The College Board’s 2014 Trends in College Pricing report highlights some interesting points about the cost of attending college. One item stood out in particular to me: While average published prices increased from the 2013-2014 to 2014-2015 school year in all higher ed sectors (by 2.9% for four-year public in-state, 3.3% for four-year public out-of-state, and 3.7% at four-year private non-profits), average net…
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Financial Aid
One of the great things about filling out the FAFSA is, you become eligible for all the federal aid that’s out there. Pell Grants are one form of aid that many people are surprised to find they’re eligible for. Pell Grants are awarded on a strict need basis. However, because of the way the aid formulas work, a middle-class family…
Part of President Obama’s proposal to “simplify the tax code” includes significant changes to the tax treatment of 529 plans and Coverdell ESA accounts: for new contributions (i.e, after enactment of this proposal, should that happen) distributions would no longer be tax-free, even if they are used for qualified education expenses. The proposal doesn’t just remove benefits; it also expands the…
According to a recent study by Nerdwallet, here, only about half of high school seniors completed the FAFSA in 2013. Admittedly not all high school seniors go on to college, but much of the aid that is awarded through the FAFSA, including Pell Grants, can be used to pay community college and vocational school costs. In addition, you need to…
Every year, the FAFSA undergoes some minor changes, and this year is no exception. One of the big changes is a new login process so that you do not need to enter personal information such as birthdate and Social Security number to log into the system. Instead, you’ll be given an FSA ID that will work as user name and…