The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review’s Annually Updated "Paying for College" Is Out in 2024 Edition
New edition discusses FAFSA Simplification and strategies for completing the new 2024-2025 FAFSA as well as the 2024-2025 College Board CSS Profile
NEW YORK, September 22, 2023 /— ®, known for its education services and resources that help students research and gain admission to colleges, has released the 32nd edition of its annually updated guide to college financial aid.
Paying for College: Everything You Need to Maximize Financial Aid and Afford College (Penguin Random House, 2024 Edition, September 19, 2023, $25.99) is authored by Kalman A. Chany, one of the nation's leading experts on college funding, with Geoff Martz.
In this book, Chany shares his savvy advice on maximizing financial aid and minimizing college costs—a service he has provided to thousands of families as president and founder of the New York-based firm Campus Consultants Inc. After providing a general overview on how the financial aid process works, Chany shares stats on the average annual cost of attending a private college or a public university (based on data as of October 2022). He also presents predictions of what those costs will be, year by year, up to 2038 based on 3.5% yearly growth. For parents saving for college, he offers advice tailored to whether they have 15, 10, 5, or 3 years until their child might enter college. He discusses various types of investments as well as the impact some of them may have on financial aid eligibility in the future.
For readers of Paying for College with children who will be applying to college in just a few years (or less!), Chany’s guidance for maximizing aid eligibility may be the most important information in the book. This is because Paying for College has been the only annually updated guide to financial aid that offers line-by-line guidance on completing to one's best advantage the ® (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), a lengthy and complex form that virtually all aid applicants must submit. Complex it is and has been for years. (Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan once said of the FAFSA, “It takes a Ph.D. to figure it out.”) Paying for College also includes guidance for completing the annual College Board’s ®, an even more complex form that hundreds of selective schools require in addition to the FAFSA.
For parents and students completing the FAFSA for the 2024-25 academic year, the information in this new edition of Paying for College will be even more timely. This is because sweeping changes will go into effect on the FAFSA as well as in federal formulas used to determine aid due to legislation passed in December 2020—the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Provisions of this law mandated a major overhaul of the federal student aid system referred to as “FAFSA Simplification.”
Chany, who has reviewed advance drafts of the 2024-2025 FAFSA (the final version of which won’t be released until December), has called the changes ahead “tectonic.” He describes them in Paying for College as “the largest changes to federal student aid in decades.” He says the so-called streamlined 2024-2025 FAFSA is not shorter and that “the effect of these changes is unfortunately anything but simple.” He discusses some of the ways income, assets and other factors will affect aid eligibility differently under the new formulas and aid delivery system. His “Old” vs “New” comparison chart in Paying for College lists 20 of the changes, many of which will significantly affect aid applicants —some positively and some negatively.
The 2024 edition of Paying for College includes:
- A sample draft of the 14-page 2024-2025 FAFSA and line-by-line guidance for completing it.
- Advice on completing the 2024-2025 CSS Profile. Chany discusses how changes in the new FAFSA will lead to challenges submitting the 2024-2025 CSS Profile.
- Recommendations as to what the student can do and what the parent can do to maximize aid eligibility. Chany also offers as advice about what is not good for the student or parent to do.
- Information on obtaining state aid for college. Chany discusses qualifications for state aid and provides a list of 50 state agencies overseeing student aid and higher education with contact information.
- Guidance for understanding financial aid offers and options for loan payments.
- Advice for people in specific situations. Chany reports on what single, separated, or divorced parents need to know about aid eligibility; how to appeal for more aid if the college offer isn’t enough; and more.
- A closing chapter, “Looking Ahead.” Chany shares his perspective on future trends in the world of financial aid and college finance.
- A glossary with definitions of 60 terms related to financial aid.
Purchasers of Paying for College who register the book at can access free content from The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review including updates about financial aid and college funding. (Icons in the margins of the book flag topics that were pending as the book went to press for which updates will be important to check.) Registered book purchasers can also access other resources and online tools from The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review.
Over the years, Paying for College has been recommended by reviewers and personal finance professionals alike. Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary chose the book for her Color of Money book club, Newsday columnist Lynn Brenner praised it as “a first-rate guide through the financial aid maze,” and John Wasik, in Forbes, noted it “can save thousands in college bills.”
Saving thousands in college bills has become increasingly important as college costs have skyrocketed. Among 12,225 college applicants and parents The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review surveyed in February for its 2023 College Hopes & Worries Survey, 98% said they would need some form of financial aid (grants, scholarships and/or loans) to pay college and 82% of that cohort characterized their level of need as "very" or "extremely" necessary.
To readers of the book in sticker shock over college costs, Chany says “Don’t faint just yet. There’s a lot of financial aid out there—and the majority of this book will be devoted to showing you how to get that financial aid.”
Paying for College is one of more than 150 books developed by The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review and published by Penguin Random House. Others include: The Best 389 Colleges (August 2023), The K&W Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Differences (September 2023), and The Ultimate Guide to HBCUs (July 2022). The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review also publishes guides to dozens of standardized tests and annual Best Value Colleges lists and rankings.
About Kalman A. Chany
Kalman A. Chany is president of Campus Consultants Inc., a Manhattan-based firm he founded in 1984 that has helped thousands of families maximize their financial aid. He has appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s Evening News, and NBC’s Nightly News, guested on NPR's Talk of the Nation, and been sourced in publications from Money to The Wall Street Journal.
About The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review
The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review is a leading tutoring, test prep, and college admissions services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school–bound students as well as working professionals achieve their education and career goals through its many education services and products. These include online and in-person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors; online resources; a of more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House; and dozens of categories of school rankings. Founded in 1981, The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review is now in its 42nd year. The company’s brand, now in its 23rd year, is one of the largest online tutoring services in the U.S. It comprises a community of thousands of tutors who have delivered more than 25 million one-to-one tutoring sessions. The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review is headquartered in New York, NY. The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review is not affiliated with ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ University. For more information, visit ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵReview.com and the company’s Media Center. Follow the company on X (formerly Twitter) () and Instagram ().
PAYING FOR COLLEGE: Everything You Need to Maximize Financial Aid and Afford College
by Kalman A. Chany with Geoff Martz
Penguin Random House • 2024 Edition • September 19, 2023
$25.99 (Canada $35.99) • 353 pages • ISBN 978-0-593-51661-4
CSS Profile® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse this product.
FAFSA® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Education.
Contact: Jeanne Krier, Publicist for The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Review and Tutor.com, pressoffice@review.com
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