Note to parents: The September 13th, 2015 announcement by President Obama which I blogged about here has made this post obsolete. Parents of students who are in 11th grade during the 2015-2016 school year are no longer able to take advantage of the strategies listed in this post. For step-by-step guidance on what you can do to get your kids through college debt-free despite the White House announcement, subscribe to my free email newsletter and open it every time it lands in your email inbox. I’ll be sending lots of help over the next few months!
Pop quiz for parents!
Trevor has just started 11th grade. His parents are hoping he’ll get lots of financial aid to help pay for his college — which will be starting just two short years from now. Will the following parental decisions help or hurt Trevor’s chances of getting financial aid for college?
- Trevor’s mom is planning to start working a second job in order to bring in extra income for the family over the winter. Is this a good time for her to do that — or not?
- Trevor’s birthday is coming up in February. His grandmother is planning to celebrate by giving him a large chunk of money to help him fatten up his college savings. Is this February of Trevor’s junior year a good time to do this?
- Trevor has $3000 he’s saved up in a Wells Fargo bank account in his own name. He’s planning to put a lot more money into that account during the coming year. Is this a good idea for a kid who wants to maximize the amount of financial aid he eventually gets for college?
(Answers below.)
Parents, the 11th grade year is by far the most important year when it comes to strategizing for debt-free college graduation.
In particular, there are certain decisions that must be made before December 31st of the 11th grade year. These decisions cannot wait. If you miss making these necessary strategic decisions during this critical window of opportunity, your family may end up paying thousands more than is necessary for college.
Don’t be among the millions of parents who wait to think about these things until the end of their child’s junior year of high school.
These people are going to end up saying: “I’d give anything if I had just thought this through nine months ago!”
If you haven’t been taking the steps I prescribe for achieving debt-free college very seriously up to this point, now’s the time to become dead serious about them. You can find them all, for free, in the “WHAT TO DO WHEN” section at JeannieBurlowski.com.
To zoom straight to my list of the very important decisions that parents must make before December 31st of their child’s 11th grade year, click here.
(You’ll notice that I’m directing you to a free PDF entitled “What to do in April of 10th Grade.” DON’T LET THAT THROW YOU. These tasks are are in my April of 10th Grade PDF because that’s when I wanted you to start thinking about these topics. I’m reminding you now because these decisions are critical and I want to be sure you haven’t missed them.)
If you haven’t yet seen my blog post on “Student Loan Debt Isn’t Really That Big a Deal — True or False?” you can find it here.
For clear, step-by-step help getting your kids through college debt-free, get your copy of my book:
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You can see why financial advising professionals love LAUNCH, here.
You can see the top 9 questions parents are asking me about LAUNCH, here.
Read just one chapter of LAUNCH every 1–3 months while your child’s in middle school and high school, and you’ll know every viable strategy for debt-free college at exactly the right time to implement it.
And if your child’s already well past middle school? That’s OK; you can run to catch up. But the process of getting your kids through college debt-free goes more smoothly the earlier you start it—especially if you’re not planning to save up any money to pay for college.
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Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie is a full-time academic strategist, podcast host, and sought-after speaker for students ages 12–26, their parents, and the professionals who serve them. Her writing, speaking, and podcasting help parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free, ready to jump directly into careers they excel at and love. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, USA Today, Parents Magazine, and US News & World Report, and on CBS News.
Jeannie also helps students apply to law, medical, business, and grad school at her website GetIntoMedSchool.com. You can follow her on Bluesky @jburlowski.bsky.social.
No part of this article was written using AI.