A lot of people ask about how to prepare for the FAFSA. Doing the FAFSA is a lot like doing your taxes. You can absolutely wait until April 15 to fill out your 1040, but you’ll probably save some money by thinking about your taxes in the fall and taking some steps before the end of the year to mitigate…
Browsing Category
Financial Aid
About 1/3 of students and 1/5 of parents borrow to pay for college, with borrowed money covering about 21% of the total cost of college, according to Sallie Mae’s How America Pays for College. The report also showed that while federal student loans were the most common form of borrowing, about 10% of students used private loans as well. That’s…
Want to know how other people pay for college? Sallie Mae’s recently-released annual report will tell you. This year’s survey was done in March and April of this year and reflects the 2019-2020 school year. A few key points: College costs went up. On average families paid just over $30,000 for the 2019-2020 academic year, compared with just over $26,000…
If I were the betting type, I’d bet that the Asset Protection Allowance is the part of the FAFSA that gets the most attention. For this fall’s FAFSA, there’s a little bit of good news: It’s finally going up! This should be tempered by: Not by much! The Asset Protection Allowance is probably the strangest calculation in all of FAFSA…
I keep hearing variations on the theme of, “When things are uncertain, it’s helpful to have specific tasks to do.” So here is a to do list for you, sorted by your student’s age. Current College Student Check your course schedule to confirm if your in-person and online courses align such that you can get to both. Make sure you…