Financial Aid Consultants
Copyright 2025 Financial Aid Consulting. All rights reserved. No portion of this article may be reproduced mechanically, electronically, by photocopying, or by any other means without the author's permission. Howard can be reached at finaidguy@gmail.com
The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.” ― Edward R. Murrow
Positive recognition and client retention as a financial aid professional are earned through hard work, service excellence, and providing clients with value-added benefits.
Yet, financial aid consultants have often had to fend for themselves when arguing against paying for what can be done for free. Such suggestions only make sense as a warning to avoid unethical scammers who make unfounded claims. That’s why it.
Should you pay to have your taxes prepared?
The IRS does not warn taxpayers against using qualified tax preparers. However, it links fee-based tax preparation services to a mechanical process. IRS tax documentation also contains free information for those who want to read it. Those waiting to talk to diminished staff at the U.S /Department of Education must endure long hold times or long phone call waits, during which they may not speak to a qualified agent. The bottom line is the quality of personalized services without trial time.
What is a Financial Aid Consultant?
The best definition of a financial aid consultant was described at (http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/consultants.phtml). Financial aid consultants assist students and parents in navigating the financial aid process by providing advice and assistance that complements the services offered by schools. Just as some individuals seek the help of a tax preparer for their income tax returns, a skilled financial aid consultant can guide a family through the often-confusing application process for financial assistance.
I emphasized "complement" and "skilled" to highlight that my services do not replace but enhance those provided for free. Furthermore, such services should not be viewed negatively when they offer more comprehensive and personalized strategic advice, resources that free services generally lack in both time and the expertise of a knowledgeable financial aid consultant.
Why the first FAFSA is only a prelude to more to come:
Now, let’s examine the types of circumstances,
These are just some of the forms and processing steps associated with the initial submissions, updates, and other forms you will likely encounter.
Many years ago, I came across the following information about financial aid consultants on the College Board website’s Big Future section: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/grants-and-scholarships/how-to-avoid-financial-aid-scams. I respected what was written, but it can be misleading. Here is an excerpt of this section, along with my comments.
Free advice is available.
Families uncomfortable with the financial aid process may turn to consultants for help. Many of these consultants offer legitimate services. Even so, hiring a consultant is usually not a good idea.
Hiring a consultant that offers legitimate services is an option for which you are paying for specialized expertise and analytical abilities that can result in a great return on a small investment. Usually, not a good idea does not mean always. It depends on finding the best service providers that can do much more than completing forms and wasting your valuable time.
Free advice is available. Consultants charge a fee for advice you can get for free from high school counselors and college financial aid officers.
Free advice is available. Free advice is abundant, but a scarcity of sound advice from those with the overall experience and scope of knowledge that is not limited to one institution or agency providing it. High school and college counselors also have diverse responsibilities, restricting their time with each student. Despite the abundance of free information and advice, they cannot objectively help you make your final decisions.
Consultants may not get you more. A consultant is unlikely to get you more financial aid than you can get yourself. Financial aid officers make decisions based on formulas, and consultants cannot change the numbers for your family.
Consultants are not focused on formulas or trying to change them. They look to make sound financial decisions, considering income and assets, and find the best strategies for managing costs and lowering expenses. Their thinking is much broader than the results of a form. I advise them about the financial aid appeal and professional judgment process and offer to help craft an effective appeal letter.
Some advice is bad; Untrustworthy consultants might suggest moving money around or buying something expensive, so it looks like you have less cash. Financial aid officers spot these tricks easily. They might reject your financial assistance application if they suspect you are dishonest.
Although I would not offer specific investment advice, I would refer clients to a qualified financial planner who could offer them better choices. Moving money around or buying something expensive without considering liquidity, impact, and costs, as well as long-term financial planning, makes little sense, especially when parental assets are generally not factored in as heavily as income. Such a strategy should not indicate what a more seasoned and objective financial aid professional should suggest.
Some consulting services are scams. Some of these services make misleading and false promises to get your money and financial information.
I agree that buyers should always be aware of scams and misleading statements.
This is why it is essential to know what you are looking for and the' quality, experience, and reputation of their services.
All Buyers Should be aware.
Buyers should be better informed, especially since scam artists and opportunists can exploit vulnerable clients. They should also heed the warnings about avoiding scholarship scams, paying a high price for the mechanical act of filling in the blanks of a financial aid form with no additional follow-up support, or paying for expensive services that generate more paper and information that most families don’t need or can handle.
The bottom line is that it all depends on four very important factors:
1. Level of expertise and experience of the service provider
2. The value-added services that extend beyond just completing a form
3. The professionalism and integrity of the service provider.
4. Fees for these services
Should You Attend a Free Financial Aid Presentation?
Of course, you should. You never know what you’ll learn. Much of what I have learned has not been so much from the presentation but from the questions parents ask and the quality of the answers. This is when questions are asked about cost, contracts, and the scope of the services that are not always discussed in detail within the actual presentation.
