“I knew college was expensive, but I didn’t know it was this expensive.” Sarah, a highly paid executive at Pfizer noted. “We would have saved more.  Now I know that Elisa needs to crush her SATs to get the money for the school she wants.”

Sarah had listened to a lecture from a financial planner in New London.  When asked what could be done to pay for college for parents who had high school juniors, he replied: “get higher SATs.”

Since so many Connecticut parents have contacted us for counseling related to paying for college, I’ve immersed myself in financial aid literature.  But this is a challenge: most families living in Connecticut (particularly in the Shoreline area, Branford, Guilford, Madison, Old Saybrook, Old Lyme, East Lyme etc.) have incomes that are too high to qualify for financial aid.

But the bright side is distinct: merit aid is real and many colleges will offer merit awards for students with top academic qualifications.  I have written elsewhere why comparing grades of students from different schools is a challenge (I’m sure students at East Lyme wouldn’t be happy to meet their class rank counterparts from New London public schools) and why the SAT (and ACT) are used as the primary means of awarding merit aid.

The latest book I’m reading is “Paying For College Without Going Broke.” Read the sections on SAT correlation with merit aid.  For every 10 points that a student improves his/her score, thousands of dollars can be earned.