Latest Resource
Raising Children with Special Needs: Advocacy, Support, and Resources for Parents Some children don’t follow the typical developmental path. They may experience speech delays, learning differences, medical complexities, or developmental challenges that require...
This is Part 2 of my conversation with college planning expert Shellee Howard. If you missed Part 1, Helping Your Son Choose the Right Path After High School: College, Trades & Careers, I encourage you to listen to that episode first.
In this episode, we focus on the financial side of the equation: scholarships, financial aid, FAFSA mistakes, college costs, and practical strategies to help families pay for college while avoiding unnecessary debt. We also discuss how AI is changing the future of work and why planning ahead can make all the difference.
Shellee Howard is the founder and CEO of College Ready, a Certified Independent College Strategist, bestselling author, former academic advisor, and speaker who has spent more than 18 years helping families navigate college admissions, scholarships, financial aid, and career planning. Through College Ready, she helps students identify the right academic, social, and financial fit while creating a personalized plan to pursue their goals with less debt and greater confidence. As the mother of four children who each followed different educational and career paths, Shellee also brings firsthand parenting experience to her work.
Shellee is the author of The College Admissions Plan Simplified: A Busy Parent’s P.L.A.N. to a Debt-Free Degree (Best-seller) and How to Send Your Child to College Without Losing Your Mind or Your Money (Best-seller), which offer practical guidance for families navigating college admissions and costs. Learn more about Shellee and find college-planning resources at CollegeReadyPlan.com.
The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Consult with a qualified professional for specific guidance.
Subscribe to our newsletter for podcast updates and more.
This is Part 2 of my conversation with Shellee Howard, the founder of College Ready. She’s a Certified Independent College Strategist and a bestselling author who has helped students earn more than $80 million in scholarships over the past 18 years.
If you haven’t listened to Part 1, Helping Your Son Choose the Right Path After High School: College, Trades & Careers, I encourage you to start there. We discussed how to help teens choose the path that’s right for them.
In this episode, we tackle the next big question: How do you pay for it? From scholarships and financial aid to FAFSA mistakes and planning for careers in an AI-driven world, Shellee shares practical strategies to help families reduce college costs and avoid expensive missteps.
We pick up our conversation as we shift from choosing the right path after high school to figuring out how to finance it.
Suzy Shaw: So once they have an appreciation and understanding for what they feel as though they need to make when they go on to the post-high-school career or whatever that career is going to be, I can see how that’s going to make a big difference in helping them decide their path. But I mean, they’re still in high school, right? So they’re not making that money today. And how do you financially get behind that sort of investment? I mean, it’s big, you know? And it impacts not only today’s spending, but our retirement. So to not have that compound interest going into your account instead, you know, paying for college for your child is a big commitment. So, you know, what do you do with that and the plan?
Shellee Howard: So the first thing we find out is what’s most important to a family, the academic fit, the social fit, or the financial fit. We want it all. Don’t get me wrong. But for some families, they’re happy to write a full price check if I can get their child into a school. For other families, they’re like, “We can’t afford anything over this amount. Now we need to really get into the strategy.”
So what we do is we help families understand there are four buckets of money. The first bucket is need-based. Is your family making under $200,000 a year? If so, if they get into an Ivy League, the Ivy League will pay 100% of everything.
Suzy Shaw: Wow.
Shellee Howard: Okay. Right? That’s number one. So now all of a sudden, the whole objection of we can’t afford it? Really? Because I just told you, the Ivey’s have written right on their website. This is the case. That’s the mystery number one.
The mystery number two is, say your family does make more than that. Maybe not a lot more. Maybe it’s still really, really tight. And you’re like, “I have other kids I need to do this for as well. And I’m getting up in retirement like all of this right?” There are three other buckets of money.
In the last 18 years, my students have earned over $80 million in scholarships. $80 million. That’s a lot of money. Okay. So helping families understand, “Where do I get the money?” That’s the question. Three more buckets. The first bucket is picking the right college for the right student. There are some very generous colleges, and there are some insanely stingy colleges. Wouldn’t you like to know before they apply? Or do you want to wait until they get in and they’re like, “But please, I really want to wear those letters across my chest. And I really want to go and spend time at the beach in front of the campus.” I mean, like, there’s so many things that they can talk about, right? That’s dangerous because now you’re going to either break their heart or break your bank. That’s not a strategy. That is not a plan.
So what do you do with that? You want to be mindful. Don’t apply to colleges that are stingy if you can’t afford them. Just don’t. Right? We have to choose. Are we going to go out to a fancy dinner or just a food? Sometimes you just have to have food. So these are the choices you get to make.
Now, the third bucket of money is merit-based. Is your student a great musician? Are they a great athlete? Are they a great academic? Are they a great test taker? Are they good at science? What are they good at? Let’s go get some money. They earn it.
