PAY LESS FOR COLLEGE offers clear, actionable insights to help any family save real money.
Maximize Free Money:Identify the colleges most likely to invest in you and show them why you’re worth it.
Cut Costs Everywhere:From tuition to takeout, uncover smart strategies to save on every part of college life.
Make a Plan Together:Have the family money talk that gets you on the same page while keeping your values, goals, and resources front and center.
Get the Facts:In-depth guides to the FAFSA, CSS Profile, SAI, Pell Grants, and navigating financial aid when parents are unmarried, separated, divorced, remarried, or widowed.
Stand Out in Applications:Learn how to showcase what makes you shine—in essays, interviews, and personal outreach—so your admissions and financial aid rise to meet your potential.
Smart strategies mean real savings and the confidence to say YES to the dream.
Pay LESS for College shows you how to honor your dreams without sacrificing your financial future. You’ll learn how to qualify for more aid, cut costs, and find a school you love — at a price you can afford.
Why Pay More?
The book is organized into four parts with focused, easy-to-use chapters. Whether you read it cover-to-cover or jump straight to what matters most, this flexible guide gives you the information you need to save real money on your college degree.
Part I: College Costs and Financial Aid
The Cost of Attendance, Net Price, and the Student Aid Index (SAI)
Where financial aid comes from—and how to get it
How colleges build financial aid packages
How to accurately estimate your four-year price tag
Part II: How to Pay Less for College
Minimize your SAI
Choose the right colleges and apply in ways that increase free money
Pick the right application strategy for your goals and budget
Cut costs significantly—both big and small
Part III: Planning
Talk as a family about college costs and what you can afford
Prepare for unexpected life or financial changes
Turn your insights into action
Part IV: Resources and Tools—10 appendices packed with information on specific topics, including:
Essential links and helpful resources
In-depth guides to the FAFSA, CSS Profile, SAI, Pell Grant eligibility, and how to navigate financial aid when parents are unmarried, divorced, separated, remarried, or widowed
My Profile—a tool to help you identify your academic strengths, social needs, and college priorities—so you can target schools that not only fit you well but are more likely to offer strong financial aid
Guides to preparing applications that boost your chances of being awarded more grants and scholarships, including how to write standout essays, secure strong recommendation letters, and make your personal outreach most effective
The 4th Edition is fully updated to cover the latest and upcoming changes to the FAFSA, PLUS Loans, Pell Grants, and college financial aid policies.
Reviews
Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“Most guides to college financing outline scholarships and other programs that provide financial aid, but Pay Less For College: The Must-Have Guide to Affording Your Degree is different. Its focus…” — Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“Most guides to college financing outline scholarships and other programs that provide financial aid, but Pay Less For College: The Must-Have Guide to Affording Your Degree is different. Its focus is on understanding the net cost of attendance and how to bring that cost down, and it includes the formulas, assessment approaches to financial aid, and calculations necessary to approach college and grad school with a long-term understanding of their real costs.There is a lot of confusing information about college financial aid and how it works. Pay Less For College seeks to help families get a realistic assessment of what any college would cost them, given their unique situation; and reviews a variety of strategies they may be able to use to both reduce that amount and/or find ways to reach it. The charts, graphs, and worksheets are an invaluable part of this process, clarifying many points and providing links to resources that contain relevant supportive information.
Chapters focus on all kinds of related subjects, from debt assessment and management to taxes, understanding how financial aid packages are built, and all the costs of attending college beyond tuition alone. Website links help assess these costs, from those that survey the actual costs of living abroad to renting books online and locating the best data upon which to base decisions.
Families of college-bound students looking for a clear, comprehensive coverage of all the options and considerations should consider Pay Less For College a ‘must have’ acquisition. Its outline of various processes and approaches to financial management is clear, versatile, and mines the best of college financial concerns and programs to present strategic insights that parents and students will find essential to the task.”
Joe Wisinski, Reader’s Favorite
“Pay Less for College: The Must-Have Guide to Affording Your Degree explains how college-bound students, as well as current students, can slash the cost of getting their degree. Authors Elizabeth…” — Joe Wisinski, Reader’s Favorite
“Pay Less for College: The Must-Have Guide to Affording Your Degree explains how college-bound students, as well as current students, can slash the cost of getting their degree. Authors Elizabeth Walter and Debra Thro provide many strategies to help readers make college more affordable. They include reducing the amount that families are expected to pay, finding scholarships, getting loans, accessing grants, and more. There are literally hundreds of tips. As anyone who has waded through financial information knows, it can be complex and confusing. Walter and Thro wisely use bullet points, numbered lists, charts, tables, and graphs to explain the information. All the terminology is explained in simple terms. Furthermore, they provide many real-life examples. In short, Walter and Thro break difficult-to-understand information down and make it easy to digest. The book concludes with five appendices that provide valuable additional information and a financial aid glossary specifically targeted to the topic of finding money for college.I wish this book had been available when I started applying to colleges! It literally would have saved me thousands of dollars. It’s not too much to say that Pay Less for College: The Must-Have Guide to Affording Your Degree would have changed my life. Although the book pulls no punches about the cost of college and the difficulty of navigating the financial aid system, Elizabeth Walter and Debra Thro approach the subject with a positive attitude. They say, “You can do this.” The book is not light reading because the subject matter precludes that, but Walter and Thro did a masterful job in making it as easy to understand as possible. One fact to be aware of: just reading this excellent book isn’t going to save you money. You’re going to have to put the advice into practice. But if students and their families read this book and follow its guidance, they could save thousands of dollars on college costs. I highly recommend this book.”
Heidi Mosher, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
“The wisdom in this book will encourage every reader because the book delivers careful plans for what the title promises, Pay Less for College. I wish I had owned this guide to educate myself on the financial…” — Heidi Mosher, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
“The wisdom in this book will encourage every reader because the book delivers careful plans for what the title promises, Pay Less for College. I wish I had owned this guide to educate myself on the financial aid process before college visits with my oldest child. (The authors) have laid out the content in an attractive and logical way… and taken the time to expertly help families navigate well what can be a daunting process. Pay Less for College feels like a helpful friend, one with experience and extensive knowledge, taking the overwhelm out of an important part of life.”
“The info in this book is really strong, and the layout design is appealing, accessible, and well-organized. LOVE the chapter on ‘The Family Conversation about Money’– really insightful and helpful!!” — Susan Richman, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency
“Great book! A great guide for anyone going into college. I like that it is full of information without being too intense and intimidating. This is something I would have appreciated back when I was going to school.” — Charles Michael Farley, Teen Services Manager, Guthrie Memorial Library
Self-Publishing Review
“Authors Elizabeth Walter and Debra Thro break down the critical elements of financial aid, scholarships, hidden costs, and resources for university students in Pay Less for College: The Must-Have Guide…” — Self-Publishing Review
“Authors Elizabeth Walter and Debra Thro break down the critical elements of financial aid, scholarships, hidden costs, and resources for university students in Pay Less for College: The Must-Have Guide to Affording Your Degree. Organizing crucial information in intuitive ways and eliminating unnecessary narrative chaff, this is a reliable resource that can be read in a single sitting for an in-depth overview, or returned to at any point, given the encyclopedic amount of information. Bolstered by real-world examples, easily understandable graphs, hard numbers, and an informal, yet authoritative tone, this book is packed with accessible guidance that will help anyone looking to get a degree without breaking the bank.”
