It’s hard to hear the phrase “student debt” without “crisis” appended. But like most types of debt, there is “good” student debt and “bad” student debt. To understand the difference, it’s helpful to look at the economics of a college degree. A college education confers many benefits, but when evaluating debt the economic ones are key. College graduates—those with a…
Students for whom financial aid is a priority will in many cases be better served by focusing on schools that use the FAFSA and not the CSS Profile. Likewise, a student whose first choice school uses the Profile and is out of reach financially would be well-served in the financial aid appeals process to find a competitive school that uses…
The American Opportunity Tax Credit is usually the best tax benefit available to families. But it has some rules you should be aware of in order to make the most of it. The AOTC is worth up to $2,500 per year, per student, for four years. To claim it, the family must spend $4,000 on qualified expenses from a non-529…
If you’re a parent of a high school sophomore (or younger) and reading this, congratulations! Today you’re going to learn some things you can do that will benefit you far more on the FAFSA than the last-minute moves families can make just before filing the FAFSA. Filing the FAFSA is a lot like filing your taxes: You can definitely wait…
Harvard. Amherst. Southern Connecticut State University. US Naval Academy. MIT. Yale. Penn. Lafayette College. Stanford. UMBC. University of Georgia. Wake Forest. Columbia. Duke. US Military Academy. UNC. Ohio State. University of Michigan. Johns Hopkins. US Air Force Academy. South Dakota State University. University of Virginia. UC Santa Cruz. These are the colleges that this year produced winners of arguably the…