I often tell families it’s like this: “Suzy, if you own a business and I am Child A, and I come to you, and I’m like, ‘Suzy, I really want to work for you. I heard you’re the most amazing boss. Can I please have a job?” And you say, “Well, Shellee, Child A, can I see your resume?” And I say, “Well, Suzy, I’ve spent a lot of time at the beach, and I spent a lot of time at the mall, and I’m super busy, so I haven’t had time to really. It’s probably not a fit for you here, but when you do have a resume, come back and we’ll talk.”
Child B says, “Suzy, I really want to work for you.” And you say, “Can I see your resume?” Child B says, “Well, I’m a little embarrassed, Suzy. I’ve spent so much time, but I can only get it down to four pages. I can tell you everything I’ve done. You can go on vacation. “Would that work for you?” And you’re going to be like, “Yes, how much can I pay you?” Same thing for colleges.
If your child doesn’t do the work, there’s no money. Right? It’s like if you go to work and you just do the minimum, there’s no raise. It’s the same thought. So don’t look at it as being unfair. Look at it as this is a life reality. If you work hard and you earn it and you apply to the school that values it, they pay you for it all day long. If you’re applying to only dream schools and all your competition has way higher GPAs, way higher test scores, so many more service hours, so much more leadership, guess what? They’re not going to pay you. They’re going to pay them. So it really comes to picking the right colleges.
The final bucket, the independent bucket. There’s a $10,000 scholarship right now if you’re a vegan. Could you be a vegan for 10 grand? I’m just saying. There’s a $20,000 scholarship if you have one green eye and one brown eye. I don’t know. I don’t have that, but if I had that, I would apply for that. My son won the Coca-Cola scholarship his junior year, $25,000 a year. Why? Because they cared about leadership. What did he like? Leadership.
So it’s not like we’re doing anything that is not true to that student. We’re helping them adult. We’re helping them to find the right fit. And the right fit means the school wants them; they want the school, therefore they’re going to get money to be able to get there.
Then finally, if the student is that great of a student, like what happened to my son, he got a full ride to USC, he got the Presidential Scholarship, and Harvard matched it. So that’s what I’m saying. There’s a great opportunity. It really is about thinking, how do I help my child adult? And what would help them to stand out. That’s the same thing. Remember, college is not the end-game. The career is the end-game. So let’s do that.
Suzy Shaw: And just to piggyback on some of the things that you said a little bit. One of the things that my husband and I did is we made our kids pay for one year of college. So it’s a very simple mathematical equation for them to comprehend. And as they were making the decision of where they wanted to go, that impacted their decision-making. You know, how much do I want to go after this grant? Or how much work do I want to do? Do I want to go to the Disneyland of colleges for $75,000 a year? Or do I want to go to the state school? You know, because it’s going to be more cost-effective for me for the debt I’m taking on.
The other thing I want to mention is that in my younger son’s orientation, the admissions office to them: the career that you pick today could quite likely not be available tomorrow. And what you do end up doing might not have ever existed before you started doing it, which we see coming to reality all the time. And so when you’re looking at artificial intelligence (AI) changing the landscape of everything, not just the workplace, right? How do you help high school students and parents figure out what is the most productive path for them, you know, whether it’s a college or a trade school or certificates or community college?
Shellee Howard: That’s such an important question. And, you know, most people don’t know, or they don’t want to talk about it. I’ve been following AI for about five years now. And over the last six months, it has quadrupled. Like the reality of everybody finally being like, “Whoa, it’s a calculator. This does things, right?” Or the cell phone, and you’re like, “Wow, this is here to stay.”
It’s not the first time that we’ve had this interruption, right? And we’ve always come out better for it. Who would have thought we’d have a computer in our hand walking around on a daily basis? So what I like families to understand is don’t get stuck in the past. Think about the future and what that means for your child.
Yes, back in the day, computer science was a very solid program. You could count on having a job. It was very consistent, easy to get a career right out of college. No more. This graduating class, that was the number one career that did not come out smelling like roses. And that is because AI is now doing the foundations of their job.
So now we’re having to have this whoa, whoa, whoa conversation when I started having this conversation with families thinking about what are skills that are going to be needed in 10 years? Communication, collaboration, working as a team on a goal or a project, understanding AI and how to make it work for you, not replace you. These are all things that I’ve been having conversations with students, and they get it. They understand that you can’t just be a CPA or a business person or even a musician and not think AI is not going to knock on your door at some point.
So what we do at College Ready is as we’re helping them get clarity about their future, we help them come up with three careers that would be the perfect fit for who they are. Then we show them this is how much education they’ll need. These are potential college majors. This is how much money you’ll make the first year, five years and 10 years based on projection. This is the chance of it being taken by AI. Wow, right? It’s like a whole glimpse into their future.
And then we help them to understand how can you right now show the world how you’re going to be valuable even then. And that is going to be different for every single career. But truly, if you think that we can just pretend it’s not going to happen, it’s not going to be helpful for these families. And so we’re just really calling the elephant in the room what it is and saying, “Let’s talk about this, because there’s going to be careers that are going to be lost. But there’s going to be just as many, if not more, that are going to be brand new.”
