One shared family plan for applications, deadlines, essays, and the FAFSA — with a Merit Aid Finder that identifies potential merit-aid opportunities before the college list is final.
Built for parents and high-school students planning for U.S. colleges.
Free plan · no credit card · includes the AI advisor and 3 saved colleges · upgrade anytime
Built by Dr. Mohamed Abouzahra — Associate Professor of Information Systems and Data Analytics, and a dad who ran this gauntlet three times.
Illustrative sample family
Week of Oct 12
Potential merit aid identified
$46,500
4-year estimate · across 6 saved colleges
FAFSA progress
7 of 9
Every requirement for every college, one shared family checklist.
Realistic merit-aid ranges from verified federal data — before the list is final.
The 2027–28 FAFSA in plain language, step by step.
Sound familiar?
Not sure where your family stands? Take the free 2-minute FAFSA Readiness Check — no account needed.
See it working · sample data
Every requirement for every saved college — essays, recommendations, test scores, scholarship dates — becomes a shared checklist. Parents get their own tasks. Nobody runs this on memory again.
We don’t send you to spammy scholarship search engines. We compare your student’s profile against verified federal data (IPEDS, College Scorecard) to show realistic merit-aid ranges — before the application list is final.
Sample potential merit-aid ranges — per year, per college — from published federal aid data.
Step-by-step through the 2027–28 FAFSA — contributors, consent, documents — in plain language, with your family’s progress tracked so nothing stalls in October.
Plus an Essay Coach that helps your student plan and revise their own writing — it will never write for them.
The honest comparison
| ChatGPT / Google | Private consultant | ColBuddy | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | $3,000 – $10,000+ | $11.99 – $24.99/mo |
| Deadline tracking | Not included | Varies | Included |
| FAFSA workflow | Not included | Varies | 2027-28 aligned |
| Merit-aid finder | Not included | Varies | Included |
| Family workspace | Not included | Varies | Included |
| Persistence between sessions | Not included | Included | Included |
Why I built this
I'm a college professor and the father of three. By the time my third child started applying, I had given up trying to keep it organized with spreadsheets and good intentions. The missed FAFSA steps. The aid offers we couldn't decode. The consultants charging $5,000 to do work that mostly involved keeping lists — and the families around us who couldn't afford that anyway. None of it had to be this hard. ColBuddy is the system I wished my own family had, three times over. It uses AI carefully — to organize the chaos, surface real financial opportunities, and give parents and students a shared plan. My goal is simple: help students reach their best-fit colleges without their families going broke or losing sleep getting there.
— Mohamed Abouzahra, PhD · CSU Monterey Bay
Associate Professor of Information Systems and Data Analytics · has directed enterprise AI consulting engagements
Dr. Mohamed Abouzahra is an Associate Professor at California State University, Monterey Bay. ColBuddy is an independent company and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the university.
What you can hold us to
Check our work
Every cost and aid figure shows its source (IPEDS, College Scorecard, Common Data Set) and an “as of” date.
Merit-aid figures are potential ranges, never promises — with exactly how we calculate them, and what we don’t claim.
We never predict admissions chances, guarantee aid, or write your student’s essays — and we say so plainly, everywhere.
Founder access
Start here, upgrade when ready.
$0/mo
The full family planning system.
$11.99/mo
$143.88/yr billed annually
Everything, plus the money tools.
$19.99/mo
$239.88/yr billed annually
Fair questions
Ten minutes of setup. · Free plan · no credit card · includes the AI advisor and 3 saved colleges · upgrade anytime
— Mohamed, professor and three-time FAFSA dad