Cozy Wittman of College Inside Track and I played Mythbusters about merit aid. Listen to my latest podcast episode to get the full scoop on who gets merit awards, where and why. Families just starting the college search process won’t want to miss Cozy’s detailed and engaging explanation of how merit works and how you can work the system to…
As a high school guidance counselor, John McMichael has a lot of conversations with students about borrowing for college. That’s in no small part because about two decades into his career, he’s still paying off his own student loans. His experience with student loans is instructive: how not planning for college costs led to borrowing, graduate school’s impact on his…
Parents often ask what options their student has for loans that don’t require a co-signer. The answer: very few other than federal direct student loans. A quick review: undergraduate education loans come in three broad types: Direct student loans: These are federal loans for undergraduate students, with an annual borrowing limit ranging from $5,500 for first-year students to $7,500 for…
Last year, private nonprofit colleges discounted tuition at record rates: the average tuition discount rate was 53.9% for first-time undergraduates. That means that among this year’s college freshmen, for every $1,000 of list price tuition, only $461 was actually paid, according to initial data from NACUBO. While the pandemic certainly increased colleges’ need to discount tuition to bring students to…
That title was a trick. I’m actually going to write about how much you should contribute to a 529 first. Lately I’ve heard versions of the same question again and again: After a year of no travel, eating out or other activities, people are sitting on extra cash that they want to direct towards college. Many are wondering what’s the…