college planning posts

About 74% of women say it's very important for their kids to go to college and get a degree, according to a new OppenheimerFunds Inc. survey. But in many cases, women spend a lot more time preparing their children to get into college than figuring out how to pay for it.

According to the poll, women often leave the financial planning for higher education to their spouses. Of households planning financially for college, women took primary responsibility for the planning 65% of the time, compared with 85% of men. Women also determined who will pay for college 67% of the time, compared with 77% of men.

"I think if it's a two-parent household sometimes you have to split the work," Donna Winn, president and CEO of OFI Private Investments Inc., told WalletPop in an Interview. "But I also think a lot of us get caught up in the things that are day-to-day. It's a little easier for us to do that in the sense that you address the immediate need, and then by not addressing that future need you leave a big hole in what your kid can do."

While your kids are stressing about college, as in their essays and SAT scores, you're probably stressing about college planning, as in coming up with the money. Of course you want your kids to have the best education possible -- but have you seen what the best education costs these days? Don't worry -- with these top 10 tips for college planning, you may not have to spend the rest of your life paying for the next four years of your kid's life.

College Planning Tip #1: Negotiate your financial aid. You should start to receive financial aid packets from colleges about two weeks after receiving an acceptance letter, and these packets are crucial for college planning. In fact, it can help in your final college planning decision, as schools vary widely in what they'll offer, as they present what they can do to try to make up the difference between their fees and your expected contribution. They calculate this amount via several factors: your financial need, your kid's academic achievements and the aid they have available. This calculation often poses the biggest problem for middle-income families who are college planning -- they have too much to qualify but too little to pay.