What is the true cost of your college? Here are 7 ways your school can help families better understand and manage college costs.

In the familiar fable, a nervous Chicken Little becomes convinced that the sky is falling after an acorn falls from a nearby oak tree and hits her on the head. In a state of panic, she, in turn, convinces her friends of the Looming catastrophe, and they join her in her journey to tell the King that the sky is collapsing. While we may chuckle at the naivete of Chicken Little and her entourage, we're also witness to a similar wave of anxiety on the part of college-bound students and their parents, about what they see as the disintegration of their ability to afford college.

Yet, one of the fundamental obstacles to greater college access has less to do with actual college costs, and more to do with a misunderstanding on the part of many families as to what these costs are, how to put them into context, and how to manage them over time. If colleges wish to enroll a socio-economical[y diverse student body, let alone retain middle-income families, they must play an integral, active role in helping families understand the true costs of a college education and how they can afford to pay for it.

BUILDING MISUNDERSTANDING

Most media accounts concerning the costs of college seem to focus on several points that are of little help to families concerned about paying for college, and, by extension, to the colleges eager to enroll them. We all read daily about huge percentage increases in the tuition and fees at private and public institutions, massive cuts in state spending on higher education, and budget standoffs between state legislatures and public universities. The press focuses on congressional proposals to penalize colleges for raising tuition too much, or on states for cutting budgets too deeply. The impression is that families cannot afford college, since the value of federal grants like the Pell Grant have been eroded, and annual tuition and fees at many institutions seem outrageously high--well above the price of most family automobiles.

Is it any wonder that families expect college to cost more than it actually does? That they think institutions are gouging them for no particular reason? That they feel hopeless about their ability to achieve the American dream of a college education and all that such an education could help them to achieve?

THE COLLEGE STEPS IN

Certainly, it is vital for families to understand trends in college costs and legislative options, in part so that they may vote intelligently for leaders who will support programs that will help in the long term. In the short term, however, it is more helpful for families to understand the current context in which they and the colleges are operating, so that they can open more options for their children and not give up on the goal of achieving a college education. Colleges and universities are today, more than any other agent, in a position to help parents and students understand college costs and negotiate the complex world of saving for college and applying for all varieties of financial aid. Colleges should help families focus on financial opportunities and strategies, rather than on the underlying reasons for high costs. To that end, here are seven pointers to help your institution dispel the false impressions (and resultant fears) that lead so many families to believe that, indeed, the sky is falling.

1--Encourage your professional financial aid officers to be far more visible. Your institution's financial aid officers should travel as a team with admissions officers to secondary schools, college fairs, regional gatherings, and on-campus information sessions. Their very presence (not to mention the critical information they can bring to these audiences) will send a positive and reassuring message to potential applicants and parents. At such meetings--and at all opportunities--financial aid officers should encourage families to see them as professional counselors who can help families achieve their goals. Meeting the counselors in open and non-threatening circumstances will, in effect, give families the green tight to call or make an appointment with the counselors, to discuss options for paying the costs associated with your institution.

2--Set up live Internet chats for financial aid officers, students, and their parents, at various set times. As it turns out, the majority of questions related to paying for college fall into "FAQ" (frequently asked question) patterns. The questions you answer for one parent may help 30 others "lurking" in the electronic background. What's more, we've discovered that parents and students who might previously have been unwilling to ask personal financial questions at a group gathering, seem quite willing to share detailed family histories and financial aid profiles via e-mail.

3--Encourage admissions and financial aid officers, together, to seek out opportunities to speak at local and regional gatherings of important information disseminators. These include Rotary, Kiwanis, boards of education, organizations working with disadvantaged children, community colleges and centers. The talks should emphasize the fundamental principles of affording a college education.

4--Don't neglect the media! Financial aid and admissions representatives should make every effort to write articles or totters discussing the affordability of college, and send them to the editors of regional and national publications. And--as much as possible in everyday dealings with the press--it is up to your school's administrators and spokespeople to reframe the stories being written about college costs.

5--Enable Financial Aid and Admissions to jointly develop and sustain constant communication with high school guidance counselors and independent consultants, regarding the various financial aid opportunities available to qualified students at all levels of family income. This creates helpful and effective information for counselors to use in their direct contact with families. Put an emphasis on the "Did you know that?" theme, and share profiles of "typical" students at your institution, and the kinds of aid packages they are receiving. Share information about the percentage of students receiving aid, where it comes from, what the aid packages consist of, and the average debt of graduates. You don't have to pretend that students are not graduating with loans or are not paying significant costs, if that is the case. Your goat is to add vital information to the debate, to put costs and debt into context. Have at your fingertips information about the lifetime earning potential of college graduates, and data indicating how tong it will take to pay off college debt once a graduate has a (realistic) salaried job.

6--Utilize present undergraduates who are recipients of financial aid, one of the most powerful sources of credibility and persuasiveness readily available to you. Create a readily accessible channel of communication between these undergraduates and high school prospects and their families by including them in the present-at-ions suggested above, and in e-mail chats. The college students--real-life success stories--can inspire future students, and more credibly and realistically answer some of their questions and concerns. Importantly, they may also serve to motivate alumni and other donors (not to mention legislators) to contribute to your financial aid budget by highlighting the opportunities they have secured for their future with your institution's help.

7--Enlist your entire student support staff to interact, on a regular basis, with present undergraduates who are receiving financial aid. In this way, you'll be able to understand and respond to ongoing concerns in real time. Far too many students drop out of college each year because of stress over college costs. Often, students underestimate the full expenses of the academic year, or they are worried about the amount of debt they are accumulating or how their work-study job is affecting their time for academics. They may need help realigning their aid packages, finding less costly housing, or identifying more lucrative summer jobs. A more proactive support approach can prevent both the terrible waste of losing promising students, and a constrained financial aid budget.

IT'S ROUGH, BUT POSSIBLE

There's no denying that we have been dealing with tough financial times in America. State legislatures have been slashing higher education budgets to remedy looming deficits, just as college endowments have been hit by the real results of multiple-year dips in returns. Yes, tuitions have risen at most institutions, in many places by significant percentages. But, colleges and universities can still present legitimate arguments to families that their education is affordable as a long-term investment. Need-blind or mostly need-blind institutions need to help families understand what those designations mean. A public university instituting a 12 percent increase in tuition and fees needs to help state residents see that 12 percent may still leave tuition under $5,000 or $6,000, and that that is fairly low. All colleges need to lay out the actual costs of educating students today, and why, in most cases, tuition and fees do not cover those costs. The sky isn't falling, but Chicken Little needs some help understanding why not.

Howard Greene and Matthew Greene ([e-mail]) are independent education consultants, and the authors of the Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning. Visit www.greenesguides.com.