Do you know how much it is going to cost you to send your child to college? Do you have any contingency plans if you cannot get scholarships, grants or other financial aid?  Careful planning is a must for parents of students who plan on attending college. 

Many parents and their children approach the college process much like the deer running into the road. They just dart out there and hope for the best.

Given how much a college education costs, you need to plan ahead and know how to navigate through the twists and turns of the financial aid process. That way, you and your child can avoid being hit with a tuition bill that can cause serious damage to your financial future.

Most parents don’t have nearly enough money saved in their ” college fund” to send their children to school for 4 years.  You should begin saving as early as possible. The average in-state tuition and fees for full-time undergraduate students for 2004-05, before student financial aid was deducted, was $5,986 for a public two-year college and $10,720 for a four-year public university. Private four-year schools averaged $25,204 in 2004-05.