In April 2015, CollegeAdvantage celebrated its 25th anniversary. In honor of this milestone, many longtime account owners shared their Saving Stories and how using CollegeAdvantage helped them achieve their goals. We are fortunate to have these encouraging stories of how families prioritized their children’s higher education and are sharing them.
When this program first started I was little skeptical, but was quickly assured that this program would be of great benefit to both of my children. I signed my daughter up at age 2 and my son at under 1 year and have never regretted this decision. I only wish that I would have put more money into the program while they were growing up, but college always seemed so far away and I thought I would have plenty of time to save.
My daughter graduated from Indiana University with a BS in Geology two years ago. (Where does the time go!) When she graduated from high school, she was not going to register for college. I convinced her to take some classes at the local college before she gave up on going to college altogether. She agreed. After giving college a try, and partly because she knew that we had the college fund set up for her, she continued her education. The CollegeAdvantage program along with her scholarships and financial aid paid for the majority of her college education. Without this program, she would have graduated with a lot of student loan debt. So, it was a blessing for her.
My son also tried college which I convinced him to do, since he also had a fund set up for him. He did not continue, but at least he was able to give it a try. Without the college fund, I don’t think that he would have even tried.
My experience with the program has been wonderful, and I recommend it to all of my friends and family. The communication from CollegeAdvantage was wonderful and my experiences on the web and on the phone with customer service were always excellent. I was concerned that there would be issues since we moved to Indiana when my children were young, but I continued to contribute and when it came time to make withdrawals for Indiana and Kentucky colleges, there was never an issue. I was also quite happy to see how my small contributions each month added up.
Julie Szymanski
Jeffersonville, Indiana
