Dear Friends of College Liftoff!
I wanted to use this “blog space” to write to you directly, both to thank you for your friendship and support of College Liftoff, but also to announce some exciting news.
I started College Liftoff 11 years ago after my own experiences in college and as a young graduate. See, when I was going off to college, my family couldn’t contribute much financial help…so I was on my own.
But I was terrified of student loan debt–and so I spent my senior year trying to figure out how I could best avoid it.
By researching schools and their programs, I found a way to graduate with a top 25 (at the time) mechanical engineering degree and no debt. In fact, I MADE $40,000 on my graduation day.
After graduation, I saw my friends struggling to make rent with their student loan payments. I saw friends going back to school for second bachelors degrees and higher level degrees because they were unhappy with the jobs available in their first degrees. I remembered all the research I had put into my own college search and new there had to be a better way.
I founded College Liftoff to solve the problem of a broken system for students and their families. More than a decade later, I still see families liquidating their retirement or selling their beloved homes just to pay for their children’s education…and without any idea about what that “investment” will yield in return.
Our mission is to really secure students’ futures through education, and to do so without breaking any banks. After doing this for 1000 students, College Liftoff is ready to make the leap to really become a household solution–for ALL families–and the first step is branching out under a new and improved name: IN–The College Planning Experts.
We feel this name explains what we offer to families in a clearer way: there is a right post-secondary educational path for all students. We are experts in this field and we will help you get there. We will help you be ALL IN–academically, financially, mentally, emotionally, all of it. We’ll do it. We’ve got more than a decade of experience and a thousand families that can tell you. The college application process is broken, and it’s high time someone came along and fixed it. We have the fix. We have the solution. And we will work through it together–empowering you, the student, the family–to take control of the process for your success.
This week we are opening a brand new location (three for us in total!) under the new name IN–The College Planning Experts. It’s a huge step for us as a company, but also as an industry–because people are finally starting to get wise to the face that the college application process is broken, and they’re starting to see the need for solutions. They’re starting to see there’s hope. And there is. We guarantee. Students and families no longer have to accept a fate of student loan debt into their 40s. They no longer have to scramble to “get in” to the “best college”…without even knowing what that means, and without a plan. There’s a better way to do this–one that will actually ensure students’ future success.
At the same time, one of the things we love about being a small business is being integral parts of communities–a place where neighborhood families can go for personalized help. And even more, we love getting to be a small local business in that we get to participate in our community and give back.
That’s why we are so excited about, despite our growth, maintaining spaces in the communities where are families really live and work in. It’s truly amazing to be a part of the Upper Arlington and Powell communities outside Columbus…and now, with our new office opening this week, the Bexley community.
Please continue to follow us and check in with us–we will do the same with you. We will always be here to help your family or any family you know who is going through the college planning process. We will always be happy to give you advice and share college-related news as we get it. We are happy to be your trusted source–your college planning experts.
Thank you, and keep in touch,
Aaron Greene, Founder&CEO of IN–The College Planning Experts
