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The new Simplified FAFSA is here! Here’s a quick video with some tips that will help you get through it with a minimum of chaos and maximum of financial aid. 🔗
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Did you get waitlisted at your top choice college? Here’s what you need to know about that.
Thinking it’s worth taking out student loans to go to your first choice college instead of your second choice? Here’s what older Millennials have to say about their student loans.
Work study falls under the self-help column of financial aid. If your aid award includes work-study, you should understand what it is.
About 3/4 of families who appeal their financial aid award receive additional aid. Yet less than half appeal. Here’s how to get more money from the colleges you’re considering.
Highlights
We’re almost there: acceptance letters are arriving and the May 1 decision day is right around the corner. For most families, how much schools cost is part of the decision making process.
Happy 2023! Last year I made a New Year’s Resolution and kept it. That makes me a self-appointed expert on New Year’s resolutions. Here are some resolutions for parents planning for college— and my expert advice on how to keep your resolutions.
Parent assets seem to be the area that most families and planners focus on, despite the fact that they typically have the smallest impact on the formula of each of the components. Strategies and tactics to minimize parent assets abound, but for most families these result more in nibbling around the edges than actually making a significant dent in SAI.
The College Board’s annual Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid report was released recently. Among the headline findings: college tuition prices increased at extremely low rates for the second year in a row, reflecting both a combination of continued impacts of the pandemic and enrollment pressures from demographic trends.
Filing the FAFSA raises tons of questions for divorced parents. Here are some answers.
Happy FAFSA Day! Are you completing the FAFSA for the first time this year? While you’re waiting for the site to load, here are some resources that will help you get through it with a minimum of chaos and maximum of financial aid.
I think Oregon is one of the last places in the US that starts school after Labor Day so my apologies if you’re no longer in back-to-school mode. Here are some resolutions your family might make for the coming school year. And, here’s hoping they don’t get broken as quickly as the typical New Year’s diet-and-exercise resolutions!
The FAFSA becomes available onOctober 1, but you can download the EFC Formula Guide to see how the sausage gets made in advance. Here are some suggestions for how to use this data.
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Student Loans
Application Process
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Unemployment for Degree Holders
While you’re waiting for acceptances (seniors) or starting to get more serious about particular schools (everyone else), you might want to check out student loan default rates at the schools you’re interested in.
Unemployment for Degree Holders
The most recent unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics once again reinforce the value of a college education. While the overall unemployment rate was 13.3% nationally in May, the rate for those with only a high school diploma was 15%. The unemployment rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree was less than half that, 7.2%.
Unemployment Rates
With college tuition increases outpacing inflation by a substantial margin, it’s normal to ask whether a college degree is worth the cost. One metric for determining that is whether a degree results in lower unemployment.
Does it Matter Where You Go to College?
In 2002, a paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics by economists Stacy Dale and Alan Krueger showed that for most students, the incremental value of attending an elite college was virtually nil.
Colleges that Produce the Most Fortune 500 CEOs
As acceptances and rejections roll in, it’s time for a reminder that success in life is generally more about what you make of the college experience than what school you attend.
Rhodes Scholars’ Alma Maters
With acceptance letters en route to students, it’s time for a refresher course on “Acceptance to an Elite School Does Not Guarantee Anything– Nor Does Non-Acceptance.” Here is a list of the schools that the 2014 Rhodes Scholars attended.