YouTube Deep Summary

## Welcome and why financial aid timing matters [00:00] All right, welcome everyone. Uh, had a little technical issues. We've been having a little technical issues tech or some technical issues with our trainings, right. In the Zoom links. So, I'm glad to see that people are making it in here, right. Uh, welcome. It is July 2nd, right. Uh, 2025, right. And today we're going to be talking a little bit about deadlines, making sure you get enough aid, right. Kind of uh making sure that you're strategic about how you are dealing with financial aid. Okay. So, if you guys can do me a little favor, put your students grade in the chat, right. Uh that would be great, right. Um and so we can kind of go ahead there, right. Now, uh you know, obviously, uh I see a bunch of kind of uh answers coming into the Q&A and into the chat. Um the there there's a lot of different age groups here, right. We have families that are like 20 25, 26. We also have families that are 20, 30, 31. Okay. Um so, glad to see all all you guys here. I'm glad that you're thinking about this early um because the earlier you think about it, the more that you can do to plan. Okay, so just a little bit about kind of what we're going to do today. We're going to be talking about deadlines, right. We're talking we're going to talk about being strategic, right. Um but are deadlines important. Yes. The simple answer is yes, right. But we're also going to talk about more deadlines, right. Now, just a little bit about me, right. My name's Coach David. I'm a former co like college and law school admissions reader, right. Uh I used to be a lawyer, right. I am now your college admissions expert uh to help you with any questions on that and financial aid, right. And again, I've been doing this for the last 16 years, okay. But I always like to start with a little bit of financial aid news because I like to tell you guys what's going on. Okay. So, some people may remember this, some people may not, right. But in December of last year, I told you about a case, right. A lawsuit, right. an antirust case that involved almost 40 colleges accused of rigging financial aid packages, steering admissions towards wealthier students, right. Um and and also kind of like um being part of like a kind of a group, a consortium of colleges that was working together to raise tuition prices. Right now, it's. ## Overview of FAFSA, CSS Profile, and IDOC [02:00] not a huge update, but right now Cornell and Georgetown are being kind of like grilled on the stand, okay. They're being asked about their involvement, right. and about the favoritism that they showed towards wealthier students. Right now, there's nothing huge that is happening right now. They're still in trial, right. Um but this is something that uh has happened before. Just something I wanted you guys to know. It does involve financial aid, right. Just last January, right. Literally 6 months ago, right. Um there was about 17 universities that reached a $320 or $320 million set settlement um when they all colluded by restricting financial aid to students that needed it. Okay, so this isn't the first time it's happened. If you're kind of like if you're taken a back and like, "Oh my god, how can they do this?" Right. Well, they've been doing it for decades, right. It's just that they they only get caught a couple times and they pay out because they're rich, right. And then people kind of forget about it. But I am not one of those people. I continue digging to see what is going on. Right. I'll try to give you guys some updates as they come along. Now, again, there have been a lot of other things that have happened as well, right. So, if there are kind of like new updates as to what's happening with the Department of Education or, you know, loans or kind of like new fee structures at different colleges, I'll try and come up um and provide that information to you guys as soon as I know about it. Okay. But if there are things that you're interested in or want to talk about, let me know too because I can add that into our presentations in the future. Okay. Now, one of the things I always tell our families is don't be scared. Get prepared. Right. I want to make sure that families understand this very clearly. Just because you own a home, right. I'm in California, right. If you're if you own a home in California, it's kind of like you're sitting on a pile of money. Well, in some cases, that's true. In some cases, it's not, right. But if you own your home, if you think like you don't qualify because you own your home, right. or your family makes a little bit too much money or you own a rental property, right. If your neighbor didn't get anything, none of those is a kind of restrictive. That's not a restriction on you getting financial aid. I've helped families that think they make a little too much. I've helped families that own their own home. I've helped families that have rental properties. I've helped families that have businesses. I've literally seen every situation under the moon and been able to help. So, keep that in mind. Okay. Now, I will have a link to a consultation at the end, right. I also have a little bit of an extra bonus for those families that are here today. Okay. Uh it is going to be Fourth of July, right. We're going to, you know, have a picnic, have the fireworks,. ## What happens if you miss the deadline [04:30] right. So, I thought I I should bring in something uh for you guys as well, right. But unfortunately, it's just going to be for those people that are here live, okay. So, keep that in mind. Okay. But let's get into the training. There's one other piece I wanted to make sure that I talked about. Okay. Now, uh as many of you guys know, Eagle Lock is our parent company, right. uh we used to be called college admission secrets and so hence we had financial aid secrets right um but eagle lock had is the new name of our company right financial aid secrets is underneath right but I always tell families paying for college and figuring that out that's one piece of the puzzle the first part of the puzzle is getting into the colleges that you want so if you do have a senior right our college application intensives have started okay now if you actually look I crossed out the kickstart because we don't have that available anymore this last weekend was the last kickstart that we have. Everything from now moving on is our accelerator. Now, one of the things I told you guys is well, you can't come to the accelerator if you have not done your kickstart, right. And so I said make sure to sign up, right. And a lot of our families did, right. That come to our trainings, right. But a lot of them still haven't. They're on the fence. They're doing this and that. The one thing I want to tell you is that we do have these kind of, you know, accelerators coming up. The only way that you are eligible for them is if you now do our self-paced kickstart. So, we've harnessed the power of AI and the brain power of our coaches and we've created a system to help students brainstorm and figure out the topics for their activities for their their essays, right. All the pieces in between, right. There will be a link at the end of the training so you can talk with our kind of advisors about the different programs that we have to offer. Okay, now let's go on to college financial aid training. Right. First thing we're going to talk about is deadlines. All right. Now, this is a question that I get asked every single year. when when are the financial aid kind of applications due. And I'm like, well, I can't really answer that. And I feel like a lot of people think that I'm not answering that because I don't want to give away something. But the reason why I cannot give an answer is because. ## How aid is processed... UC versus private colleges [06:30] every college is different. Okay. Every college has their own deadline. Every college has the their own set of things that they want. Okay. So, uh I'm going to give you some general information. I really want you guys to understand this is general information. This is not the deadline for any of the schools that you're going to be applying to. You do need to look that up per like on that school's website, on that college's website. Okay. This is just general information to help you keep a timeline of when things should be getting done roughly. Okay. So again, I make this warning because I always get backlash later. It's like, oh no, this school is not this day. It's actually earlier. I'm like, yeah, I told you it's general information. So again, this is not the deadline for your particular college, but general deadlines for early action or early decision schools, right. You need to think that your financial aid documents need to be in at the same time your college application is due. Okay. It's a very good general rule of thumb, right. I haven't seen a college yet, right. And again, I say yet because again, anything can change at any time. I haven't seen a a college that asks for financial aid documentation before the actual application is due. Okay. So keep that in mind there. Now for because I'm in California and because a lot of our families are in California, right. We also have UC's and CSUs, our state system, right. The technical due date for this is April 1st, right. But you do not need to wait that long and you should not wait that long. The financial aid process opens in October, right. So families that are in our program, they are done before the end of November at the latest, right. Um, but if you turn it in April 1st, well, here's the problem. Okay, let's say that you turn it in by April 1st, right. That means that it takes anywhere between 5 to 7 days to process on the FAFSA side and get over to your college, right. By that time, right, it takes the financial aid offices at any respective UC or CSU anywhere between two and 3 weeks in order to get your financial aid offer. ## Why early submission can backfire [08:30] out. Right now, if you waited until April 1st to turn it in, then you're already going to be in May, which is like, you know, that's four weeks out, right. And so, if you're already in May, you have to make your decision about where you're going to college by May 1st, right. Now, if you don't know what money you're going to get from the UC or CSU, then you have a huge problem, right. Because you're not going to be able to compare what it costs to go to UC or CSU or other schools that you have applied to. Okay. So, please do not wait until April 1st, but the technical deadline is April 1st. Okay. And then schools that are regular decision, right. Again, the the reason why I use regular decision and I don't include the UC's and CSUs is that UC's and CSUs have their own deadline. It's