There is financial aid available.

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In order to understand all the various financial aid options available to them, however, students should be in contact with their prospective schools' financial aid offices.

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Financial aid is available to lower the cost, but a fee like that can be tough on the wallet.

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Financial aid officers are available to assist each student.

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Colleges and universities already provide some statistics about the cost of attendance and available financial aid, but that information is often not clearly presented to students and their families in a way that facilitates easy comparison among schools.

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That doesn't take into account any financial aid, scholarships and grants that may be available to students, but it does put those schools out of reach for many families.

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But if tuition keeps going up and less money is available in the form of financial aid, you'll be cheering from afar because you won't be able to keep going to that school.

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In the regular admissions pool however, financial aid offers can be affected as the total pool of money available gets depleted.

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The school's financial counselors have shifted to a case-by-case approach to financial aid and to increasing the amount of merit-based scholarships available, she says.

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