Glen Cove Library Hosts Financial Aid Seminar

A child’s education can be a parent’s biggest and most expensive investment. For many students and their families, that can mean six-figure debt loads after graduating, or skipping college altogether.

To assist parents of prospective college students, financial aid expert Barry Fox led an informational seminar titled, “How to Beat the High Cost of College" on Tuesday at the .

The seminar explained several points: how federal government calculates “expected family contribution;” how the value of family (and other) assets are counted; how divorce affects aid; and who qualifies as an “independent student.”

Much of the night included a  detailed breakdown of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, which must be completed to receive federal aid. Fox also gave advice on New York State’s Tuition Assistance Program, along with individual college-administered aid programs.

“College education is very expensive," said local parent James Adams, who is seeking aid for his 18-year-old daughter's college education. "I’m working very hard, but we want the best for our children.”

Fox, a former financial aid officer at SUNY Farmingdale and CUNY LaGuardia, gave several key tips to receive financial aid:

• Get forms in by January; the earlier the better.
• For parents: everything is based on income and assets. Consider putting money in a retirement annuity, which is not shown.
• There are special rules for divorced and separated couples.
• A lot of schools offer merit-based aid not necessarily related to the financial aid form to attract students, which helps negotiations with the school.
• Special situations may be brought to the school's attention. Do not be shy; if forms are not filled out, they will not know.

Fox added insight into the reasons behind the inflation of college tuition: “Government has made it very easy to get loans," he said. "Because it’s easy to get loans, a lot of people don’t realize they’ll have huge expenses later on, similar to the housing bubble. In some schools, 26 percent of kids are in default on their loans. There’s more student loans out there, $1 trillion, than there is personal credit card debt."