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CFAST LLC is part of the largest and most reputable college financial aid service network in the
United States called, The College Planning Network. Together,
we’ve helped thousands of parents, just
like you, navigate your way through this extremely complicated financial aid maze and college funding process.
Introduce
Educate
Personalize
Support
Introduce
Free College Funding Seminar
To learn more about how you can benefit from our FREE Seminars, click here.
Educate
Many parents are unfamiliar with the college funding process and are looking for a place to start learning. We will help dispel the myths and educate you on your options so you can make informed decisions that are right for your family.
Initial Family Consultation
Discover student's interests and needs
We sit down with your student and discuss what he/she is interested in and what
aspects of the college experience are most important from the student's perspective.
This also gives us an opportunity to discuss important considerations such as potential majors and potential colleges of interest.
Review current financial situation
We take time to understand your unique financial considerations,
so we can recommend potential options that are right for you and your family.
Estimate Expected
Family Contribution (EFC)
We'll gauge your current EFC so that you know in advance what the schools will expect
from you financially. We will also assess if there are any strategies you can take advantage of to lower your EFC.
Discuss if CFAST's services are appropriate for your family
Here is your chance to ask questions of a college funding specialist. We will only offer our services to those
families whose situation will be dramatically impacted by working with us. We will
give you an overview of how our services work and explain how the benefits of our services far outweigh the cost.
Student Positioning
Conduct student positioning assessment
We provide access to one of the most state-of-the-art “Student Positioning” tools
available, the DISCOVER Program. This program profiles your student’s talents,
interests and ambitions. From there, it performs a career search to help narrow down some different
areas of studies. Once these steps have been taken, you can search
for colleges based on demographics and other criteria you and your student are seeking. Maybe
they want to be a 2-hour car ride away… or maybe they want to be a 5-hour plane ride away. The whole point of the Student Positioning Assessment is to drastically
increase the chances of your
student spending 4 years in an undergraduate program,
– as opposed to national average
of 5-6 years. (See the FAQ
page for more details.)
Complete a personalized private student interview
Your student will have the opportunity to
spend about 45 minutes on the phone with a third party experienced in interviewing students. We want to make
sure that if you and your student aren’t on the same page, you know about it now – not after school already
starts. All feedback of the interview will be provided for review. Often times a parent learns something new
that they were previously unaware of.
Provide SAT Prep Course Entitled "The Little-Known
Secrets of Acing the SAT!"
This "cliff notes" SAT Prep Course has eliminated the "filler" of most SAT Prep
courses and just focuses on the most essential key strategies of how to ace the
SAT! On average, students who have participated in this course have
increased their SAT scores by 225 POINTS!
Provide ACT Prep Course Entitled "Know To Master the ACT!"
This "cliff notes" ACT Prep Course will give you a treasure chest of tips
and strategies on how to master the ACT! On average, students who have
participated in this course have increased their ACT scores by 4 POINTS!
Create a Snapshot of Current Financial Situation
Gather pertinent information
We will evaluate necessary information and paperwork so we can explore all viable funding options, allowing you to choose a path that will best serve your family.
Present your estimated EFC (Expected Family Contribution)
We'll present your estimated EFC in detail, so that you know in advance what the schools will expect from you financially. We will also inform you of any strategies that you can take advantage of to lower your EFC.
Personalize
We work with you to personalize an approach to ensure that you get the financial
aid you deserve. By working with our team, you can rest assured that your
forms are completed accurately and on time.
Recommend a personalized college plan
Provide planning recommendation to reduce EFC
We will explore every strategy available to make your EFC as low as legally
possible. We will provide detailed explanations and recommend what can be done to get that EFC
to the absolute lowest number possible for your situation.
Provide financial aid award estimates
The IRS requires colleges to report financial aid statistics annually. Through our network, we have licensing rights to view these reports for over 2500 schools. Although, it cannot guarantee what your aid package will look like, it provides a great gauge to see what a school has done in the past, and get an idea of what they might do
for you. This gauge should be one of the major tools used to assess whether
to apply to a particular college. It may have a drastic impact on your out-of-pocket
expenses. Be sure your student applies to at least some schools that have
a history of giving good aid packages.
Recommend potential colleges that meet educational and financial goals
Through our network, we have helped thousands of students go to the college of their choice. Therefore, we have
first-hand experience with most of the schools that are out there. We provide hands-on experience as to which schools give money and which
schools students have had great results. We will utilize this experience and the
student positioning assessment results to recommend additional schools WE feel your
student may want to consider.
Recommend ways to pay your out-of-pocket college costs
Even if we can considerably lower your EFC, you are still going to have an out-of-pocket cost.
We will review all of your available options and develop a way to pay your
out-of-pocket costs in a comfortable manner. We will help you avoid paying in a
manner that could lead to losing thousands of dollars in the form of unnecessary interest, fees, and
overpaid taxes. We look to the future and help you steer clear
of compounding loan payments that grow too large for your budget.
Complete All Paperwork Related to Requesting Financial Aid
Complete Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
If you want to be considered for any type of financial aid, then the FAFSA must be completed! And… it must
be completed every year for each child you have going to college! The problem is that
many FAFSAs
get submitted each year with some kind of error or inconsistency. Seeing that a lot of financial aid is awarded
on a first come first served basis, having an error on the FAFSA could potentially cost you thousands of
dollars in financial aid. We’ll
gather all of the necessary FAFSA information from you so that every year the
FAFSA can be submitted 100% accurately and on time – making sure that you’ll be receiving the best package
possible.
