Our Process and Thesis

Here are 7 unique and useful insights that will completely change everything.

Written by Danny Umali, founder of Game Theory College Planners.

1. Understanding 4-year graduation rates will significantly reduce your college expense.

2. Looking to “expensive” colleges can net larger award letters and lower overall cost.

3. Using social media can increase your admissions chances and your merit awards.

4. Knowing your Student Aid Index (SAI) before the government or college does will save you thousands of dollars.*

5. Using your head first (with empirical data), then your heart, will lead to smarter college decisions.

6. Creating competition between colleges maximizes your merit aid awards & grants.

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7. Validating award letters for consistency drives college costs down to the absolute minimum.

As you can see. All you need to do is…

1. Understand your 4-year graduation rates.

2. Look to the “expensive” colleges.

3. Use social media to increase your admissions chances and your merit awards.

4. Know your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) before the government or college does.

5. Use your head first (with empirical data), then your heart, to make smarter college decisions.

6. Create competition between colleges.

7. Validate award letters for consistency.

…and get your student into the best possible college at the lowest possible price by knowing which colleges will admit and how much they will award BEFORE you apply with hilarious predictability and ridiculous consistency at a cost equal or less than what other counselors charge.

Now there are a few ways to achieve this:

Option 1: The hard way

1. You can do it yourself. This can take up to 200 hours and cost you $40,000-$80,000 in lost aid potential.

There is no upfront cost and you can can simply “Google” your way through it or you can lose yourself in Reddit or other online message boards. The problem is not necessarily in finding the right answers, it’s about knowing which questions to ask. You might get close to achieving our result but you can spend up to 200 hours but a single misstep could still cost you tens of thousands of dollars.

2. You can work with your school counselor. You might get 1 hour with them, then you are on your own… so 200 hours + 1 hour with your counselor and $40,000-$80,000 in lost aid potential.

There is no upfront cost.

However, school counselors are overworked

with unrealistic case loads and are limited in their training with college admissions and enrollment management. They also do not know how financial aid really works. They simply cannot give you the expertise, time or energy required to achieve the same results.

3. You can work with your CPA or financial advisor. (How long does it take to get you into a 529 plan that will likely reduce your financial aid?) Then you are on your own…. we are at 200+ hours and $40,000-$80,000 in lost aid potential in addition to whatever financial aid the 529 will potentially offset.

Financial advisors and CPAs are fantastic professionals in their respective fields of investment advice and tax planning. However, they can come up short when tasked with college planning. These

financial professionals only have a limited understanding of the federal aid laws and how these laws are applied for federal aid.

Enrollment management, or how colleges really spend their own money is an area that is outside of their scope of knowledge. Often times, their techniques with financial and tax planning can actually have a negative effect on your financial aid which can result with you paying tens of thousands of dollars more for college rather than less. The cost of lost financial aid can be staggering. Many financial professionals even suggest that you student compromise their college picks, limiting the choices to in-state options and community colleges.

4. You can work with the typical admissions counselor, college planner or independent educational consultant (IEC). At their hourly rate, how many hours can you afford? Maybe 6-8 hours of some other outdated version of college planning?

We’ve seen other planners charge $6,000-$10,000, some even as high as $30,000 and they don’t even come close to our level of planning. These fees may be in addition to a ridiculous hourly rate.

Since 2010, the college planning niche has exploded in popularity and it seems like everyone “wants in” on this niche.

There are countless “college planners” and “admissions counselors” contributing to the noise.

There are also a lot of “pop up” college planning agencies that have seemingly come out of nowhere. The fact is that many independent educational consultants spend more time focused on getting your student admitted to a college with little to no assistance on how to find the money to pay.

Often, we’ve. come across services that are very limited and fragmented at best. Many approaches are ineffective and many planners do not even track or provide proof of their results. We’ve seen it all and we’re not impressed. Furthermore, the common methodologies of good grades, test scores, and essays prevalent in this field are based on outdated principles 20-30 years past their shelf life.

Option 2: The easy way

Or you can work with Game Theory College Planners and get your student into the best possible college at the lowest possible price by knowing which colleges will admit and how much they will award BEFORE you apply with hilarious predictability and ridiculous consistency at a cost equal or less than what other counselors charge.

Again, this is for you…

If you are the parents of high school sophomores, juniors, or seniors who want to see their student go into the world and reap all of the rewards of having a degree without the debt.

If you feel that every student, regardless of circumstance, deserves the best shot possible at the best education they can get, you are definitely at the right place.

If you want to see your student get into the best possible college and at the lowest possible price, you are at the right place. If you want to use more of the college’s money and use less of yours to finance these educations, you are at the right place.

If you are racked with guilt thinking that you are a bad parent for not having this all figured out, don’t be.

If you feel like you make too much money to get any aid but make too little to actually afford these over priced colleges, you can stop worrying. If you are thinking that you don’t make enough money to hire us, don’t worry.

If you’ve already thrown thousands of dollars at a college planner or admissions counselor and you’re not getting anywhere, you are at the right place.

If you’ve done all the online research, listened to all the podcasts, and read all the blogs and you realized that you have made zero progress, you are at the right place.

If you suspect that colleges are more like businesses than they are educational institutions, you are on the right track.

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