What concerns me most is when I attend free financial aid workshops that lure angst-ridden parents to agree to a free initial consult, only to be pressured into committing to expensive and long-term contracts and services that may not be needed or affordable. Many of these presentations are based on demographics geared to the more affluent families and those who may not have the financial resources or need for these services.
This is when parents should carefully consider whether their return on investment for these services will provide a positive payback. They should never feel pressured to make hasty decisions.
Bear in mind that there are also wonderful companies that offer value-added services. You can find them through referrals from others and by networking with current college students who have worked with consultants with proven track records and positive results. I am very proud of my accomplishments and grateful that most of my clients are from referrals who know my reputation and the quality of my services.
Case Study: Financial Aid Consultant to Avoid
I had a strong sales background colleague who became affiliated with an organization that provided financial aid services like those I just described. He was conscientious yet inexperienced in the consulting financial assistance field, but he asked me to attend one of his counseling sessions to critique his services.
I noticed that he asked the parents many scripted financial questions, which he entered into his computer program that was networked with the organization with which he shared his profits and generated college financial reports. Despite the lengthy output, he advised taking a home equity loan to pay for college. He then gave them a book about college funding that he did not write but paid to have his name printed as its author. I just witnessed an example of a sales job that didn’t cut it, especially for parents who couldn’t afford to pay a high price for expertise and creative and viable solutions that did not occur.
Although these services may have been informative, they did not provide value, and he was not qualified to call himself an expert. What bothered me even more was that his book was not his but a façade that was neither original nor honest.
This is one example of the adage, "You can fool some people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” It doesn’t work.
As a postscript, he finally gave up this business less than a year after he started. It just didn’t work out!
Who can afford financial aid consultants?
· Families with the financial means to pay for extensive college planning and other services are fortunate to be able to do so and factor these services into their college budgets.
· On the other hand, families at or near the poverty level should take advantage of free services, as their forms are relatively simple, and choices are more limited.
· But how about the vast middle-class families caught between a rock and a hard place when qualifying for financial aid and seeking more affordable college options? They don’t need the expensive support to accomplish their goals.
· This is why my business model is focused on charging affordable fees to build customer retention and provide the services to get their child through college. Let’s look at what I do:
Here is an example of my services that are listed on www.financialaidconsulting.com
My services are presented in 3 different categories.
1. College Planning
· Helping students establish criteria for researching colleges,
· Preparing for campus visits
· Spreadsheet analytics
· Scholarship searching
· Exploring 4-year college alternatives
2. Research and Analysis
Completing a financial aid form is one step. Finding the money requires many carefully planned steps along a more challenging and rewarding journey.
Here are my five steps to getting you there:
1. Financial Aid Award Analysis
· Understanding what it means
· Evaluating your options
· Crunching the numbers
2. Writing Powerful Appeal Letters
· Defining what you need to present
· Effectively presenting your case
· Remaining positive
3. Scholarship Searches
· Brainstorming sources
· Acting
· Reaping the benefits
4. Reducing Anxiety
· Overcoming the fear of the unknown
· Improving family communications
· Clarifying financial responsibilities
· Exploring alternatives
5. Staying Organized and In Control
· Timetables
· Spreadsheet Analysis
· Progressive review and follow-up
3. Financial Aid Forms
· Preparation
· Analysis
· Tax Updates
· Analysis of prior years’ forms
· Expected Family Contribution review
· What If Scenarios
· Scheduling and follow-up
What Questions Should You Ask a Financial Aid Consultant?
· Their approach to satisfying your requirements.
· Background
· Meeting Location (Office, phone, virtual)
· Fees (fixed, hourly, contractual)
· Years in the profession
· Services
· Referrals
What is free advice worth?
It was once said that free advice is worth what you pay for. The good news is that there is a lot of it, and sometimes, too much of the same thing. The bad news is that it can lead to information overload and redundancy.
Other free services associated with high school and community outreach programs do a great job, especially helping students from low-income and needy families. However, these programs are also limited in their financial expertise, analytical skills, and time commitment to the more significant populations they serve.
Even with this incessant wealth of information, none will provide the emotional comfort, support, or expertise to quell your emotional angst, keep you on track, or lead to the next logical steps for financing a college education. This is when you need to decide if the free advice will satisfy your needs and ask yourself So what does this all mean?
Can you pass the “So What” test?
Considering all these free tools, I recall some great advice from a career counselor who taught me about the So What Test. It involved taking my past accomplishments and asking, “So what would they mean to a future employer?” Rather than being stuck in the past, I had to look forward to what I could do or the value I could provide.
The FAFSA, CSS/Financial Aid Profile, and every other form I touch are not so much a means to judge wealth or hardship as an opportunity to apply the “so what” test to what they report before deciding on the next steps. That’s the big difference between free, do-it-yourself approaches and professional, fee-based support that can best answer the “so what” test.