For years colleges have been saying that there's no money left to give out in student aid by the time a student is taken off a wait-list. You wouldn't know it this year. There are plenty of colleges who haven't filled all their seats because accepted students didn't send in their required deposits. This presents a huge headache for the colleges, and it's your opportunity to make their headache bigger.

One of my students was awarded $5,000 in grants from his # 1 college, but his # 2 college, which wait-listed him, called him after the dreaded May 1 deposit deadline to say they had awarded him $20,000 in grants if he would come. That represented a total difference of $60,000 over 4 years. Read: $60,000 of less debt for the student after graduation.

If you have a college that still has your student on a wait-list, I suggest you rethink your financial aid strategy in the following steps:

(1) Have your student call the wait-list school and express how much s/he still wants to attend that college. Colleges like to hear the "love" over the phone to help them decide who's getting off their wait-list first. For the student to call is a big plus (okay...if you don't like the wait-listed school, you're engaged in a lie; if you do like it, you're engaged in a strategy).

(2) If the college notifies you that your student's been taken off the wait-list, be sure to ask for their financial aid package. If it doesn't exceed the amount of your # 1 college, notify them in writing that "another college" offered a larger package, as if to suggest that your student would still like to attend, but reality's face looks like 20 miles of bad road. If they ask for a copy of the other school's offer, send it happily. If they come back with an offer that now exceeds the # 1 college's offer, do this:

(3) use the wait-listed college's new offer to ask for more money from your # 1 choice. Tell # 1 that you may have to break their heart because you received a larger offer elsewhere and that, after all, a larger debt is not something you regard as part of your "award" for working hard, being committed, and achieving all through high school.

(4) You can keep this ping-pong game going until September. How long you want to keep it going is up to you. It's your money that's at stake, and the colleges will take every dime if you let them. Don't give in, and don't give up until your gut tells you that you've gone as far as you're going to go.

Huge Tip: No college will ever rescind an offer due to a student's persistent requests for more money. It would be a catastrophic public relations nightmare for the college to do so, and I have a $1,000 cash reward offer for any student who can produce any letter that says such a thing.

Go ahead...call the college that wait-listed your student. There could be a pile of money waiting for you from 2 schools.