Have a specific question about your financial aid situation? Not sure how a particular school evaluates need or awards merit? Need help understanding your Student Aid Index or estimating your real net price? Ask the Dean gives you direct access to 20 years of institutional knowledge, applied to your family’s specific situation. Come with your questions and leave knowing exactly what to do next.

This is a single working session, not a review of your college list. If you want a full evaluation of your list, the Focused Fit Review and College Fit Build below are built for that.

$250 for a 60-min session

An individualized financial aid strategy review for families who want to understand how their income, assets, financial circumstances, or upcoming financial decisions may affect college financial aid and pricing.

For families with sophomore or younger students, this is Base Year Prep - a chance to understand what the aid formulas are likely to see before important financial decisions are already behind you.

For families later in the process, it can be used as a Financial Strategy Review to evaluate a current financial situation, unusual circumstance, or specific scenario that may affect aid eligibility or college cost.

You’ll complete an intake and provide the financial documents needed for your review. Depending on your situation, we may look at income, assets, home equity, business ownership, real estate, retirement contributions, capital gains, equity events, Roth conversions, property or business sales, or other significant financial changes.

We’ll meet to walk through your financial picture, how the federal and institutional aid formulas are likely to treat it, and any scenarios that need closer analysis.

Afterward, you’ll receive written findings and next steps, including:

• what the aid formulas are likely to see;

• which factors may materially affect your financial aid picture;

• what you need to plan around;

• any timing issues worth understanding before decisions are made; and

• the specific questions to bring to your CPA, financial advisor, attorney, or other professional when appropriate.

I’m a financial aid educator, not a tax, legal, or investment advisor. I don’t tell you how to restructure your finances. I show you how the financial aid system is likely to treat them so you and your advisors can make informed decisions with the college timeline in view.

This is financial strategy work, not college-list analysis.

Starting at $750
Pricing varies based on financial complexity, document review, and the number of scenarios requiring analysis.

For families who later move into a College Fit Build, Focused Fit Review or Senior Year Financial Strategy for the same student, $300 of the fee may be applied toward that service.

You’ve built a list, on your own or with your college counselor, and you want to know what those schools will actually cost your family. In a Focused Fit Review, I evaluate each school based on your financial information and budget: what each is likely to cost you, and whether your student is competitive for merit there. We then sit down together to walk through what I found, so you leave with a clear financial picture of the list you already have.

The schools you submit at intake set your tier, so send your complete list when you’re ready. If you add schools later, we move to the tier that matches your new total, and you pay only the difference.

This is a financial read on a list that already exists. If you decide you’d rather have me build or reshape the list itself, that’s the College Fit Build, and everything you’ve paid in Focused Fit Review fees credits in full toward it.

Priced by the size of your list:

Up to 10 schools - $1,200   ·   11 to 20 schools - $1,800   ·   21 to 30 schools - $2,400

This is where we build the list together. After meeting with you and your student, I create a college list that fits on every level: academically, socially, and financially. I evaluate each school with an enrollment lens - how they will view your student, how they allocate need and merit aid, and whether the numbers make sense for your family.

The work happens in phases. We build your initial list together in the spring or early summer of the junior year, you take it to your campus visits, and we reconvene to revise it based on what you saw, adding schools, cutting others, and reshaping until the list holds together. Then we finalize. If you are working with a college counselor, I can also confer with them to gain their insights, if you choose.

I build the list. Your applications, essays, and admissions strategy stay with your counselor.

$3,000

The FAFSA and CSS Profile are where a lot of families quietly cost themselves money, usually on the questions no one explains: home equity, business or self-employment income, and how to report a divorced or separated parent. In this session, we complete your FAFSA and CSS Profile together, the right way, and I flag the entries that matter most before you submit.

$550

You’ve received your financial aid offers and something doesn’t look right, or you’re not sure whether it’s a good deal. I’ll review your aid letters and show you what each school is really offering, what they’re holding back, and where you have room to negotiate.

If there’s a case for an appeal, I’ll help you build it. I know what enrollment offices respond to and what they don’t, because I used to be the one reading the appeals. This includes a detailed review of all your offers, an appeal strategy and letter preparation, and a follow-up call after outcomes are determined.

$1,500

Senior year moves fast, and most of the decisions that determine what you actually pay get made long before an award letter arrives. Which schools went on the list. Which application round your student chose. How your assets were reported. By spring there is very little left to change.

Senior Year Financial Strategy families work with me throughout the year. We start with your list and where your student is positioned for need and merit. We work through the financial implications of Early Decision, Early Action, and Regular Decision, and build a timeline around your actual deadlines. I prepare your FAFSA and CSS Profile with you. When offers arrive, I review and compare them, and build the appeal where there is a case for one. We finish with the final affordability decision once all offers are determined.

Throughout, I run scenario modeling so you can see how a financial decision would affect your Student Aid Index before anything is filed.

You get a 90-minute kickoff session, monthly calls from August through May, two dedicated award review sessions during the decision wave, and on-going email support. That is the minimum rhythm. Complicated situations get more time.

If your family works with a college counselor, I coordinate with them directly. Your applications, essays, and admissions strategy stay with them. My work is the money side. If you are managing the process on your own, I also track deadlines and application rounds.

I take six families per cycle.

$6,500

Paid in three installments: $2,500 at signing, $2,000 on October 1, and $2,000 on December 1.