Student Loans
Why You Shouldn’t Apply to a Reach School
In my last post on deciphering financial aid letters, I focused on college grants. Grants are the best kind of aid that you can snag in a financial aid letter because these awards don’t have to be repaid.
College Grants: Decoding a Financial Aid Letter Part II
My son has been receiving financial aid awards from colleges [...]
College Grants: Decoding a Financial Aid Letter Part II
This is my second post on deciphering college financial aid packages. Yesterday, I explained what sort of federal financial aid assistance you might find in your financial aid award.
How To Decode a Financial Aid Letter
Today, I’m going to cover the types of college grants that parents typically find in a financial aid letter.
College Grants
Many families [...]
9Mar2010 | Lynn | 0 comments | Continued
How To Decode a Financial Aid Letter
It’s the college financial aid season.
Some parents are still struggling to complete their financial aid application, while others are just beginning to receive their financial aid packages in the mail.
Once you receive a financial aid award, the challenge is to decipher it. I’m going to help you master these financial aid letters by looking at [...]
Heck Yeah, It’s Hard to Qualify as an Independent Student
It is hard to qualify as an independent college student when seeking federal financial aid. I wrote about this big hurdle recently in this post:
Getting Financial Aid as an Independent Student
Yesterday about four dozen students posted passionate comments on my blog after Chegg, the giant online source for textbook rentals, carried a post that I [...]
The $555,000 College Debt Mistake
Recently I wrote posts that cautioned parents and students not to take on too much college debt.
Why am I being a nag? College loan debt can be toxic. My Exhibit A is a family practitioner in Columbus, OH, Michelle Bisutte, who finished medical school with $250,000 in debt in 2003. Today her college loan levels [...]
PLUS Loans: How Much Should Parents Borrow for College?
I wanted to follow up on yesterday’s post: How Much College Loan Debt Is Too Much?
In that post I talked about what is an acceptable level of college loans that students should assume. That post prompted Stuart, a blog visitor, to ask me this question about PLUS loans:
What about the parents? What is a reasonable [...]
How Much College Loan Debt is Too Much?
The typical student graduates from college with $23,200 in college loan debt.
That figure, which comes from a recent study from the Project on Student Debt, only includes student loan debt. The $23,200 tab does not include money that parents borrowed through the federal PLUS loan program, a home equity line of credit or by dipping [...]
Schools With the Best College Financial Aid – For Now
What schools offer the best college financial aid?
Last month, I wrote this post: 51 Colleges With the Best Student Financial Aid.
Please take a look at the list because it includes schools with awesome financial aid policies that will reduce your stress about how you will pay for college. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and [...]
Why You Should File the FAFSA, Freshmen Facts and Engineering Degrees
6 Reasons to File the FAFSA
Should you file the FAFSA?
Here’s my answer for just about everybody, including myself: Absolutely yes.
I admit it’s not fun to complete the FAFSA, which I am going to do today. If it’s any consolation, the FAFSA is easier to fill out than the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, which I am also [...]
2 Biggest Reasons Why Saving For College Won’t Hurt Financial Aid Chances
Are you worried that saving for college will ruin your chances for financial aid?
Relax.
Parents who save for college are almost never penalized in student financial aid considerations. In fact, only about 4% of families who complete financial aid forms are penalized for their savings.
Here are the two biggest reasons why saving money shouldn’t hurt your [...]
