Before your student chooses a college– or starts dreaming of an unaffordable one– here’s some data they need to see. A recent Harris Poll on behalf of CNBC Make It’s “Middle-Aged Millennials” series showed that more than half of older millennials– those aged 33-40– regret taking out student loans. Of 1,000 such adults surveyed, the average amount borrowed was just…
A recent New York Times article shows that the cost of a number of private colleges is at or rapidly approaching $100,000 per year. Needless to say, the stakes have never been higher for choosing the right college. So how do you make a good choice– a college that’s a fit for your student academically and socially, and for your…
If your financial aid award includes work-study, you should understand what it is. Work study falls under the self-help column of financial aid, meaning it’s not free money. The work-study portion of your aid package is your earnings from a qualifying on- or off-campus job. You get work-study funds by finding a job and working during the school year. Work-study…
About 3/4 of financial aid appeals result in the student receiving additional aid, according to Sallie Mae’s How America Pays for College. And yet, less than half of families appeal their aid award. There’s no harm in appealing: any college that has admitted your student wants them to attend, and asking for more money won’t change that. Your odds of success…
Good news: the Department of Education is now processing FAFSAs. Bad news: about 20% of them are being processed with incorrect tax or other data. The majority of affected FAFSAs seem to include one of the following: There may be others. Here’s the thing: the Department of Education only intends to update FAFSA data if doing so would result in…