The 5 Deadliest Mistakes Most Parents Make When Applying For College Funding -- And How to Avoid Them...

Today I read an article sent and written by Scott Weingold, one of the top ten college funding advisors in the country about the 5 Deadliest Mistakes Most Parents Make When Applying For College Funding and How to Avoid Them. They are:

1. Most middle and upper-middle class parents assume we won't be eligible for financial aid because we own a home and make over $75,000 per year.

The reality is that most families with incomes ranging from $50,000 - $150,000 per year who own homes are eligible for some form of financial aid, which is over 150 billion dollars available each year from the Federal Government, the states, colleges and universities, and private foundations and organizations. We need to know how to get a "fair share, not just assume we won't be eligible and therefore give up. According to Scott, this is exactly what the government hopes we will do so they can keep more of these funds. He advise us not to make this mistake! If we fall into this category, it is never hurt to apply and we'll probably be eligible for SOME money.

2. Focusing our time and energy on a private scholarship search instead of spending our time trying to qualify for "need-based" financial aid.

The reality is that private scholarships make up only 2% of the money available to us to help pay for our child's college education. The other 98% comes from the Federal Government, the state we live in, and the colleges and universities our child is applying to. Therefore, we are much better off spending our time and energy going after the 98%, rather than spending our time looking for the crumbs! These so-called "scholarship searches" we read about are normally scams and a complete waste of money. They charge us an arm and a leg and don't deliver. However, if we still insist on at least looking for some scholarships, Scott advise us to call their offices and they will give us a website that provides a free scholarship search.

3. Assuming only minority students, athletes, and academically gifted students get financial aid.

The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth! "Need-based" financial aid is solely awarded based on "financial need" which is calculated by taking the cost of attendance at a school and subtracting the family contribution (which is the minimum amount the government feels we can afford to pay based on our income and assets and our child's income and assets). Whatever is left over after we subtract these two numbers is our "financial need" or eligibility for financial aid at a particular school. If we haven't noticed, according to Scott, this has nothing to do with a student's ethnic background, athletic ability, or grades. It's purely based on this simple formula:
COA (Cost Of Attendance)

- FC (Family Contribution)
= FN (Financial Need)

4. Picking colleges and universities without paying attention to where our student lies in comparison to the rest of the student body.

The reality that to increase your chances of getting the best possible financial aid packages, it is imperative that we pick schools where our child lies in the top 10% of the incoming freshman class with respect to their GPA and SAT/ACT scores. Although schools give financial aid based on our calculation of "need" at their school, they will definitely give preferential packaging (i.e., more FREE money, less loans) to students who lie in the top 10% of the incoming class. The reason they do this is to attract the better students to their school. Use this to our advantage and try to apply only to those schools where your child would fit into the top 10% category.

5. Assuming all schools are created equal and will be able to give us the same amounts of money.

The reality is that all schools are not created equal and will not be able to give us the same financial aid packages. Some schools are well endowed and get a lot of money from alumni and corporations. These schools have more money to give out and are generally able to meet most or all of a student's financial need at their school. Other schools, like state universities, get no private funds and rely solely on state and Federal funds to help fill a student's need at their school. In many cases, these schools leave students short and give them less money than they are eligible to receive. It can actually end up costing us more to send our child to a "cheaper" school if they don't have the money to meet our need. It is very important that we know each school's history of giving money before we ever apply, so we're not blown away when we get a bad financial aid package from our child's top school choice.

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For more details , Please visist the website ( http://www.collegemadesimple.com/index.php) and contact Scott Weingold byemail: scottweingold@collegemadesimple.com.

What is real happiness?

I believe thousands of people can give thousands of answers to this questions.

As common people, it is common to set their own life goals as being famous or being wealthy. With this ambitious plan in mind, they are willing to put any efforts, sacrafice, and overcome any difficulties with inspirations...One day when they are really successful, they truely feel self-satisfiaction and successful. However, they will also find these feelings last too short. Instead, they often feel tired, pressure, and even loss of themselves at many occassions as a famous person or a rich figure. All the information s/he received from the reports sound like very good and encouraging. They are living in the center of media attention with furstrations. No privacy, not much personal life, and being lonely. At many times they start recalling or remembering those simple and real days-those times full of a faith and hardwod: poor guy working to create wealth; a trival person to seek fame...

Ironically, someday they start look for and create the lifestyes of their old days. When they really experiece the similar lifestye, they often find what they had before is so beautiful, and is a power to drive them to investigae what is a real happiness.

Unexpectly, the real happiness is what they already had long long ago but it take so long, so much efforts, and almost a life cycle for them to realize and understand.

So what is the real happiness? My answer is: It is a simple truth.

