I get this desperate plea a lot!  I want to tell you that the "desperate mom" feeling is completely normal when you are homeschooling high school! Winter and Spring is the absolute WORST time of year for that feeling. Most students have already chosen a college, and have already applied and are eager to leave home. Yet most parents are looking at the sticker price of the college and feel completely overwhelmed because they haven't received any financial aid yet. Almost everyone pays less than sticker price for a college.

If your student has SAT scores of 550 and above in each area, then they are, in the college's mind, an above average student. If they don't have high SAT scores, there is still time for them to take an SAT review class and retake the SAT test in the Spring in order to increase their score, and increase their financial aid award.

In general the state colleges don't have as much financial aid as the private colleges do. If you can convince your student to apply to other schools - private schools - you may actually pay less that they will at the state schools.

There is a crisis period in high school when you don't know how you are going to pay for college. That feeling will get worse once you get his letter of acceptance and you STILL don't know how to pay.  Most colleges tell you that you are admitted first, and then seems like a LONG time later until you hear about your financial aid! That's the worst time.... One concrete suggestion is to apply to a few other schools, public and private, where your student might be OVER qualified, and the BEST candidate they see all year.  That can really help with the financial awards.