Register for and complete CSS Profile (College Scholarship Service Profile)
Many private colleges require you to complete a CSS Profile. This form is even more complex than the FAFSA and
if there are any discrepancies between this and the FAFSA, your forms can get pushed back in the process –
resulting in lost financial aid.
You actually have to fill out a form to register to complete
the CSS Profile. We will register you for this CSS Profile form.
After we register you, we will complete the CSS Profile and help with all other supporting paperwork to make
sure everything is 100% accurate and that all forms match up. Once again, any errors made could be
detrimental to your financial aid package.
Complete additional forms required by individual schools
Many schools now have their OWN forms – in addition to the FAFSA & the CSS Profile. These, once again, have to
match up with the FAFSA & CSS Profile or else it may result in lost financial aid. We will complete any institutional forms that the schools require as long as you forward them to us.
Confirm accuracy of the SAR (Student Aid Report) and make adjustments, if needed.
Once your FAFSA is submitted, you will receive a Student Aid Report. We will review
the SAR and make sure
everything is correct.
We will also handle any adjustments that need to be made to the SAR. Any updates or changes will be made so that
the SAR is accurate.
Oversee Appeals Process
Evaluate up to 3 award letters and professionally determine
if each offer is fair
Each college that you listed on your FAFSA will receive your SAR. They will use this information to prepare award
offers and present them to you in the spring.
We will review your top 3 awards and determine if you were offered
what you were entitled to. We look at your EFC, your student, and the past history of the colleges to determine
if the award was a fair one.
Provide tested appeal letters, if you were under-awarded
If we feel that the award you were offered was not what it should have been, we will provide you with tested
appeal letters and help guide you through the appeals process. You have to know how to talk to the financial
aid officers in their language and to make sure you state your case so that they’ll actually listen. Now, we
don’t get involved if we feel the offer was fair, but if it was unfair, we have a great track record in the
appeals process.
Support
We provide ongoing support
for our clients to ensure that you are
being helped - every step of the way. As
your one-stop shop
for all of your college planning needs, we provide your family
with the necessary tools and resources to take a more proactive approach to the
college funding process. We serve as your college funding “coach” and are always here to answer any
questions you may have and help you navigate any stumbling blocks that may occur
along the way.
Checklists and Forms
Provide College Planning Checklist
This checklist details out every task in the financial aid process and the deadlines associated with the task.
Seeing that we would be handling everything for you, you will be automatically updated every time something is
completed or if additional information is needed. This is helpful because even if you don’t physically want to
be doing all of the work involved in the financial aid process, you still want to be kept in the loop of what’s
going on.
Complete the
FAFSA, CSS Profile and other forms every year for each student
(accurately and on-time)
Unfortunately, many parents don't realize that they need
to accurately complete the pertinent paperwork (such as FAFSA, CSS Profile and other school
forms) each year for each student.
We help you re-evaluate your situation each year to take into account changes in your financial situation and
new factors such as perhaps a second child entering college. Let us help you re-evaluate your
situation and complete the pertinent paperwork for you - each year.
Assist with all Stafford Loan & PLUS Loan Applications
We will assist you with any Stafford or PLUS loan applications that you may have – just to make sure that they get
completed properly as well.
Ongoing Support
Monthly newsletters, emails and teleconference
calls for parents and students
We provide you with a monthly electronic newsletter to keep you updated on what you should be doing.
You’ll also receive a College Funding “Tip of The Week” via email that always provides some helpful hints
and strategies when going through the college funding process.
Automatic e-mails are sent monthly to both parents & students on what they need to be doing that month to maximize
their college admissions & financial aid results. Depending on the month that we’re in, both you and your
student will receive an e-mail detailing tasks that you should be trying to do in that month. Therefore,
you will always know on a month-to-month basis, what you should be doing to maximize your results.
Sponsor “Client-Only” Teleconferences
We sponsor monthly teleconferences throughout the year for parents & students. The College Funding process
can be an extremely difficult one – not only from a financial perspective but also
from admissions to writing essays. The teleconference
topics cover pretty much every aspect of the College Funding
process. You’ll learn tips
and strategies from how to present your “hook” when applying to colleges to how to write the perfect essay.
Unlimited support for parents and students
As a client, you are entitled to unlimited support. We charge a flat fee for our services and we do not charge by the hour. Therefore, you can contact us as often as you want with as many questions as you want without fear
that you’re being billed every time you talk to us.
Provide Easy-To-Use Parent & Student Manuals
Through working with us, you’ll receive an easy-to-use Parent / Student manual that discusses
everything in the process and details out some commonly asked Q & A.
This serves as a great reference point to understand how this process really
works and what you can expect from us.
Interactive Online Page For Each Parent / Student
You will have your very own secured web page that you can go on to see what has been completed
and what still needs to be completed.
You will also have miscellaneous helpful forms and documents on your page that you
may need throughout the process.
Provide "peace of mind"
Last but definitely not least, by working with us, you’ll be receiving complete PEACE OF MIND in knowing that
your situation is being handled by an expert team to make sure that you receive the absolute best college funding
experience.
To learn more about taking the first step, visit our Seminar page.