Families who are a few years out from college should calculate their EFC, but as college approaches and students start identifying schools they’re interested in, net price calculators become far more valuable. There can be vast differences between EFC and net price, and even significant school-to-school differences in net price due to different aid policies. Continue reading EFC vs Net Cost
Category Archives: Need-based Aid
Manipulation of Student Loan Default Rates
A recent New York Times article brought attention to a GAO report about schools manipulating their cohort default rate data to avoid federal sanctions that can result from schools having too high a percentage of students default on their loans. Because cohort default rates are a metric I’ve encouraged prospective students to look at, I wanted to provide some additional detail. Continue reading Manipulation of Student Loan Default Rates
Scholarships and Why You Still Need to Save
According to the College Board, about 2/3 of college students receive some form of scholarship or grant. And the NCAA doles out more than $2.9 billion in scholarships annually. Many parents see numbers like those, look at their own children’s awesomeness, and say, “We’ve got this.” But breaking down those numbers shows that you will still pay quite a bit for college and therefore probably need to save. Continue reading Scholarships and Why You Still Need to Save
NACAC College Openings Update
We’re so conditioned to seeing college acceptances as a scarcity that the NACAC College Openings Update list showing schools that have openings for freshmen as of May 1 may come as a surprise to some. Continue reading NACAC College Openings Update
When to Accept an Admission Offer
Sorry not to have written anything in a while. We had spring break (more on that later) and now it’s the crazy season at my day job (financial advisor).
With admission offers out and acceptance deadlines coming, many students jump on the acceptance from their top choice. Often, that’s the right thing to do: it relieves the stress Continue reading When to Accept an Admission Offer
Feeling Guilty About College Savings?
If your college savings fund is generating negative emotions, you’re in good company: A recent survey by Student Loan Hero found that almost half of parents who are saving for their children’s college feel guilty about not saving enough. The survey also showed some rather worrying data: Continue reading Feeling Guilty About College Savings?
Student Loans by School
If you’ve been reading this for a while, you probably know I’m a huge fan of College Navigator as an information source. It’s run by the National Center for Education Statistics and has some information that any prospective student should be aware of. Last week I mentioned the loan default rate by school. Another affordability-related topic that prospective students should consider is the student body’s borrowing rate– also available on College Navigator. Continue reading Student Loans by School
Do the FAFSA. Really.
Many schools’ FAFSA deadlines are rapidly approaching, or even past. Whether or not you think you’ll get need-based aid, you should be completing and submitting the FAFSA (and PROFILE, if applicable).
What happens if you miss your school’s deadline? Each school has its own policies so Continue reading Do the FAFSA. Really.
Negotiating an Aid Award
When it comes to negotiating and aid award, it’s helpful to understand both how the Professional Judgment (PJ) process works and how negotiating in general works.
With the PJ process, the school has a specific set of constraints and you must work within them. The Department of Education allows schools to make adjustments “on a case-by-case basis only to adjust the student’s cost of attendance or the data used to calculate her Continue reading Negotiating an Aid Award
Work Study
A financial aid package often includes work-study as one component. Typically the package includes a dollar sum of work-study income to be used for education costs. It’s up to the student to find a qualifying work-study job once they arrive on campus, and there is no guarantee that such a job is available. Continue reading Work Study
