Look Ma, I’m On The Radio! July 6, 2009
Ian Welham on his radio interview about N.J. college planning.
I always suspected I had a face made for radio, and now it turns out to be true. Last month John Melley of “On the Air With John Melley” interviewed me on the topic of New Jersey college planning. Specifically, we discussed proven ways to beat the ever-increasing high cost of college and what savvy NJ parents are doing to cut their college tuition costs by thousands of dollars a year.
If you’d like to hear it, we put a recording of the interview up on the website. Look for the microphone icon in the right-hand margin under the headline that says, “We’re on the radio!”
Yes, I was a nervous. At least at first. See if you can hear it. When you have the headset on and you hear your voice coming back at you, it’s a little hard not to be self-conscious. But John Melley is a real pro. He has the ability to make you forget all the distractions. After a couple minutes, it felt like we were just having a nice chat.
John was well prepared and asked some great questions. We talked about:
- How most New Jersey parents elect to pay for college, and how this is a big mistake
- How the economy is increasing competition for financial aid, and how to get the inside advantage
- Why over 95% of New Jersey families pay more for college than they have to, and how you can learn from their oversights
- Whether or not it’s smart to apply for early decision
- How private colleges with a “price tag” of 40 or 50 thousand dollars can actually cost less out-of-pocket than state schools whose cost of attendance is $20,000
One of the more interesting discussion we had occurred when John posed this question: “Why is it that when you look at two families who seem quite similar in terms of income and assets, they can be offered radically different financial aid packages? One family might get tens of thousands of dollars while the only thing the other family gets is loans. Why is that?”
I really enjoyed answering that question because it gets right to the heart of college planning and college funding – and how having a College Blueprint that takes into account the financial aid system, the tax code and proper student positioning can make the difference between getting tens of thousands of dollars in tuition discounts and being saddled with expensive loans.
To see if you agree with me – and hear my answer for yourself – check out the New Jersey college planning interview at
http://completecollegeplanningsolutions.com/pages-faqs/radio/
