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School as an undergraduate at his father’s behest. He stayed just two years, then returned home to Omaha and graduated from Nebraska within a year.

At his father’s urging again, Mr. Buffett applied to Harvard Business School, which rejected him as too young, he says. By then, he was devouring the books by investors David Dodd and Benjamin Graham, who advocated investing in companies that had “intrinsic business value”–a view that became Mr. Buffett’s guiding investment principal.

When he learned the two men were teaching at Columbia University’s business school, he wrote to them to ask if he could attend their lectures. He earned a master’s degree in economics at Columbia in 1951. “But I didn’t go there for a degree, I went for those two teachers, who were already my heroes,” he says.

One reason more Ivy League alumni aren’t CEOs may be that many have traditionally chosen careers in investment banks and at big law firms, where they could earn big sums quickly and wouldn’t have to start in entry-level management jobs.

“A lot of people who earn degrees from tier-one universities and business schools aren’t willing to start at the bottom of a huge company” and spend years scaling layers of management and hoping to reach the top, says Richard Tedlow, a business historian at Harvard Business School.

The exceptions are some founders of high-tech companies who never completed college. They found their classroom studies less compelling than their own ideas. Bill Gates quit Harvard to start Microsoft, Michael Dell quit the University of Texas-Austin to start Dell Computer, and Steve Jobs quit Reed College in Portland, Ore., to work at Atari and then found Apple Computer. None ever returned to college to complete a formal degree.

What do they think about this decision today–and would they advise young people to copy them? In a graduation speech at Stanford last year, Mr. Jobs said college, like any life decision, is up to each individual. “You have to trust your gut,” he said.

His decision to quit Reed after one semester was “pretty scary” but ultimately “one of the best decisions I ever made,” because instead of taking required courses that didn’t interest him he spent the next 18 months auditing classes that did.

A calligraphy course he audited strongly influenced his design of the Macintosh computer ten years later. “If I’d never dropped in on that single course, the Mac would never have had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts,” he said.

Quitting college also eased his guilt about spending his adoptive working-class parents’ savings “when I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure that out,” he said. But dropping out “wasn’t romantic,” he warned. “I didn’t have a dorm room so I slept on the floor of friends’ rooms and returned Coke bottles…to buy food.”

Thomas Neff, chairman of recruitment firm Spencer Stuart U.S., warns: “It’s the exceptionally inventive person who can do this. If you have a big, big new idea, you can get venture financing–and if you wait to graduate someone else may capitalize on your idea first,” he says.

But for everyone else who wants a professional or management job at a big company, a college degree is a necessity–including for jobs at Apple, Microsoft, and Dell. And increasingly, employers also expect graduate degrees for management-track candidates. Close to two-thirds of top CEOs have either an M.B.A., law, or other advanced degree, according to Spencer Stuart’s survey–and some executives who didn’t go to Ivy League colleges got Ivy credentials as graduate students. P&G’s Mr. Lafley has a Harvard M.B.A.

Robert Iger, CEO at Walt Disney Co., decided in high school that he wanted to work in television and attended Ithaca College in upstate New York because he felt its strong communications program would nurture his career dreams. “I was in a place that supported creativity and individuality with a focus on what I was most interested in,” says Mr. Iger, who took liberal-arts and hands-on broadcast courses. After college, he got a job working for ABC-TV, now a unit of Disney.

Anyway, by the time someone has been working for a few years, or held one or two jobs, their employment record counts more than their educational background, recruiters say. And companies seeking to fill CEO and other senior jobs rarely consider candidates’ degrees. “It’s what you’ve accomplished that matters,” says Mr. Neff, “not what you were doing at 21.”

E. Thomas Garman is a Fellow and Professor at Virginia Tech, home of the National Institute for Personal Finance Employee Education (NIPFEE), an organization dedicated to improving employees’ financial wellness. Researchers from Virginia Tech decided to find out if there is a relationship between personal finance and individual health? Well-educated, high-income, white-collar workers were recruited for the study. Participants were offered a financial education program at the work site and a private, one-on-one financial advice session. Workers were surveyed before and after their participation. The study shows that financial education and advice positively impacts individual money behaviors and attitudes, as well as, their health and work performance. In addition, compared to employees who have higher financial wellness, workers who were less satisfied with their personal finances were found to have poorer health.

Doctor Garman points out in his paper, ‘The Whole Story of NIPFEE in Eight Paragraphs,’ that, “Approximately 15 percent of workers in the United States are currently experiencing stress from poor financial behaviors to the extent that it negatively impacts their productivity.  At some work sites the proportion is as high as 40 to 50 percent.  It is estimated that perhaps one-half of workers with personal financial problems also are likely to be performing poorly on the job, and this negatively impacts their employers.  The cost to the Department of Defense is about $1 billion annually.”

The Sallie Mae Education Institute provided the following results of a survey of parents with college bound children. “The importance placed on their child’s education was corroborated when almost one-third of the parents (31%) said their child’s college education was their highest priority.  This was second only to the 38% of parents who indicated their everyday budget was their first financial priority and almost twice the percentage of parents who named retirement (17%) as their first priority.  In addition, a college education was among the top three financial priorities for nine in ten respondents.”

According to the General Accounting Office (GAO) as reported in Parents News,   “a recent report found that during the past 15 years, tuition increases have outpaced household income gains by a 3 to 1 margin.  The report went on to say, “the average tuition for undergraduate students at public four-year colleges has increased 234 percent since 1980, while the average household income rose only 82%.” 

