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📌 Before You File the FAFSA

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. 🔗

Most recent posts

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Write a Love Letter to Your Student
Write a Love Letter to Your Student

Sending your baby off to college is emotionally messy. Here’s a suggestion to make it a little better.

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What Legal Forms Does Your Student Need?
What Legal Forms Does Your Student Need?

Your student needs more than just extra-long sheets. Here are some important documents that should be created before they head off to college.

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Higher Education and the Bill
Higher Education and the Bill
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Will the FAFSA Be On Time This Year?
Will the FAFSA Be On Time This Year?
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College Tuition Is on Sale!
College Tuition Is on Sale!

We keep hearing about tuition increases, but it turns out that the actual cost of college is going down. What does this mean for students and families?

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How to Visit Colleges
How to Visit Colleges

Checking out colleges this summer? Whether you’re going in-person or virtual, here are some tips to get the most out of your visits.

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Highlights

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Comparing Financial Aid Awards

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.

New Year’s Resolutions

Happy 2025! 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.

FAFSA: Is it an Asset?

What is and isn’t an asset on the FAFSA? Here’s a quick “is it or isn’t it?” for you.

FAFSA Basics: Parent Assets

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.

Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid

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.

FAFSA and CSS Profile FAQs for Divorced and Single Parents

Filing the FAFSA raises tons of questions for divorced parents. Here are some answers.

FAFSA Resources

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.

New (School) Year’s Resolutions

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!

Categories

The FAFSA & CSS Profile

Featured
It’s Graduation Time!
FAFSA Simplification: What You Need to Know 2

Saving for College

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529 Plans: How to get Money Out
It’s Graduation Time!
How Much Should You Save for College?
7 More Uses for 529 Funds
I Bonds for College Savings
Choosing a 529 Plan

Paying for College

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College Tuition Is on Sale!
529 Plans: How to get Money Out
Appealing a Financial Aid Award
Claiming the American Opportunity Tax Credit
Form 1098-T and 1099-Q
Got Work-Study?
 

Student Loans

Featured
Required Reading Alert: Borrowing to Attend Your Top Choice College
It’s Graduation Time!
Student Loan Interest Rates for the 2023-24 School Year
Who is on the hook for student loans?
Student Loans: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Taking out a Student Loan

Application Process

Featured
Appealing a Financial Aid Award
Comparing Financial Aid Awards
It’s Graduation Time!
Colleges Still Have Openings!
Year-End Checklist
Net Price Calculators

Miscellaneous

All blog posts

Saving for College Ann Garcia Saving for College Ann Garcia

Rebalancing 529 Plan Accounts

If you want to change any of your 529 account investments, now is a good time to do so. That’s because you’re allowed to make changes to your investments twice a year. If you make changes now, you’ll still have both opportunities in 2016. If you wait until January, you’ll be using one of your 2016 changes.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

FAFSA 4caster vs FAFSA

Learn about how the FAFSA 4caster can help estimate your EFC, but be aware of its limitations.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

2016-2017 FAFSA Allowances

Back in May, the Department of Education released its needs analysis methodology for the 2016-2017 school year’s FAFSA EFC calculation. The big numbers to know from this are the Income Protection Allowance (the amount of parent and student income that is not considered available to pay for college) and the Asset Protection Allowance (ditto for nonretirement assets).

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

Tuition Discounts Increase at Private Colleges

Good news: according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, tuition discounting hit an all-time high in 2014, with many believing it is a trend likely to continue. A survey of 411 private, non-profit institutions showed that the average discount rate* for first-time, full-time freshmen hit 48% in the 2014-2015 school year, and was over 41% for all undergraduates.

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