While both my wife and I are college graduates, the college application game has changed over the ensuing years. Our older son made numerous "mistakes," and ended up paying rack rate at an out-of-state state school from which it took him 7 years to graduate. I contracted with Keller College Services (SmartPlanForCollege) when my younger son was a second semester sophomore. Keller help him stay on track from month to month, and guided him to a school that he is both very happy at and that offered him $116,000 in non-need-based scholarship money, covering roughly 40% of his 4-yr. College costs. While it's still primarily your child's responsibility to execute the SmartPlanForCollege program, if he or she sticks with it the program will more than pay for itself.