Build a shortlist, verify application deadlines, compare full costs and aid, prepare materials and keep official submission receipts.
List programs that match the student’s interests, preparation, location and support needs. Read each institution’s current admissions and program pages. Record prerequisites, selection factors, testing policy and whether separate applications are required. Published admitted-student ranges describe a past group; they do not guarantee admission or make an option safe.
Record application rounds, scholarship dates, financial-aid deadlines, recommendation requests and transcript delivery. Keep the exact cutoff time, time zone and receipt requirements. Ask contributors about their lead time and assign a next action for each item. Recheck the current FAFSA cycle and school or state deadlines rather than assuming a universal October opening.
Build each program’s tuition, fees, housing, food, travel and other costs on the same academic-year basis. When an offer arrives, separate grants and scholarships from loans and possible work earnings. Check renewal requirements and unresolved conditions. The Student Aid Index is an eligibility index, not the household’s bill or final aid offer.
Use the actual prompts, file formats and evidence requirements. Write truthful application materials, request recommendations with relevant context and arrange required accommodations through the official process. If testing is useful or required, use current official practice material and plan study tasks from observed needs.
Review the complete application with the student’s consent, including names, program choice, claims and attachments. Submit through the institution’s designated process, retain the receipt and check the portal for missing items. Resolve corrections through the official channel. Record any later interview, audition or verification request and its deadline.
Compare academic fit, total funding, accessible services, housing and contract terms. Ask the school to clarify incomplete aid information before relying on it. Verify the actual response and deposit deadlines. Once a route is chosen, plan deposits, disbursement dates, living costs, registration and any necessary borrowing with the student.
Create a task group for each candidate institution and retain the official requirements, source date and questions to resolve. · Track materials, responsible people, next action dates, official cutoff details and submission receipts in separate application tasks. · Keep materials versions, requests, access arrangements and verification tasks with each application. · Update status, retain submission and document-receipt references, and assign follow-up actions for missing or requested items. · Keep the decision rationale, confirmed response dates and enrollment handoff tasks, then back up the records.
Use Program cost by year for the full entered program budget and chosen cost-growth scenarios.
Use Gift aid and funding gap to reconcile written awards, available cash and proposed loans separately.
Use Study task and time plan to fit actual preparation tasks into available sessions; record practice without predicting admission or scores.
Build the actual term cash budget using starting cash, dated funding assumptions and monthly costs.
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FSA distinguishes aid offers from FAFSA estimates and explains grants, scholarships, loans and work-study. Confirm each offer’s terms with the institution.
The FAFSA submission summary includes the SAI and estimated aid information; it is not the school’s final award or a required family payment.
College Board provides Bluebook digital practice and nonadaptive paper practice. ACT’s enhanced format and science-section policies depend on the testing program.
Use the same plan label for that institution’s materials, funding and decision tasks.
Save earlier cost cases so changes in aid, housing or terms are visible.