A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research has revealed that simplifying the rules of applying for financial aid is essential to facilitate more low-income students attending college. The study — “Into College, Out of Poverty? Policies to Increase the Post-secondary Attainment of the Poor” — is actually a review of 17 previous [...]
FAFSA
President Obama has promised to improve this nation’s student financial aid system, and that includes overhauling the process of applying for assistance. Top on the President’s list is the Free Application for Student Aid, AKA the FAFSA, which is currently a long and rather complex document that needs to be filled out on line or [...]
A number of important changes are looming for federal student aid, which may save you some serious cash. Here’s a quick look at the most significant developments: Interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans are dropping — This year, they will go from a 6% to 5.6% (fixed). Under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act [...]
This story about creative financing for college ran over the weekend in my local paper. The article does a great job of outlining some of the financial challenges families are facing in the midst of this country’s economic crisis. It was good to see that staying in school is still a priority for the two [...]
Yesterday, we talked about whether or not paying for college should be the parents’ responsibility. At the end of the post, I asked what you thought about cosigning a student loan. Is cosigning a great way for parents to help out their kids with the rising cost of college? Or is co-signing a slippery slope [...]
Last week, we launched a four-part series about the best tax-preferred college savings vehicles. So far we have covered three out of the four: 529 College Savings Plans, 529 Prepaid Tuition Plans, and the Coverdell Educational Savings Account. Be sure to review those posts, if you didn’t get a chance to read them yet. Today [...]
Remember the President’s plan for student loans that I told you about a few weeks ago? Obama wants the federal government to directly disperse student loans via the Department of Education, rather than the current system of guaranteeing the loans made by private lenders like Sallie Mae. Well, according to this recent story in Politico, [...]
Welcome to the final part of the Financial Aid Finder’s five-part FAFSA Workshop. If you want to catch up on parts 1-4, follow these links: Essential FAFSA Documents FAFSA PIN Common FAFSA Blunders FAFSA Deadlines Well, we have arrived at the final installment of our FAFSA workshop. For some of you, this may no longer [...]
