Ever wonder why your student is bombarded with not just college information but invitations to high-priced “leadership” camps or “honor societies” or test prep and college counseling services? This article explains what the College Board, the ACT, and other organizations– including colleges who buy the data– do with your student’s info if they complete the voluntary surveys. As the article…
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.
I just returned from a cross-country trip to visit colleges with my daughter, who’s a rising senior. It was a great trip– informative and enlightening, plus a wonderful opportunity to spend some quality time with her. We visited so many schools we joked that we should have made tour t-shirts– seven “official” tours and two visits on our own. According…
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.
Qualified expenses (QHEE’s) are expenses that are eligible for some form of tax benefit such as the AOTC or a tax- and penalty-free distribution from a 529 account. Sounds simple, right? Let the fine print begin! Not all “qualified expenses” qualify for all purposes. And of course the most important rule of claiming education tax benefits: You can’t double-dip. That means…