Cristina Pacione-Zayas wanted to attend college in Boston, California or Florida — really anywhere on a coast. “I was strictly picking on geography,” she says.
But when the acceptance letters rolled in, the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, her local public school, offered the best financial aid package.
It was time to kiss her California dreams goodbye. “At the time I thought I was settling,” said Pacione-Zayas, now an education professional in Chicago. “But it proved to pay so many dividends on so many levels.”
While it can be heartbreaking to forgo a dream school in favor of a more affordable one, college applicants should consider — and apply to — a couple of financial safety schools.
“We call those ‘no problem schools,'” says Katharine Ruby, director of college finance at College Coach, which advises students on the college admissions and finance process. “There can be plenty of those kinds of schools that your kid can be very happy at.”
While experts recommend that these institutions be attractive to the applicant, they should also be affordable, offering low sticker prices or discounting higher price tags with sufficient merit or need-based aid.
“Most people assume that it means the cheapest school on your list,” says Robert Franek, senior vice president-publisher at The Princeton Review. “And that is exactly incorrect.” A net price calculator, which almost every school should have on its website, can help a family predict which schools will offer the most need-based aid before they even apply.
[Explore the colleges where merit aid is most common.]
With college choice often driven by emotional connections, however, the idea that an applicant may have to stack their list with affordable options can be a bitter pill to swallow.
But introducing the idea of applying to more affordable institutions doesn’t have to be painful, say experts.
“Thinking about finances early is really important,” says Nicole Hurd, founder and CEO of College Advising Corps, a nonprofit program advising low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students to and through college. “Where people get the most disappointed in the college process is when they haven’t prepared for that financial conversation.”
Here are three ways to start the conversation about selecting financial safety schools.
1. “This is how we approach money as a family.” The college cost conversation can stem organically from household money talks. “To me, it seems it’s also just part of the philosophy of parenting — that you’re talking about paying for things that are valuable to you,” says Ruby.
Hurd recommends talking about college as a financial investment. “We value doing our homework. To honor the investment, we need to do our homework together and make an investment together.” Parents can add, “We believe in you but we need to go to a school that also believes in you,” she says.
2. “What will it cost to be you as an adult?” Ruby recommends asking this question and following up with some examples. Ask whether the student plans to live in an apartment or at home, go out to eat or pack a lunch, she says.
Discussing what the future will look like after graduation — and how it might change with significant student loan debt — can help reveal the importance of applying to a few financial safety schools.
[Avoid becoming one of these 10 scary student loan statistics.]
The same goes for parental borrowing. Parents can address the issue of taking on parent debt to pay for their child’s education, says Ruby, who jokingly suggests putting a spin on the image of the recent graduate living in the parents’ basement. Parents can say, “If I have to borrow, I might be in your basement someday,” she says.
3. “Let’s find colleges that you like.” Parents can stress that the safety schools should also be attractive to the student. “You shouldn’t have any college on your list that you’re not happy to put that sweatshirt on,” says Ruby, of College Coach.
Students don’t have to nix every high-priced school on their list. “Dig down deeper,” says Franek, of The Princeton Review. “Find those schools that award a great deal of aid.”
Choosing a bad college match, simply based on net price, could result in the student dropping out or delaying graduation, say experts. And these choices can ultimately cost students more in tuition dollars and student loans.
[Know your risk factors for delaying graduation and accumulating more debt.]
For Pacione-Zayas, the “purely financial” decision of attending UIUC paid off. She even decided to earn her graduate degree there.
“You really have to spend some significant time exploring what it is that you’re good at and interested in and what you see yourself doing after college,” she says. “Use those reflections to evaluate what your choices are.”
Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.
More from U.S. News
Quiz: Are You Ready for Early Decision College Applications?
3 Upcoming Changes to the FAFSA That College Students Should Understand
Know What to Expect the First Time You Borrow College Student Loans
3 Conversation-Starters to Kick Off the Financial Safety School Talk originally appeared on usnews.com
