Impact Advisors Group and The College Advice Guy are excited to present a powerful 60-minute session designed to help parents decipher what sometimes are notoriously hard to interpret college award letters.

It is rare for an award letter to provide a clear answer to the net price of a school, and as if we needed more evidence, the General Accountability Office came out with a report in November that documented just how pathetic these letters are.

Here are some key findings:

• Roughly 91%(!!) of colleges and universities understate or do not include what a family’s net price would be in the financial aid award letters they issue.
• Breaking down the above figure, 41% do not include net price at all in award letters, and 50% understate the cost by ignoring key costs and also tricking families by using loans to make the net price seem lower than it actually is.
• Only 9% of schools actually did the right thing and provided the net cost by strictly subtracting grants and scholarships from the cost of attendance.
• Federal law does not require colleges to include clear or standard information in their financial aid offers. Do not hold your breath that federal legislation solving this age-old problem will pass.