Education: College Planning and College Funding
Help for students and parents with college funding
Colleges funding $40 Billion in education costs for students and families nation wide.
Circle of Neighbors helps local Students Get into Colleges
High school students with the desire, but not necessarily the money, to attend college have an advocate to help them through the application process and negotiate for better financial aid packages.
Circle of Neighbors, 25 year old community service organization, is conducting interviews to get students and their families on track to achieving their goals.
Neighbors makes families aware of all of the little things they can do to make college more affordable," said member Tom Lloyd who conducts interviews and workshops. Its a process, just straight forward strategic planning and it really works."
With thousands of members in the United States, Circle of Neighbors conducts personal interviews with aspiring college students and works as an advocate to get those students into the schools they want at a price they can afford, Lloyd said.
Based on the students interests, academic records and financial profile, Neighbors puts together a personalized letter of recommendation and sends the information to the schools that fit the students needs and interests.
The Pitfalls of Community College
The Community College system has done amazing things for millions of students. It has afforded opportunities to people and helped them achieve goals that were originally far out of reach. Why do people go to community college?
Find colleges that give the best financial aid packages
"We use the interview and the profile to evaluate which schools would be the most interested in the recruitment of that particular student," Lloyd said, adding that they work with more than 3,000 U. S. colleges and universities.
The organization encourages students to look into schools, which suit their interests -- regardless of cost. Ive seen a lot of students operate under the misconception that they can only go to schools they can afford, Lloyd said, "Actually some of the more expensive private schools are the most generous. We see a good number of students attending private and out of state schools for less money than attending a local community college." Tapping into that generosity is the organizations specialty.
After sending off applications and financial profiles, students begin receiving financial aid award letters that show how much money the school would give them if they attend. While many students make their college decisions based on the award letter, Circle of Neighbors views the letter as merely a starting point.
"We use the letter as a negotiating tool," Lloyd said. We use letters from other schools as leverage to help students attend the school they want and get as much financial assistance as they can."
Lloyd, the father of four, said Many parents are like we are and have been unable to put away the $60,000 or more needed for college for each student," he said. But there are ways to use other resources so parents dont have to borrow from their home equity or tap into their retirement in order to make college dreams a reality.
