Strategies For College, Inc. and College Planning Associates, LLC, a Vermont Agency Company, have entered into an agreement to combine their service offerings. College bound students and their parents can now get one stop shopping for help with college selection, admissions counseling, and maximizing financial aid and merit scholarships.
With five offices in New England and the capability to provide online assistance to students across the nation, Strategies for College has been showing clients how to identify and apply to colleges that fit their needs and interests for over 20 years. Howard Verman, Director of Strategies for College’s Shelburne office, noted that his company’s proprietary College Admissions Profile Index matches students with colleges based on a time-tested statistical algorithm composed of high school grades, curriculum strength and standardized test scores. The algorithm is updated annually so that each class of new students is able to find ‘colleges that fit’ and generate maximum funding from most colleges to which they apply. Also inherent in the process is matching colleges with the student’s personality profile and the family’s priorities.
College Planning Associates shows clients how to make college affordable by developing tailored college funding strategies and walking them through the financial aid maze. According to Louise Evans, Founder and Director of College Planning Associates, ‘Funding part of college with grants and scholarships allows families to accomplish other financial goals such as saving for retirement and paying down debt. Paying for college without disrupting retirement savings requires an expert’s understanding of the nuances of the financial aid system as they apply to a particular household, and every family is different.’ Evans also said that most families need to be better informed about how the college aid system works so that erroneous and costly assumptions could be avoided.
The joint venture is offering a special financial aid and college search package for $995. It includes a series of personal meetings designed to deliver a tailored list of colleges integrated with a personal financial aid strategy for college. The expected outcome for each participating family is to have students ultimately enroll in quality colleges that are affordable ‘ regardless of sticker price. Participants will also have access to online content that will reinforce information shared delivered in meetings.
The joint venture service package is appropriate for families with high school students, but additional services are available for families with younger children who want to get an early start on planning for college. Complimentary initial consultations are available.
For additional information contact Louise Evans at 802-861-8196 or Howard Verman at 802-985-8700.
The Vermont Agency. 3.5.2012.