usually November 30th, right. For the last couple years, it's been December 2nd. I think this year it's also going to be December 2nd, but usually I just say end of November, right. Regular decision, I I am referring to private colleges, right. But for private colleges like other regular decision schools, right. Think that your financial aid documents need to be in at the same time as your at or same time as your college application. Okay. So same thing here, right. So you can't go wrong by following that general rule of logic. Right. But right again I want to say this is general information, right. Some schools or there's there are some schools where it says oh well you know your application is due by November 1st, right. your financial aid documents are due by November 15th, right. Or even January. It's really different, right. Um again, no one come and kind of uh you know, yell at me because I I said that you know I I I said like the general information that doesn't pertain to one school that you're looking at. Okay. Again, each college controls its own financial aid process, right. This is just general information. Okay. Um but one of the things that you need to also understand is that the way that you turn in things can change the outcomes that you do have right. Um now again when let's talk about what you actually have to turn in right so generally right when colleges are asking about your financial aid documentation needs to be in by a certain deadline right uh these are usually the pieces that they're talking about there's the FAFSA which is a very well-known form there's also the CSS profile and again I put if required because again not all colleges require it and then also ID do right again if required not all colleges require it right that's usually it everything else can come way later right there's different verification forms this and and that so on and so forth. Those obviously do have a deadline as well but. ## Real family examples... mistakes and recoveries [11:00] it is not as important as these forms and the kind of systems that you have to use before the deadline. Okay. Now having said that even when they're asking for these things by certain deadlines we have to be strategic about when we turn things in. It's not as simple as okay well they asked for AB and C. We're going to turn in ABC A and C in by November. Okay let me give you a little bit of an example. Okay, let's say that there are two colleges, right. There's college A, they require just the FAFSA. Let's say that it's like UCLA, right. They just require the FAFSA. Then we have college B, which requires FAFSA, CSS, and ID do. Let's use another example, USC, right. We have to be strategic about the timing of turning things in so that we don't hurt our chances at either one of the colleges. Okay. So in this particular situation where there is a college that is asking for the just the FAFSA and then there's another college that is asking for the FAFSA, CSS and ID do right. We would want to turn in FAFSA at each of the schools first. Right. And then the CSS profile can be turned in later but you have to know what you are doing and how far you can push it out. Okay. Now the reason why I say you need to understand how far you can push it out is this. The financial aid process while they have a deadline it's not really set in stone. Okay. There are a lot of colleges that say, "Yeah, the deadline for, you know, this is this and this is this." That all that they're saying is that if you if you want to get your decision back by a certain time like with your financial aid, then you need to turn it in by that date. But if you're okay waiting a little longer, then you should be fine, right. A very easy example of this is for students that are applying early action to any college, right. Do you need to turn in your FAFSA. Most likely. Do you need to turn in the CSS profile or ID do. probably not unless you're trying to get a result back when you get your acceptance. If you're wait if you're planning to wait until May, you can turn in those things way later. But let me tell you, why are we doing this. Right. What's the whole point of turning in things earlier, later, so on and so forth, right. Here's the thing, right. ## What to include in an aid appeal [13:00] If a college is just asking for the FAFSA, they're asking for the bare bones amount of information. They're just looking at your income. Let me give you a very easy example to understand. Let's say that there is a a uh a a married couple living in the Bay Area that is retired. Okay, their income off of their rental properties is maybe somewhere in the range of $25 to $50,000 a year, right. Uh for the purposes of FAFSA, they're considered low income, right. But on the CSS profile, they're going to ask about assets. So maybe they have 25 rental properties, right. Maybe they have a a kind of trust fund that has $7 million in it, right. May they might have this and that, so on and so forth, right. So, if they're just asking for FAFSA and the bare bones amount of information like your income, well, then that's it. That's all they're going to see. That's what they're going to make their determination on, right. But if they're asking for the CSS profile, then they're asking for way more, including the value of your home, any assets, and retirement, right. if if they're asking for ID do, they're asking