Sourcebooks Adds Financial Aid Resources to Rapidly Expanding Education Portfolio

Sourcebooks, a leading provider in college-bound resources for students, parents, and educators, recognizes the need for sound financial advice and guidance when it comes to going to college. The publisher recently formed a new education division, Sourcebooks EDU, which made its first acquisition on Friday of managingcollegecost.com and myfinancialfit.com. The two online financial aid resources were founded by veteran admissions and guidance counselor Frank Palmasani, to help families conquer college costs.
“The economic impact of the student debt crisis is one of the big unknowns that we are facing today in this country,” Palmasani said. “The Financial Fit College Search Program is intended to engage students, parents, and high school counselors in a unified quest of finding affordable college options. The ultimate goal is to help families manage their college costs without excessive debt.”
It was at the suggestion of Sourcebooks Education Advisory Network member Andrea Purcell, a college and career counselor at Waubonsie Valley High School (Aurora, IL), that Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah found herself at Glenbard South High School on a Saturday morning listening to Palmasani speak to a crowd of 200 parents. Raccah was impressed by the way in which Palmasani’s message reached people who are desperately searching for a process to manage college costs.
“Frank starts with the college search process and provides tools to support families all the way through choosing and paying for college,” Raccah said. “Guidance counselors are telling us they cannot act as financial advisors and have no resources available to direct families to as they begin the college process. We’re finally going to be able to provide help.”

Managingcollegecost.com is a free, subscriber-based website that utilizes Palmasani’s vast and varied 25 years of experience to create a valuable resource for students, parents, and college admissions counselors. As users navigate the site, they will see features and links, along with 33 videos dealing with a wide range of issues pertaining to the financial aid process. Frank’s blog keeps parents up-to-date on the financial aid timeline while teaching them how they can help their student select the best AND most affordable option.

Building on this vision, Palmasani also created myfinancialfit.com, a subscription-based website designed to help families match their affordability threshold with the net price of colleges. Myfinancialfit.com offers a 10-item confidential and anonymous questionnaire that evaluates tax credits, cash flow, available savings, and reasonable borrowing, and then provides families with a college affordability range.

Sourcebooks EDU plans to make these tools more widely available, as well as enhance these resources with additional video, content, webinars, seminars, books, interactive ebooks, and software tools.

# # #

About Frank Palmasani
Frank Palmasani, founder of managingcollegecost.com and myfinancialfit.com, began learning about the financial aid process in 1976, his first year as a high school counselor. In 1981, he moved to the college level eventually becoming a director of admissions. After a twelve-year stint, he returned to the high school arena to a position that he continues to enjoy today, serving as a guidance counselor. In 1985, Palmasani began delivering seminars on the college financial aid and planning process. He estimates he has delivered seminars to more than 100,000 people.

An accomplished seminar presenter, Frank is a member of the Illinois Association of College Admissions Counselors, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors, and the College Board. In addition to his websites for parents, he also has produced seminars for high school counselors, seminars for college admissions representatives, and a classroom presentation for students.

About Sourcebooks
Sourcebooks is an independent publishing house dedicated to sharing our passion for books in a wide variety of genres, including fiction, romance, children’s, young adult, college bound, parenting, memoir, and poetry.  We truly believe that books have the power to touch people and change lives, and every author’s voice has a place.  We are committed to innovative publishing, to exploring every publishing platform and creating new publishing models.  Sourcebooks is home to more than 80 enthusiastic book loving employees who are dedicated to finding new ways to connect with authors, readers, and ideas.  We publish over 300 new titles each year, and are honored to have 28 New York Times bestsellers. Sourcebooks is proud to be one of the largest woman-owned book publishers in the country.  .  Visit www.sourcebooks.com for more information, and check out the Sourcebooks blog.