What does The College Navigator do?
Since 1996, we have helped hundreds of middle and high-income families navigate the often times overwhelming college planning experience. We have successfully shown families different cash flow strategies, the existence of scholarships and grant opportunities, and have performed college-planning analysis and identified tax scholarship strategies to work for you.

Will this cost me anything? If so, how much and for what?
The initial consultation is absolutely no charge, no obligation. At first meeting, we will ask that you bring copies of a variety of financial data such as investment account statements, investments, and insurance policies. Of course, all consultations will be held in the strictest of confidence. At that meeting, we will assess the best way we can help you.

What is a College Planning Specialist?
A financial planner focuses on showing you ways to grow your income and to create wealth. As college financial planners, our objective is to show you how to pay for college, potentially making it a financial "non-event" for your family, through the use of little known strategies that potentially can save thousands in yearly tuition expenses and tax and investment savings.

Do you give out loans or scholarships?
No, we are not a lending institution or a scholarship fund. However, depending on your needs, we will identify and recommend the best college financial tools for your situation.

My daughter took the SAT and her score was okay but I thought she would have done better. Would it be beneficial for her to take the test again? How do the colleges treat this?

Yes, it is often to the student’s benefit to retake the test at least once. This goes for the ACT test as well. An increase of just 20 points on the SAT or 1 or 2 points on the ACT can go a long way. It could mean the difference between a college acceptance and denial. It could also mean a difference in the amount of financial or merit aid offered the student.

Some colleges even do what’s called superscoring. This is the process of taking the highest score from each subsection of the SAT or ACT test and combining them to give the student their highest aggregate score. (Superscoring is done more often by the colleges with SAT scores than with the ACT).

Some advice if your student does plan on taking these admission tests multiple times:

• Allow enough time to prepare for the next test. It helps considerably to be prepared for the material covered on the test as well as understanding the strategy in answering the questions.
• Work on the weaker areas from the previous test.

We offer a web-based SAT and ACT prep tool where the student can work at their individual pace and concentrate on their areas of weakness.

My son’s high school uses a program called "Naviance" that supplies us with all kinds of personalized information regarding colleges. What can The College Navigator do for me or give me that I don‘t already get with Naviance?

We are familiar with Naviance and agree that it is a good starting point and tool for looking up college and career information. It does track college application history from students within the same high school and provides families with Accept/Deny statistics based on GPA and admission test scores.

However, a large part of what we do is designed around our in-depth understanding of colleges and their Enrollment Management. We understand the whole picture. We look at colleges and universities that offer excellent programs for your student’s choice of major and career that can also offer your family better financial and/or merit aid packages. We don’t just look at acceptance/deny rates of schools that are popular with fellow high school students. We work with both the student and their parents to find colleges that are an excellent fit meeting both academic and financial requirements. Many times the private seemingly more expensive schools that parents may overlook for financial reasons can end up offering the better awards making them less expensive alternatives to the more popular state or public schools. We help families to recognize and maximize their eligibility for acceptance and financial aid and awards.