Suzy Shaw: Right. Yeah, I majored in broadcast television. And I’m telling you when the telephone, these little mobile phones showed up, and everybody started taking videos off of everything, that industry tanked. And we all pivoted. I think today pivoting is a big part of just what we have to accept and embrace.
Shellee Howard: And this generation statistically is going to change careers every two to three years. So back in the day, right, and..
Suzy Shaw: Change careers? So you’re not talking about changing jobs. You’re talking careers. Okay.
Shellee Howard: Yeah. And that’s the challenge. They have to really be thinking, what is it now? What could it potentially be? And how will I embrace that? Because it is moving at the speed of light now. It’s no more, you know, the union is going to fight for your rights. It’s really going to be every man and woman for themselves. And how are you going to survive? And that’s the age that we’re in. And so I help students get really clear how to be successful and prepare for that.
Suzy Shaw: So what do you think is the biggest financial mistake families make and how can they avoid it?
Shellee Howard: So there’s the two biggest ones. The first and foremost is they throw up their hands in frustration and say, “I make too much money. We’re not going to get a dime.” Well, if that’s what you believe, that’s what’s going to happen. I can’t tell you any gentler way, but I will tell you that I’ve worked with multi-millionaires all the way to need-based, and every student I’ve ever worked with has received scholarships. Merit has nothing to do with your money. Independent has nothing to do with your money. Institutional, nothing to do. It’s only one bucket of money. There are three buckets of money that you can tap into. So it’s just a lack of knowledge.
The other one is completing the FAFSA and the CSS Profile wrong. That’s a huge problem.
And then the final one is not having a plan. It’s like preparing for retirement when you’re 75. It’s just not a strategy. It’s not a good idea. And I just want families to know if you start in middle school, you will have a beautiful, slow, gentle runway. And the FAFSA looks at the second semester of the sophomore year. So if you’re not even talking about this till the end of the junior year, you’ve missed out on Buku bucks. Lots and lots of money.
This statistic always makes me stop and think. You can start applying to college scholarships when your children are in fourth grade. Think of all those years your kids were doing nothing. How much… I had a student this year, 3.8 GPA, earn over $470,000 in scholarships on her own. Wow. She hustled. Her parents told her we’re not going into debt. She’s making money while attending college. Think about that.
Suzy Shaw: Okay, bravo! Right! “You go girl” is what I got to say to her.
Shellee Howard: Absolutely. And it was such a beautiful thing when she was so humble. She thought when she started with us, she was going to go to community college. She was like, I’m going to do the transfer plan. That’s all I can do. And here she got to pick her number one school and make money doing it. Wow.
Suzy Shaw: Okay, so there’s a system, and there’s a lot of tricks. And I always knew I was flying blind. I’m going to admit that. So for every mom like me that was feeling kind of overwhelmed at that period, and maybe they had a job, and now they’re trying to show their kid different campuses. What is the thing, the biggest takeaway or the suggestion you have for moms?
Shellee Howard: So I was a working mom as well. So I absolutely have walked in your shoes, and I have two boys and two girls. So I can honestly say out of those four, I probably have one of your children. They were all so different.
What I will say is that having conversations that are open-ended without judgment, but helping them realize that there’s choices that they get to make and that those impact their future and that you want to help them. And if you can’t or don’t want to learn how to do this, then seek help: a mentor, a coach, a teacher, a professor.
I offer a complimentary clarity call if you go to collegereadyplan.info, where I will speak with your teenager and you and say, “This is the situation. Here are the gray clouds. Here’s the sunshine. Here’s how you get there.” And now it’s up to them. But to navigate this or expect your 17-year-old to navigate it, that is a terrible idea. I can’t tell you how many times that has hurt a family.
Suzy Shaw: Well, thank you for all your advice and encouragement. And I ask all of our guests to give a little mantra, something a mom can say to themselves as they’re getting ready for all this. Do you have one you could share?
Shellee Howard: Yes. You’ve got this. Every time it gets hard, I’ve got this. I’m a mom. I birth them. I’ve got this.
Suzy Shaw: Superwoman. So where can our listeners go for more information about you?
Shellee Howard: So my website is collegereadyplan.com. There is a whole bunch of free resources. If you want to know the financial side, complete the Student Aid Index Calculator, and you will be surprised how much colleges think you can afford to pay. It is quite eye-opening.
And then if you’re a do-it- yourselfer, I have both of my best-selling books on Amazon for your listeners at $4. And so the first one is How to Send Your Student to College Without Losing Your Mind or Your Money. And the second one is The College Admissions Plan Simplified. They are a busy working mom Bible. You pick it up, you put it down, and you take each and every step along the way. So that would be my suggestion.
Suzy Shaw: Wonderful. Well, and we will include that on the mothersofboys.life website, and you will find that information, and we appreciate your time and knowledge and hope you come back again someday. Thank you.
Shellee Howard: Thank you, Suzy.