Be diligent in study

Reading and study is a process to chat with wisdom. If we can read at least 50 books each year, it will help us not only to enhance our ability to memorize and understand, but also preserve our personal charisma, which cannot be achieved by just practicing Yuga and making cosmetics.

We cannot be careless about what we are eating

The Chinese have a saying "Disease enters through the mouth." It is good to know what we are going to eat. How? The websites provides so many sources as follows. Please do not be scared, we can read a little each time.
· The Worst Foods of 2009: Avoid these caloric catastrophes this year
· The 20 Worst Foods in America in 2008
· America's 16 Worst Holiday Foods: What to eat instead?
· America's Worst Supermarket Foods
· The 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America
· The 8 Worst Breakfasts in America

So, what are we going to eat?
· 14 Health Foods That Aren't!
· The Best Fast Food Meals Under 500 Calories
· The 125 Healthiest Supermarket Foods in America

I know cooking is a time-consuming work and may people do not like doing it by themselves. But I believe everybody realize how it directly relates and means to our health. Without good health, it would be no use to have time and money. So we cannot be careless about what we are going to put into our mouth.

I prefer to buy raw materials and cook them at home. This way I can decide and know what I will eat and how healthy they are. In addition, I enjoy it when I see how my family eat the healthy food I cooked.

So we put our health at our own hand!

Life is a process to learn and forget

Someday we may find that we have grown up and could not tear, cry, or yell like a child any more. Just a simple recall, we will find:

There is always something in our life we have to forget without a word; it is enough and valuable if we learn something from the process and the experience.

There is also the moment in our life we have to endure some unhappiness and frustration silently; it will enrich our life after we get over it.

Have a hobby

It is better to know music or play an instrument, which will help to clean our mind and heart, enhance our memory and imagination, most of time, bring us the inspiration, passion, or unexpected serenity.

We can have other hobbies such as drawing, dancing, collecting, outdoor activities, sports, which help us make close friends, share similar values, and add color to our daily life.

To have a hobby, it will help to balance our life from material and spiritual world.

Wise New Sayings

1. With good habits, it is hard to fail
2. At any time, studying is possible
3. what a person can ultimately posses is only his/her body

Avoid two types of unhappiness

In this world, we might want to avoid two types of unhappiness: one is from unachievable target; the other is from devotion.

For the former, we should regard it as gambling: be happy if we win; forget it if we lose; after all we still have the resources (our mind, knowledge, skills, experience etc) and opportunities to restart.

For the latter, it will be the worst situation to get rid of in the world. If something like that still exists in our heart, it must be removed completely without any leftover like mopping out the dust.

Plant kindness

Recently there is a lot of news about people who was killed. I was shocked about this.

Theoretically, there should be less and less evil phenomenon happened these days because this society has entered the most civilized era. With the modern technology, people expand their capability greatly. Even in developing countries, people are living a better life. However, it is hard to understand that human seems to become greedier, which results in too much unfair. Therefore, at the corner of somewhere in the world, the similar tragedy happens almost every day. It feels like this world doesn’t become safer, more peaceful, and more friendly, rather than be full of disappoint, fear, hatred, horror, and loss of hope…

So, I hope everyone can try the best to let the people around who are not as good as us feel the sunshine and the beauty of the world. Let us try our best to plant kindness, which make the world blossoming due to the human nature.

Accumulate friendship

Lifetime is short but is also long. I wish everything through a life went smoothly. Unfortunately, life is always full of unanticipated difficulties. Sometimes, it is hard to seek helps and support from our family at that moment but it is often solved with the help of our friends. So far every steps I moved forward, there are always friends accompanying me to overcome the difficulties I have confronted. Therefore, my heart has been full of apreciation.

Through our lifetime. there is no doubt that we need close connections, cares, and concerns from our family and relatives. But we also need friendships, which can not be substituted by other relationships.

From my experience, a reliable friendship is the warmest and coziest coat for our whole life, which can only builds up through our personal quality and positive attitude towards others.

Life is fair: today we plant friendship seeds here;tomorrow we may harvest somewhere.

If we already have a lot, it is never too much and we need to cherish and maintain it; If we do not have any, it is never too late to build and accumulate it.

Today, have you blogged?

Blog is a piece of blank paper, with it you can write or draw whatever you want.
Blog is a stage, where you can play,sing, cry, laugh, or even yell.
Blog is a interface, where you can communicate with others around the earth.
Blog is a virtual world, where you can become a figure you can not to be in a real world.
Blog is a market, where you can "sell' your real products, services, ideas, and spiritual objects.
Blog is also a good tool, through it you can realize a lot of dreams...

So, do you have a blog?
Today, have you blogged?