Why our Clients Love Us
Why our Clients Love us
Advantages of Working with College Funding Specialists
As college funding specialists, we take pride in being able to offer you a proven approach to college planning and educate you on your college funding options. We have helped hundreds of families over the years. We invite you to read our reviews below to see what previous clients have to say about our services. We encourage you to contact us for more information about how we can help you or someone in your family discover funding options for college.
Thoughts from our Clients
"I am very grateful for all of the support that CFAST has provided my daughter and I these past few years.As a single parent, I was very overwhelmed with the project of helping my daughter find, select, apply and begin her college experience. I can only tell you that CFAST has made every step of this project easy, enjoyable and our expectations are above and beyond what we could have achieved on our own."
Christine S.
Hoffman Estates, IL
"After having our private consultation with Rodney at CFAST, we were presented with some options to help us maximize our funds. My husband and I decided that it would be money well spent to invest in CFAST’s expertise in an area where we had little knowledge. This was a big decision for us as we had a limited budget, but we have found it to be well worth our investment. We would not have known about the various options that he offered otherwise.
Jon and Vicky S.
Bloomingdale, IL
"Rodney and Carina’s guidance truly did help us throughout the whole process from just thinking about colleges until our son’s graduation in May of 2015. We have been extremely pleased with their services at CFAST as they took a keen interest in our son and his success in college! Our son is currently thinking about graduate school and we are now looking at options for that! Thank you for all that you have done Rodney and Carina!!"
Maureen & Ken W.
Elgin, IL
"After attending CFAST’s free College Funding seminar, we took advantage of their free personal consultation where Rodney came over and assessed our family’s situation. I was surprised and pleased to find out a professional service like this existed. Let alone the fact that they will be there for me throughout the entire process, from helping us pick the best school for my children to determining the best way for us to pay for college."
David Winters
Bartlett, IL
"If this is a new experience for your family, like it was ours, it really helps to have someone walk you through it, showing you all your options along the way and suggesting different options to review. Rodney and everyone I have dealt with through CFAST have been wonderful, each of them take the time to explain each step along the way until we fully understand each them before moving on to the next."
Dann and Jean
West Chicao, IL
Read the Full Client Testimonials from our Happy Clients
"Neither my husband nor I went to college, so we were at a loss on how to get our son to college. There was so much information to gather, and we did not know where to begin. This whole process seemed very overwhelming to us.
A friend of ours invited us to a CFAST seminar. We were sold immediately after this one seminar. The information that Rodney & Carina shared with us at the seminar confirmed there was a lot we did not know about sending our son to college, and how we could afford it. We needed some guidance, and Rodney & Carina seemed like the right people to do that.
When college offers started coming in, we had Kim at the College Planning Network and Rodney review these offers and they helped explain exactly what each school was offering us. And when it came down to our decision between two schools, they helped us compose a letter to better negotiate the best deal so our son could attend his first choice school.
Through the entire process, from our first meeting, to selecting a school, to applying for the loans, Rodney & Kim were there every step of the way, giving us guidance and preparing us for the next step. Beside the money we will save on tuition, the peace a mind we now have when sending our son off to college is priceless.
If this is a new experience for your family, like it was ours, it really helps to have someone walk you through it, showing you all your options along the way and suggesting different options to review. Rodney and everyone I have dealt with through CFAST have been wonderful, each of them take the time to explain each step along the way until we fully understand each them before moving on to the next."
Dann & Jean
"As my oldest child was getting ready to start high school, the realism of a college education and the potential cost to send all my children to college hit me hard. I had many questions that needed to be answered: What kind of schools can I afford? What is the best way to pay for college? Is there any help to pay for college? Where do I start to find this information and ensure that it is reliable?
After attending CFAST’s free College Funding seminar, we took advantage of their free personal consultation where Rodney came over and assessed our family’s situation. I was surprised and pleased to find out a professional service like this existed. Let alone the fact that they will be there for me throughout the entire process, from helping us pick the best school for each of my children, to completing the necessary forms when applying for financial aid, to determining the best way for us to pay for college.
