BLOG: 9 Traps to Avoid When Hiring a College Planner

No doubt, if you have a child in high school, you have thought about sending him/her to college. Despite what you may have thought or heard, academic higher education is not the right thing for most 18-year-olds right out of high school. 

There are many reasons for that…but the fact is, with college so expensive, and the graduation rate so low, you will inevitably be hiring a professional to help you through the process.

Most high schools are not equipped with the personnel to do this, and most parents have no idea where to start, or if their child will be successful at a certain college, or at all in higher education. But just as ever child is different, the counselor who helped your neighbor may not be right for your family.

So beware of the following traps when shoppin. Be discerning and focused.

1- The “All You Need Is…” TRAP

1. There are several categories that “college planners “ fall into. Many are legitimate, and many are not. There are financial products sales people, who see assets, and want to move them into high commission products, like insurance and annuities (high commission for THEM, low liquidity for YOU).  
2. There are college admissions counselors who strictly help with essays and applications. They know nothing about what the process is to pay for college, and will likely just point you to the FAFSA (Free Application For Federal Student Aid)
3. There are financial planners, who legitimately use early-stage college planning strategies as a hedge against high expected family contributions, and stimulating cash flow, while considering the overall health of the family financial picture.
4. There are CPAs who are knowledgeable about tax strategies that would lower the family expected family contributions by applying income and asset strategies.
5. There are people who have helped their own child and some of their children’s friends with college essays and research. This doesn’t make one a college planner, but it does make one a helpful parent.
6. There are programs like AVID, AP/IB, honors, and school specific tech and healthcare tracks, which are wonderful for the student, but don’t show one how to choose a college based on fit or funding. They are not college admission and financial aid counselors.

2- The "Special Invitation" for large hotel ballroom events TRAP

Every fall, companies from out of the area swoop in and have a "limited time only" offer while you are in a hotel ballroom. They send you to the back of the ballroom to schedule your “free-no-obligation” consultation. Basically, they are high pressure sales situations, and a small amount of research will show a lot of bad press about them.

3- The “Double or Triple your Aid Eligibility” TRAP

Sounds impressive…but what exactly does this mean??? If you are eligible for a Pell Grant, does it mean you will get two or three times the amount? Does it mean if you are 50 percent eligible, and that is doubled, that you are 100 percent eligible…and eligible for what???

4-The "Free Consultation Bait and Switch" TRAP

Is it really a entry level service, or is it a service assessment and sales call?  In our industry, “free consultation” usually means the latter…consisting of a bunch of ambiguous stats and high pressure to write a check so you won’t be one of the sad people who paid too much for college. 

5-The “Fake Referrals” TRAP

You’ve got to love the credibility of a testimonial like this: Joe S says: "GCF got $1,000,000,000,000 for my daughter by negotiating with Harvard." That is why you should be leery of testimonials without track ability. At least if you say “Joe Blow, parent of 2011 graduate a George Washington High School in Santa Ana,” that person is trackable. Also, a planner who has been around awhile will have a trail of success. 

6- The “Too Good to be true Guarantee” TRAP

"I guarantee to increase your financial need by 10x your investment"--actual college planning website of a financial planner.  Refer to No. 3…what does that mean? I take it to mean that if you paid $1,000 for the service, the guy will increase your “financial need” by$10,000. While that can be done sometimes, we find blanket statements like that highly misleading. And remember Trap No. 1, financial planners make commission by moving money -- whether or not the actual “financial need” will result in more financial aid is usually a moot point.

7- The “Years of Experience” TRAP

If I am really a financial planner or insurance salesperson with 20 years experience, it would not be correct to say they have 20 years of college planning experience.  We have seen moms who were active in their PTA or who volunteered to help with college essays for their local high school. And they too say, "I have 10 years experience." If someone charges money for their service, you want to find out how long, and how many PAYING clients they have served.

8- The Deceptive Advertising TRAP

We have seen athletic recruiting sites and financial planner sites do this frequently. For example: An athletic recruiting site saying “Sue P got recruited by Chapman soccer and received 100k over four years.”  Chapman offers no money for athletics, and the money she got offered, while very real, came from a combination of need and merit-based aid. If we knew her academic and financial profile we could tell you the split. But the impression is that she got money for her soccer achievements.

9- The “Secrets the Evil Colleges Won’t Tell You” TRAP

Often, especially in the fall, flyers for seminars in city libraries, or rented classrooms will be mailed to the parent. Many parents assume that the school endorses or knows about these seminars, so they attend. Often, these seminar presenters start out by presenting an altruistic position, that  they’ve “got your back” against the evil college financial aid offices, or the conniving high school guidance counselors. On the contrary. Colleges WANT to work with students to get seats filled. Most guidance counselors love students, but are over-run with paperwork and administrative minutia that prevents them from spending quality college guidance time with each student.