With their son Rick ready to head off to Allentown College this fall, Barbara and Bill Bridger think the financial aid process has gone pretty well.

The Millcreek family started planning almost a year ago, visiting well over a dozen colleges, from Ganon University to Grove City College to Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

They focused on schools that offered additional scholarships in Rick's chosen field– theater– because they believed they wouldn't qualify for much need-based aid, said Bill Bridger, a tool and die maker at Pendleton Tool Co. Barbara Bridger is a medical technician at Associated Clinical Laboratories in Erie.

The Bridgers completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in January, with the help of financial aid consultant Stuart Siegel of College Tuition Solutions in Erie, whom they met through a seminar.

Their expected family contribution was supposed to be $14,000. But instead they ended up with a bill of about $8,700 this year, the couple said. That's because Allentown offered them an $11,000 financial aid package to cover part of the college's $19,700 per year cost of attendance.

The Bridgers attributed part of their success to Ricks efforts to promote himself to the various schools, including 1,500-student Allentown College. The McDowell High School senior even prepared a seven-page resume that outlined his activities in theater, church youth group, and other activities.

The family also refused to accept each college's first offer for financial aid and pushed for more help. Allentown's initial aid offer was only about $4,000, the family pointed out.

"I think we did everything right," Barbara Bridger said.

However, both parents say they wish they would've started saving and planning even earlier.

"Like every parent, we had some real good intentions. We put some money away early on," Bill Bridger said. But, he said, "We didn't save what we should've."

"Just start early," Barbara Bridger said, summing up her best advice to other families with children headed for college.

In addition to some of the stategies the Bridgers used, Siegel and Treiber offered a number of suggestions for people to plan ahead for college costs, including:

Do some advance calculations. Gannon financial aid officials usually refer families to The Financial Aid Information page on the Internet (www.finaid.org) as a source of financial aid information, Treiber said.

Treiber also encourages families to use the site's calculator to get an early idea of how much aid they can expect, he said.

If you're starting early, consider stocks. For parents who are saving for a young child's education costs, Siegel suggests saving in growth stock mutual funds.

"You're going to at least have a chance to keep up with inflation" in education costs, said Siegel, and independent investment broker and financial planner who began focusing on financial aid about two years. Siegel, who is working on his certified financial planner designation, charges families a fee of about $395 to $795 to help them through the increasingly complicated financial aid process.

College costs have risen at an average annual rate of 8 percent over the past 20 years, but have slowed to a 4 percent to 5 percent annual increase in the last couple of years, Siegel said.

But, Treiber cautioned, "Don't put it (your savings) all in one place."

Know how various assets are handled in the financial aid process: Several types of assets are considered "non-included" when it comes to the federal financial aid process, Siegel said. That is, their value won't be included when calculating the amount a family should pay for college costs.

These include retirement accounts (401(k)s, IRAs), homes, life insurance and annuities, Siegel said.

However, private schools– especially Ivy League or other higher-prices schools– will likely consider these assets in their financial aid calculations, Siegel said.

Siegel said that a parent can also have a certain amount of nonretirement cash, stock or other assets– "included" assets– before the financial aid process will start looking for money from that parent, Siegel said.

For example, a 45-year-old parent can keep about $42,000, depending on the family size, he said.

Beware of saving in a child's name.

Kay Johnson, a certified financial planner with Ware & Parsons Financial Group in Erie, and lecturer in finance at Penn State-Behrend, said saving in a child's name does have tax advantages. A minor can earn several hundred dollars in interest or dividends each year without being taxed. If they earn enough to be taxed, the rate will be low, Johnson said.

However, the picture changes when it comes time to calculate financial aid, Johnson said.

"For financial aid purposes, money in a student's name is a killer," Treiber agreed.

Specifically, Siegel said the federal financial aid process calls for about 35 percent of assets in a student's name to be spent each year. If the money was in a parent's name, though, only 5.6 percent of it would be included in the expected family contribution.

Don't assume you won't qualify for need-based aid. Many families with incomes between $40,000 and $100,00 do qualify for need-based financial aid, Siegel said.

According to one recent study, about 16 percent of families with incomes over $100,000 received some sort of need-based aid, Siegel said.

Consider shifts to non-included assets. If a family has too much in "included" assets, they can consider moving money into "non-included" assets while their child is in college, Siegel said.

To qualify, any such moves need to be made by Dec. 31 of a student's junior year, Siegel said.

For example, a family could move a sum of "included" money into an annuity, borrow any needed money to pay for college costs, cash out that annuity when the child graduates and repay the loan.

In theory, the extra money a family could receive in need-based aid could make up for any costs that come with a plan such as this, Siegel said.

However, moves like this are complicated, with many pitfalls, Siegel said. Parents need to carefully consider the costs of buying or selling an annuity, penalties for cashing it in early, and any loan costs.

Johnson also contended that people should use caution in buying annuities, and said she doesn't usually recommend buying them.