When we discussed the cost of becoming a member and using the service I found it to be a real bargain, considering the total fees I will pay for CFAST’s help and expertise will be less than 3% of our family’s expected college costs. To me, that is a small and reasonable price to pay to get the peace of mind that comes from having an expert walk me through the system, ensuring I am making sound decisions, and not having to invest the time to figure it all out on my own. If I try to do this on my own or rely on novices who want to help, I know I will end up paying more for college because of a silly mistake, missed deadline, or just not knowing if the college’s financial aid award is a fair offer.
I was also surprised to find that some of the more expensive schools come out cheaper in the long run, after a look at the school’s historical financial aid offers and past negotiations with potential students. It pays to let CFAST do the research on each individual school.
I can now proceed with confidence, knowing that CFAST will provide the information that I seek and eliminate any guesswork as we move closer to the day my eldest daughter goes off to college.”
David Winters
"I am very grateful for all of the support that CFAST has provided my daughter and I these past few years.
As a single parent, I was very overwhelmed with the project of helping my daughter find, select, apply and begin her college experience. I can only tell you that CFAST has made every step of this project easy, enjoyable and our expectations are above and beyond what we could have achieved on our own.
My daughter never thought she would be able to attend a private University but I am happy to report she is finishing her Freshman year at Valparaiso University and she has had a marvelous Freshman year experience. Carina, Rodney and CFAST helped make everything happen. One time during the process I was hit with some unexpected financial situations and CFAST helped me navigate the details enabling me to address the situation without a significant impact my daughter’s financial aid and reward package. I can only say positive things about this process and I am 100% satisfied with this program.
There was a time when I was not sure if I needed to get help with the process – as I look back in time I know that this was one of the smartest decisions that I have ever made and it is such a great reward to see how happy my daughter is attending Valparaiso University. I would be happy to speak with anyone who would like to know more about our positive experience.”
Christine S.
"As my husband and I were approaching a time in our lives when we had to help our first child prepare for college, we realized that things had changed quite a bit from what we had experienced. Although it was an exciting time, it was also very overwhelming as we sat through various parent nights and heard all the information that was being presented. After attending a CFAST session, we were greatly relieved to see that there was help out there for people like us who were new to this venture. We chose CFAST for many reasons.
After we had our third child, I put my career on hold to stay home with them. Although I treasure that time, it didn’t leave us with a lot of disposable income. Making every dollar count was of the outmost priority. There was no college fund or big savings account. We needed to find someone to help us figure out how we were going to help three children make it through college with all of us staying afloat in the process.
After having our private consultation with Rodney at CFAST, we were presented with some options to help us maximize our funds. My husband and I decided that it would be money well spent to invest in CFAST’s expertise in an area where we had little knowledge. This was a big decision for us as we had a limited budget, but we have found it to be well worth our investment. We would not have known about the various options that he offered otherwise. We began a program with him right away and now are getting ready to send our first child off to college. We wish we had known about CFAST years ago and could have begun this program sooner.
Also, with the college admission process seeming to have taken on a life of its own, having someone we can call or meet with to explain all these new adventures to us has been very valuable. I know many of our friends stressed over filling out the FASFA form. We just provided the information and it was all taken care of. That was a huge relief and one less thing we needed to take time out of our busy schedules to complete. When financial aid letters started to come in, it was great to have CFAST review them with us and negotiate on our behalf.
Having a personal consultant walk us through each step has not only been very advantageous but at times, a necessity to properly complete various tasks. Investing in CFAST's services will pay for itself many times over. With their help, we will be able to see all our children achieve their dreams and still have money left over for us to enjoy our retirement. Thanks CFAST!"
Jon and Vicky S.
"My husband and I were very concerned about paying for our son’s college tuition as we did not save much money for this. Our goal was always to send our son to college as this is the best gift any parent can give their child. We really didn’t know about any services that could assist until our son brought home a flyer about a meeting that CFAST was doing for parents thinking about college expenses.
