This is a big topic so for today I’m going to focus on general rules. Keep in mind the FAFSA rules are different from the CSS Profile rules; below is FAFSA only.
The custodial parent for the FAFSA can be different than the custodial parent in the divorce decree and/or different from who claims the student as a dependent on their tax return. The FAFSA defines the custodial parent as “The parent that you lived with most Continue reading FAFSA for Divorced Parents
Schools are required to publish a Cohort Default Rate (CDR), a useful but limited statistic showing the default rate of student loan borrowers from that school. Why is it limited? Because data is limited to federal loan programs and to students within three years of graduation. That tends to omit two groups of students with a higher-than-average likelihood of defaulting: students who are in forbearance programs– not making any payments due to financial hardship– and private loan borrowers. Fortunately, TICAS provides a broader look at student debt. Continue reading Long Term Student Loan Default Rates
Next year’s FAFSA will be available on Oct. 1. That doesn’t mean you need to rush online and complete it on Oct. 1. Here are a few things that should factor into your timeline for completing it. Continue reading Preparing for the FAFSA
Step 1 in figuring out how to pay for college is estimating your EFC. You can use the FAFSA4caster, or the more detailed EFC Formula Guide (note that’s for 2018-2019; the 2019-2020 version should be released this month). But EFC is just a starting point: schools aren’t required to meet your need, and they certainly aren’t required to meet it through gift aid. That’s why net cost and aid packaging are important concepts to understand. Continue reading EFC, Net Cost and Aid Packaging
On our recent college odyssey, we heard about a lot of need-blind admissions policies, and no loan/100% of need met financial aid policies. These are mostly good things but perhaps not as good as they sound on the surface, so it’s worth unpacking them. Continue reading Need-Blind, No Loan, 100% Need Met Policies
A new analysis of the National Postsecondary Aid Study in the New York Times shows that while there is good news– student debt levels are leveling off and perhaps even declining in inflation-adjusted terms– the reason for that is nothing to cheer about. Continue reading Student Debt Plateaus, but…
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
Another school year is drawing to a close, meaning that free time and mental bandwidth are about to become available for many students. Here are some things high school students may want to spend some time on this summer: Continue reading What to do this Summer
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
