Worried how to pay for college? Here’s how to maximize your chances of getting the aid you need

For any parent with a child in the 8th, 9th or 10th grade, now is the time to strategize how to maximize your access to both merit-based and need-based financial aid.

Getting into college can be hard. But figuring out how to finance college so that neither parent nor child are left financially hard up? It’s a new, highly annoying level of hard — at least if you hope to get an adequate financial aid package to supplement your and your child’s college savings. For any parent with a child in the 8th, 9th or 10th grade, now is the time to strategize how to maximize your access to both merit-based and need-based financial aid. The cost of one year in college for one child — never mind two or more — is always eye-popping. For this academic year (2024-2025) the average annual sticker price for a private, four-year college including tuition, housing, food, supplies, transportation and the always mysterious “other” is $62,990, according to the College Board. For a four-year program at a public state university, the average came to $29,910 for in-state students and $49,080 for out-of-staters.