for your complete tax return with every single schedule, including stuff for your trust. So again, in a particular situation where a family makes around $50,000, right. Again, they're retired, they're living off savings, right. And you're going to a UC and you're also applying to private schools, you might want to be very strategic about how you turn in your information because, well, you might get a lot of money from the UC's, right. But if you once you turn in that information to USC or to Princeton or to Yale or to, you know, Carnegie Melon or Emory, well, that is probably going to disappear, right. Because well, you've just provided a lot more information that was going to bring your in your kind of your your financial aid down. Okay. So, the just kind of think about this, the more you provide, right. And usually like the families I meet like they've diligently saved and this and that, right. the more information you provide to the financial aid offices, right, the more that they're going to cut your financial aid away, right. And so that's why we want to be strategic about when we turn things in, right. So that we can protect things as much as possible. Okay. So keep that in mind there, right. Again, it's not as easy as getting get it in by a certain deadline, right. I wish it was a very simple answer. So whenever anyone asks me ask me that question, again, I give general information. Turn it in by, you know, this time and that time. Because if you're doing it on your own, you're not implementing any any of these strategies anyway, right. The only people that are really implementing these strategies are people like me, right. Uh and families that are in our programs because I'm doing it for them,. ## FAFSA strategy vs. CSS strategy [15:30] right. There's too much of a risk if you're doing it on your own, right. So that's why I give general information about turning things in when you're turning in your college application. Okay. Now, quick takeaways here. Okay. The first thing is that you need to understand what colleges want in order to know how to strategically position yourself to get the most financial aid out of the situation. Okay. And the second thing is this. I know a lot of families and they're super proud that they got their FAFSA turned in on October 1st, right. Here's the thing. October 1st is when there's the most technical problems and the most issues, right. So, I usually tell our families, we're going to wait a week or two, right. uh it's still early if we do it do it midocctober and a lot of the problems and kind of errors that are happening have been taken care of right so while generally speaking it's not a bad thing to turn it on the first day right like again the tech issues are one thing right and then the other thing is this if you're a student or if you're a family that is applying to multiple types of colleges right you know state schools right you're also applying to private schools turning in on the first day and getting it done and out of the way only applies to students that maybe are only applying to their state schools. That is it. If you're applying to a variety of schools, it doesn't really make sense to turn it in on the first day. Okay. So, keep that in mind there. Okay. Now, oh, that's not that's from our last last week's, right. But again, I want to kind of share a little bit of our results, right. And for those that are here, stick around because we do have a special kind of like discount for you for Fourth of July. Okay. Now, for, you know, families, right. These are the ones I've been showing. These are the ones that just happened last year, right. Um, but again, this family, right, they make around 350. They have $1.4 million in assets, own their own homes, rental properties. We were able to get them $30,000 from Chapman, $35,000 from Forom, and $37,000 from University of San Diego, right. This family, right, around $440, over $2 million in assets, right. Own their own home, business, other properties, right. We we got them $42,000 a year at Baylor, right. And this family, their family makes around 230, right. uh $800,000 in assets and we were able to get them over $32,000 at UC Davis this particular situation. Okay, so there are opportunities for every family. Okay, so go ahead, right. If you guys are interested, you know, you can use the QR codes here. You can text us, right. If you're going to text us, text money to 949-775865 to get information on our financial aid programs. If you're interested in our college application intensives, or if. ## How asset disclosure changes your package [18:00] your student's younger and is looking to find a coach, right, uh to help them through their high school journey, text college to 949775865. Okay, for those of you uh you know th those people watching the replay, I'm sorry, right. I I do reward people that are here live. Um, so but do sign up for a consultation as well. Okay. Uh, for those that are here, just give me a second. I'm going to stop the recording and I'm gonna after I say my goodbyes, right. Uh, but you know, those that are watching the recording, please make sure to sign up for a consultation using the QR codes or by texting us, right. Our team will be more than happy to help you guys there. Okay. All right. So, everyone else, have a happy 4th of July. For those that are here live, uh, just give me one second. Okay.