My husband and I both attended this meeting and met Rodney and Carina Thomas from CFAST. We were interested in what they presented and definitely knew we needed more information so we set up another meeting to discuss our unique and personal situation. They explained about all the options with how to pay for college and were extremely helpful with even giving us names of schools to start looking at as our son was interested in engineering.
After visiting approximately seven engineering schools, we started to seriously look at the costs and what we would be eligible for, etc. Rodney took the time to explain all options for us. CFAST offers various services for your student to tap into such as practicing oral interview questions, assistance with writing admission essays, school options, statistics on ACT scores and assistance with how to prepare for taking ACT, sending e-mail reminders to students once a week on how to get the most from their college experience, assisting with FAFSA form completion, talking with other parents on how they went through the process of college and all that goes with it, etc. All those services were great to use and certainly easy to use on-line or simply by speaking with a CFAST associate.
Rodney and Carina’s guidance truly did help us throughout the whole process from just thinking about colleges until our son’s graduation in May of 2015. We have been extremely pleased with their services at CFAST as they took a keen interest in our son and his success in college! Our son is currently thinking about graduate school and we are now looking at options for that! Thank you for all that you have done Rodney and Carina!!”
Maureen & Ken W.
"Neither my husband nor I went to college, so we were at a loss on how to get our son to college. There was so much information to gather, and we did not know where to begin. This whole process seemed very overwhelming to us.
A friend of ours invited us to a CFAST seminar. We were sold immediately after this one seminar. The information that Rodney & Carina shared with us at the seminar confirmed there was a lot we did not know about sending our son to college, and how we could afford it. We needed some guidance, and Rodney & Carina seemed like the right people to do that.
When college offers started coming in, we had Kim at the College Planning Network and Rodney review these offers and they helped explain exactly what each school was offering us. And when it came down to our decision between two schools, they helped us compose a letter to better negotiate the best deal so our son could attend his first choice school.
Through the entire process, from our first meeting, to selecting a school, to applying for the loans, Rodney & Kim were there every step of the way, giving us guidance and preparing us for the next step. Beside the money we will save on tuition, the peace a mind we now have when sending our son off to college is priceless.
If this is a new experience for your family, like it was ours, it really helps to have someone walk you through it, showing you all your options along the way and suggesting different options to review. Rodney and everyone I have dealt with through CFAST have been wonderful, each of them take the time to explain each step along the way until we fully understand each them before moving on to the next."
Dann & Jean
"As my oldest child was getting ready to start high school, the realism of a college education and the potential cost to send all my children to college hit me hard. I had many questions that needed to be answered: What kind of schools can I afford? What is the best way to pay for college? Is there any help to pay for college? Where do I start to find this information and ensure that it is reliable?
After attending CFAST’s free College Funding seminar, we took advantage of their free personal consultation where Rodney came over and assessed our family’s situation. I was surprised and pleased to find out a professional service like this existed. Let alone the fact that they will be there for me throughout the entire process, from helping us pick the best school for each of my children, to completing the necessary forms when applying for financial aid, to determining the best way for us to pay for college.
When we discussed the cost of becoming a member and using the service I found it to be a real bargain, considering the total fees I will pay for CFAST’s help and expertise will be less than 3% of our family’s expected college costs. To me, that is a small and reasonable price to pay to get the peace of mind that comes from having an expert walk me through the system, ensuring I am making sound decisions, and not having to invest the time to figure it all out on my own. If I try to do this on my own or rely on novices who want to help, I know I will end up paying more for college because of a silly mistake, missed deadline, or just not knowing if the college’s financial aid award is a fair offer.
I was also surprised to find that some of the more expensive schools come out cheaper in the long run, after a look at the school’s historical financial aid offers and past negotiations with potential students. It pays to let CFAST do the research on each individual school.
I can now proceed with confidence, knowing that CFAST will provide the information that I seek and eliminate any guesswork as we move closer to the day my eldest daughter goes off to college.”