Is it worth it to go to college?
>>> the question being asked by a lot of parents and students these days, how will we afford college ? well, tomorrow gallup and sally mae release their annual how america pays for college survey. here with a first look at the findings is cnbc’s sharon epperson . sharon, great to have you here, as always.
>> great to be here.
>> the numbers tell the story. 70% of those in the survey concur that a college degree is becoming more important. but still, three-fourths of the same people in the survey do not have any plan for paying for college . and college costs are becoming more expensive.
>> increasingly more expensive. and what this survey found was astoundingly people are saying that they are paying even more, 17% more, for all of the college expenses than they did even a year ago. they are looking at almost $19,000 that they are saying that they are paying for college with everything included without financial aid . and that compares to about $16,000 a year ago. now, keep in mind, people are looking at all of their expenses. and they may not be considering the allows and scholarships and things that they are getting. this is a heavy price tag, but they are willing to pay it.
>> at the same time, to help parents dig deeper to save, you say for people with younger children, they should really think about this 529 college saving plan that we have been hearing about. but why do you say that given that especially as the market has gone down, this can actually take a knock. you can actually lose your savings.
>> it can take a knock if you have a lot of it in stocks. if your child is 16, 17, even 15 years old, you want to reduce your stock holdings in 529 plan . what the 529 plan does, a lot of folks do it by age allocation. and so as your child gets older, it gets more conservative. make sure that the 529 plan that you are in has 15% or less invested in the stock market as they get to those late teen years approaching college . and know that you can also have that invested just in money markets and cds. it does not have to be invested even in bonds.
>> and you can have other family members contribute.
>> that’s a great thing to do.
>> for people who have got children going into school this fall, you say a lot of them do not realize there is something called a hope scholarship tax credit . what is that?
>> a lot of people do not understand, that is $2500 tax credit you can get.
>> how do you get it?
>> you put it on your federal income tax form. you make sure that you apply for that tax credit . again, that is a dollar-for-dollar credit for tuition, books, supplies. that is something a lot of people forget about.
>> the only way to get access to federal and say allows and loans is submit what is called a free application for student aid . now, how do you do that? what is the deadline? can that work for this fall?
>> that’s a form, and that is surprisingly, this survey found, one out of four families did not apply for this form, did not fill out this form, thinking that they would not get any federal grants or aid. this is what you need to fill out to get say grants, to get federal grants . it’s not too late. normally you really need to do it right after january 1st . you want to make sure you have that all together. but it’s not too late to do it now.
>> for this fall.
>> there are a lot of programs you can do.
>> where do you get this form?
>> you can go online.
>> where do you get it?
>> fast fund. f-a-f-s-a.
>> interest rate on federal loans is actually pretty good.
>> always do federal loans first. they are usually better repayment programs and cheaper terms. do those first and then do private loans. those are variable loans. that is why you want to do the federal loans first.
>> there are free searches on-line for scholarships.
>> never pay for a scholarship. do fastweb.com. there are so many scholarships available there. also salliemae.com. also online, buying used books or buying books that are several editions ago. check with the professors, of course, first to make sure you can purchase these.
>> there’s also a website to help you learn how to save. by the way, all this will be on our website.
>> very important to look at that.
>> sharon epperson , thank you.
>>> coming up, much more including early puberty after your local news.
More source:
Is it worth it to go to college? - Business - Personal finance - msnbc ...Is college worth the money? - MSN Money
Is College Worth the Cost? | Fox Business
Actually, College Is Very Much Worth It - TIME
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Submited at Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 8:00 pm on Finance by samantha
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