College - Just Beginning or Just Returning?

I'm a Mother of a student starting college in the Fall. I'm a student myself AND I work in a Financial Aid department at a community college. I've discovered how complicated and overwhelming the Financial Aid process is for new students. I'm learning where to look for advice on how my family is going to be able to afford a college education for my son and me at the same time; I'm not sure it's actually possible yet! I’m also trying to figure out where to go, there are so many options that I’m a little overwhelmed. So, I figured if I'm having trouble, there are others out there experiencing the same obstacles and challenges that I am. I offer this information not from the perspective of an expert, but just as a friend who may have access to more information on the subject than most.
How do you decide where to go to school? The options are different based on your circumstances. For my son, The sky’s the limit, he’s graduating high school and can go anywhere his heart desires (if money were not an object). I guess this means he has more to choose from! Luckily there are some electronic tools on the internet that can help. Here’s a couple of them: collegeboard.com and mycollegeguide.org. They ask questions based on your preferences then give you a list of possible colleges that will meet your preferences. I guess that’s a place to start. For me, though, as an older student, the options are fewer. I work full time so I need a school that I can go to that’s close. There are many online only schools, so that’s an option if that’s a method of learning I’m interested in, but for me, I’d rather be in a classroom setting. So I went ahead and checked out all of the colleges located within the range I was willing to drive. One good place to find a list of universities is at community college website, where they often partner up with universities to help students easily transfer into their four year degree education. Then I started calling admissions counselors and sending unofficial transcripts so they could tell me where I fall in their program of study of my choosing. And that leads me to where I’m at now. I need to decide how much I can afford to pay before I can choose a school. Doesn’t everything seem to be about money when you really break it down?
Well, a choice has to be made and my son comes first so he made his decision and now I’m planning the financial situation around what I’ll have left after his school costs.
Part 1 is done – you are ready to move on to the next step in the process: becoming admitted. I will save that and more for the next article. Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in more information about me or get some Financial Aid resources, please visit me at my Squidoo webpage: http://www.squidoo.com/everyday-stuff-for-everyday-people.