Your income may not tell the whole story about what college will actually cost your family.

A six-figure household income does not automatically mean your family will pay full price for college. Here's why the colleges on your list matter.

Families earning six figures often assume they've already been eliminated from financial aid. But that's not necessarily true.

One reason is that federal financial aid and institutional financial aid are not the same thing.

FAFSA is the primary application for federal student aid, while many private colleges may use the CSS Profile and their own institutional methodology to determine eligibility for college-funded or institutional aid.

So a family that doesn't qualify for federal need-based aid may still receive institutional aid at certain colleges.

Here's What This Looked Like for One CFF Student

One of our former students came to us as a transfer student.

The previous year, the student had applied to several prestigious private universities but wasn't admitted to any of them.

As the admission cycle came to an end, the student applied to an out-of-state public university with rolling admissions and was admitted.

But because the family was not eligible for federal financial aid.

They had to pay out of pocket.

Then the student came through CFF College Fully Funded®.

We helped the student develop a strategic college list and a revamped application approach to reapply to many of the same prestigious schools they had previously targeted.

This time, the results were very different.

The student received several admission offers with funding packages ranging from: $55,000–$79,000 PER YEAR

And here's the part that matters:

Every one of those offers would have cost the family less than what they were paying at the out-of-state public university.

The Lesson: School Choice Matters

This is why I tell families that your college list is much more than an admissions list.

It is a financial strategy.

The college with the highest published price isn't necessarily the college that will cost your family the most.

Likewise, a public university isn't automatically going to be the least expensive option.

What matters is what the college actually offers your student—and what that means for your family's net cost.

Some institutions have substantial institutional aid budgets and use their own methodology to evaluate a family's financial circumstances.

That's why the question shouldn't be:

“What's the sticker price?”

It should be: “What is this college likely to cost our family?”

This Is What We Do in CFF

In CFF College Fully Funded®, we help students build strategic college lists that consider:

• The student's aspirations
• Best-fit
• Family's values
• Academic and admissions considerations
• The family's financial situation
• The opportunity to secure meaningful funding

Because the goal isn't simply to get admitted.

The goal is admission with funding—so students can pursue their education without unnecessary debt.

Ready to pursue college admission with full funding?

If you have a prospective college applicant applying this fall and you're ready to take a more strategic approach to college admission and funding, we still have a couple of spots available in our upcoming CFF College Fully Funded® cohort.

​APPLY FOR CFF COLLEGE FULLY FUNDED®​