Last week the Department of Education announced that this year’s FAFSA will be available on Oct. 1, hopefully avoiding the delays that have plagued the first two years of the simplified version of the federal financial aid application. The announcement also highlighted a couple of improvements: real-time verification of Social Security numbers for immediate access to tax information from the…

This year, the Ivy Leagues increased tuition by an average of over 4%. Vanderbilt– home of the $100,000 annual cost of attendance– increased tuition by 4.5%, after last year’s whopping 9.9% bump. Stanford’s charges also went up by 4%. Meanwhile, the average tuition costs students pay has declined, net of inflation, over the past decade. How is it possible that…

It’s June, which means we’re coming up on peak college visit season. If you’re heading out to see colleges, here are some tips to get the most out of your visits. But first, some rules. Rule #1 of college visits: If you’re a high school student checking out a college, sign up for an official visit. Not only will you…

The Fed’s annual Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households report, issued last month, shows some interesting trends in student borrowing and repayment during adulthood– including some good news. First, the good news: borrowing for higher education has declined over the past decade, resulting in fewer young adults under age 30 having student loan debt compared with those aged 30-44. The decline…

My social media feeds are full of prom and graduation pictures, which means it’s time to talk about how you get money out of the 529 plan to which you’ve been diligently (or otherwise) contributing. First of all, a 529 plan isn’t like an HSA or medical savings account where you get a debit card to use for your purchases….