Financial Planning and Wellness

What's Next?

Planning for all four years of your educational expenses is an important part of being an active partner in funding your education. We hope that our students and families engage with us early and often as we work together over the duration of your college education.

Throughout your academic career and in your personal life, we want you to be able to make informed, sustainable financial decisions. We recognize that money can be a complex topic and that every student and family has individual needs. In particular, as we think ahead, we encourage you to consider the following:

Preparing a Four-Year Financial Plan

McDaniel College strives to provide the very best educational resources we can to equip our students for career and professional success and support our students’ needs. We regularly invest in updating classrooms and technology infrastructure, recruit world-class faculty, improve our sports and exercise facilities and programs, enhance our health care and counseling facilities and respond to our students’ needs and requests. Like most colleges, these investments generally lead to an increase in costs each year in the range of 3-5%. In planning for four years of enrollment, we encourage families to assume these standard increases will occur and include them in your financial planning. We also remind you that all need-based aid (including federal, state, and McDaniel grants) are dependent on your FAFSA results each year. Making sure you file your FAFSA by March 1 each year maximizes your opportunity for ongoing need-based financial aid.

Understanding the Impact of Major Life Changes

Many families don’t realize how important life changes may impact their financial aid eligibility and out-of-pocket costs of attending McDaniel College. For planning purposes, we encourage all families to seek out our Financial Aid Office for assistance in understanding the financial impact of major life changes before they occur. Some examples of major life changes that impact financial aid eligibility include:

Withdrawing money from a retirement account
Marriage of either the parent or the student
Changing your residency status by moving off campus
Parent job changes such as leaving a higher paying job for a lower paying job or to open a business

Consider the Cost of Time

Students who graduate in four years not only minimize their educational expenses but they are also positioned to begin working sooner, maximizing their earning potential. Completing a full load of courses each semester (16 credits) is the most important factor in a timely graduation and maximizes the value of the tuition you are paying. A student who is considering withdrawing from a course, taking a leave of absence, or leaving McDaniel College, should work closely with the Financial Aid Office and their student success coach to understand both the direct financial impact but also the impact on their graduation timeline.

McDaniel professors lend expertise on financial wellness

Social Work professor Jim Kunz and Accounting professor Kerry Duvall have been selected to present in the Centennial Conference’s four-part speaker series, Pillars of Excellence. Kunz and Duvall have collaborated on efforts to educate students on the topic of financial literacy, including workshops to help students better understand their personal finances.

Read "McDaniel professors lend expertise on financial wellness "

Financial Wellness

Dedicated Support

To help you navigate the path to financial wellness, McDaniel College is proud to offer support through our dedicated Financial Wellness Program. Whether helping you develop a plan for funding your expenses, teaching money management, or answering questions about loans, we’re happy to share our wealth of knowledge with you. Our Financial Aid team can help take the stress out of planning your college experience by providing the following:

Customized in-person financial planning counseling for students/families.
Workshops in how to find outside scholarships, fellowships and grants to help you fund each step of your journey.
Learning opportunities designed for first-year students through early-career including:
- Creating and sticking to a budget.
- Navigating part-time and summer jobs and internships.
- Developing a savings plan for studying abroad, spring break trips, or other high-impact experiences.
- The do’s and don’ts of credit and credit scores.
- Renting your first apartment.
- Decoding student loan repayment.
- Funding graduate school.
- Understanding employee benefits.

Kent Pierce, Kristin Kober, and Jeremy Kober.

SmartTALK: A wealth of wisdom from three alumni experts in financial planning

Read "SmartTALK: A wealth of wisdom from three alumni experts in financial planning"