The College Loan Scandal – Evolution & Solution

What started out as informative Financial Aid Nights every fall and evolved into College Goal Sunday in January has now transformed itself into the largest student loan scandal in history!

Evolution

In the fall, when seniors begin applying to colleges, thousands of guidance departments present informative evenings where parents are introduced, often for the first time, to the financial aid process. While most find the system complicated, confusing and intimidating, for far too many this is the only lifeline available in their struggle to afford the escalating costs of a 4-year college education.

Guidance counselors often invite speakers from local colleges including financial aid officers (FAO’s), trusting they will put the best interests of the students over the financial interests of their schools. Unfortunately, however informative these programs may be, what is noticeably absent on the menu is how a family can legally qualify for maximum financial aid and in any other way reduce the cost of college.

Held far in advance of the filing deadlines, it is at such assemblies that parents are lead, or actually mislead, to believe they will receive all the financial assistance needed to send their sons and daughters to the college of their choice. So begins the journey of every college-bound family, innocent and naïve as to the perils that await them.

The plot thickens at College Goal Sunday, a program usually held one week after the Super Bowl at countless locations in over 40 states. Here, FAO’s are teamed with state officials as the main participants to help families file the dreaded FAFSA – but little else. As few financial aid applicants have a clue to where to turn for help, they end up putting all of their trust and faith in these very accessible and obliging agents of the system.

While it is certain their assistance will help guide families through the financial aid filing procedure, showing them how to apply precise and effective legal strategies to ensure their qualification for maximum financial aid will certainly not be one of their goals now or any time soon. The stage has now been set for the annual fleecing of America’s lower and middle income families in what is tantamount to the foxes coming out of their dens to prey on an untold number of unsuspecting chickens!

Considering that the not-so-well hidden agenda of America’s colleges and universities is to enrich their billion dollar endowment funds at the expense of their applicants, is it any wonder that we are currently witnessing a student loan scandal involving several of our most prestigious pillars of higher education?

It is not yet known how widespread the corruption is or how long it has prevailed, but at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Columbia and Johns Hopkins, to name a few, families placing desperate calls for help to financial aid offices have, without their knowledge, been rerouted to loan companies under the smokescreen that they will “help” secure the necessary funds to pay for college – but at a price far exceeding what any family should pay.

Unwary borrowers are being pushed down a slippery slope paved with some of the nation’s greediest and most devious loan sharks who have been kicking back referral fees to college financial aid officials for years! But pity not our poor, under-funded institutions of higher learning whose combined endowment funds currently exceed 25 Billion dollars; rather curse them for stooping this low!

Solution

The good news is there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The simple solution to being victimized is to make a nominal investment for professional counseling from a college funding expert. Such specialists are comprised of academics, authors and other financial advisors who, after years of dealing with the system, have developed the expertise to beat the colleges and the federal government at their own game!

While this option has been available to families for many years, ironically, most never considered it. Yet, every year, those very same families think nothing of hiring a tax consultant. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever when you consider the cost of just one year of college far exceeds the average family’s tax liability! Imagine if you will, an Income Tax Goal Sunday sponsored by the IRS. What do you think are the chances they would offer tax planning strategies to reduce your annual tax bill? Absolutely none!

Prescription for success

Step One: Beginning in the 9th grade, parents should work closely with guidance counselors on the inside while working even closer on the outside with a college funding professional. This combined effort will ensure the student obtains that all-important edge absolutely essential in today’s intensely competitive admissions process.

Step Two: By implementing specific income planning and asset repositioning strategies, any family can legally qualify for maximum financial aid. With the expert counseling of a college funding professional, students will be able to appeal unappealing financial aid offers and negotiate for the best possible financial aid package.

In no other way will the happy ending of cap, gown and sheepskin be realized at a cost significantly below what most families ever imagined. Once again, it is simply a matter of making a decision to take the road less traveled; a decision made even clearer by the despicable behavior of many of our colleges and universities…