My company, Butler Services Group, is helping a Nebraska High School senior-to-be (as of July 2013) with the logic behind choosing a college for higher education.

First, its important to identify some of the most important elements involved.

This particular student has initial interest in these schools.

Butler Services Group asked the student to rank the above preferences. 1 being most important and 8 being least important.

(while in school)

The cost of Higher Education can be broken down into these 5 basic buckets.

Number of Majors is important because this particular student has no idea what he wants to do. He wants to have a lot of options.

It seems that state schools have an abundant # of majors. The smaller schools are not so clear on the # of majors offered.

Here we show the total cost of college in year 1 broken out by bucket. The top segment is “Books”, the second if “Fees”, then “Housing” and “Food”, and lastly “Tuition”. Because of this chart the student eliminated KU, Iowa St., and Northwest Missouri St.

This chart is blank because Financial Aid and Scholarships will not be finalized until Spring 2014 after the FAFSA form has been submitted and reviewed by each school.

We will have to come back to this later.

This particular student is interested in staying with in a 3 ½ hours drive from home (represented by the dotted line) but is willing to consider going further.

This is the first half of a 12 month time line.

This shows when certain things need to be done beginning in August of 2013.

This is the second half of the 12 month timeline.

This shows what needs to be done beginning in January 2014.

It seems that an ACT score of 24 or higher is required in order to have the privilege of applying for scholarships based on academic performance.

Multi-Variable Chart

This multi-variable chart will not be completed until the Scholarship and Financial Aid information begins to take shape.

A multi-variable plot will bring together all the schools and preferences together in once place.

Once this is completed, the student will have a clear picture showing all information that is important to him or her. Therefore, making the most informed decision possible.