A direct result of increased costs–increased debt.  “Student loans have risen from 41% of all student aid in 1980-81 to 58% during 1998-99, while grants have fallen off from 55% to 40% of all financial aid for the same time period.”  The College Board, Trends in Student Aid. 

Obviously, an alternative is for parents to reach into their IRA’s or pension plans.  Like trying to put a fire out with gasoline, stripping retirement savings to pay for college only deepens financial concerns and stress. 

Doctor Garman states in ‘The Whole Story of NIPFEE in Eight Paragraphs,’  “Smart employers realize that good financial wellness and key measures of productivity are positively related.  Such employers know that spending money to give workers comprehensive personal finance education will provide a positive return on investment for every single dollar invested.”   Employee financial education is effective in reducing stress. 

Providing unique and effective employee financial education to enhance the corporate benefits plan also impacts the critical issue of retaining valued employees.

The American Management Association reported in HR Focus that “The US Department of Labor estimates that it costs a company one-third of it’s new hire’s annual salary to replace an employee.”  According to Positive Directions, Inc., a Florida-based management consulting firm, “Employee turnover can have a devastating effect on pretax income.  Some experts feel it is a major contributor to lagging US productivity and the failure of US industries to compete effectively.  In the US there is a 30% turnover in all front line jobs.”

Business Psychology News, reports on a study that supports enhanced benefit programs to increase employee retention. “Another study on worker retention by Sibson and Company of New Jersey found that focused incentive programs aimed at core workers kept good people and improved productivity.”  The results of a 1999 employee retention survey conducted by Thomas Staffing, which provides staffing solutions to employers in Southern California, concluded, “To retain new hires, almost 30% of respondents say they offer additional employee benefits at the start of employment.”   

The ability to handle college costs is basic to financial wellness, the importance of which is only going to increase over the next decade. According to the College Board, “The number of high school graduates will increase by 13% between 1999 and 2009.

College enrollment figures for 18-24 year olds will grow from 8,200,000 this year to 9,600,000 by the year 2009.”   College planning will become critical not only from a numbers perspective but also from an income perspective.  “The gap between disposable Per Capita Income and college costs is narrowing.”  The College Board, Trends in College Pricing.

Here is the critical issue, effective college planning involves much more than simply deciding how much and where to invest.  Financial aid planning encompasses a myriad of options and considerations outside of private scholarship searches.  Many investment decisions made by well-intentioned parents, in the absence of any knowledge of the student financial aid system, ultimately could end up costing them more than they ever achieved in savings over the years.   Every financial decision a family makes will effect investment return, tax liability and financial aid eligibility in some way.      

In today’s aggressive college environment, colleges and universities are competing to meet their bottom line or attain brighter, larger or more diverse student population.  This has caused the financial aid and the admissions processes to become more and more entwined in order to facilitate this shift toward “enrollment management.”  Increasing amounts of financial assistance are finding their way to middle and upper-income families.  Yet at the same time, the rationale for this “strategic packaging” becomes more and more evasive. 

Parents need not only understand how financial aid works and how it impacts other financial considerations, they also have to be able to wind their way through a maze of information.  The major challenge in college planning today is not finding information. We’re drowning in it.  If you go on the Internet and searched for college planning or scholarships, page after page of matches come up.  It would take weeks to screen all the matching entries. The challenge is not the availability of information, but rather what to do with it once you’ve got it.  How do parents manage that information, bring a focus to it and make it meaningful to their student? How do they use it to make good educational and financial decisions? 

They must also be involved–involved in the information management process, involved in every aspect of the process.  They cannot afford to let the system take its own course.  There are too many variables and too little information flowing between families and colleges.  You have to be involved to insure that everything goes according to design; that the right things are being done at the right time, in the right way.

This involved process encompasses exploration and discovery, shopping and analysis, facilitation and negotiation.   Through exploring the student’s skills and personality in conjunction with potential job and career opportunities, the student will discover the proper educational direction to support that career.  Required education along with the student’s scholastic profile, personal and family preferences, provides parameters by which they can screen the pool of colleges and universities.   Coupled with available information on those institutions’ historical financial aid performance and internally controlled scholarships and grants, allow the student and family to analysis them for “best value.”  Once the field is narrowed to those colleges and universities they wish to apply to, applications and supporting documents must be facilitated for maximum effect and financial aid award letters analyzed and if appropriate, discussed with the school. 

Corporate benefit plans must address these issues and provide parents assistance with college planning to precluded being blind-sided by decreasing productivity and loss of  key personnel.

There are a growing number of financial professionals who are specializing in college and financial aid planning.  Their services go far beyond the “college planning” module of most financial firms’ offering of pension management and education.  These modules simply provide for the traditional college cost calculations, normally resulting in a depressingly high, required investment figure.  ‘True’ college and financial aid planning services address the process of attaining admission to college, the financial assistance to help pay for it and establishing options to handle the family’s costs after aid is awarded.  

College planning professionals can provide seminars, workshops and hands-on consultation for your employees. 

CEOs and their Human Resource Directors may confidently pat themselves on the back for having met ERISA 404C fiduciary responsibilities, but ponder whether the limited financial education provided employees is effectively addressing the critical issues causing stress-related productivity loss.  Adhering to ERISA guidelines may be a legal catch-22 with potential employee litigation for non-compliance or over-compliance, but being pro-active in reducing employee stress and improving productivity is a win/win situation, impacting directly the corporate bottom line.