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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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Using Your 529's Gifting Page
Using Your 529's Gifting Page

If you really mean it when you say, “Please, no more toys!” you need to set up your 529’s gifting page.

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Make Your List, Check It Twice
Make Your List, Check It Twice

Applying to colleges this year? Here’s a last-minute checklist to make sure you end up with good choices.

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2025 Rhodes Scholars
2025 Rhodes Scholars

Rhodes Scholars are announced shortly before Thanksgiving every year. The recipient list serves as a reminder that plenty of colleges do an excellent job of preparing students to compete at the very highest levels.

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Trends in College Pricing
Trends in College Pricing

News headlines to the contrary, college has become more— not less— affordable over the past several decades.

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The Secret to Making Your College Years Count
The Secret to Making Your College Years Count

Getting the most out of your college experience is more about the experience than the college. In fact, research has shown that six specific college experiences translate to long-term well-being.

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Researching College Costs: IPEDS and the Common Data Set
Researching College Costs: IPEDS and the Common Data Set

How do you know what a college will cost you? There’s a lot of data out there that can help.

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Highlights

Featured
FAFSA and CSS Profile Info for Divorced Parents

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

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 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

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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

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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

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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

Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

How to Fill out the FAFSA 2: Divorced Parents

Divorce is one of the biggest question areas with the FAFSA. This may be because the FAFSA presents it so simply: it just asks the parents’ marital status; if “Divorced or separated” is chosen, it asks which parent’s information is going to be used.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

How to Fill out the FAFSA: Income

This is one of those things that seems fairly straightforward but has a definite peeling the onion feel to it. What is Income for purpose of the FAFSA?

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Paying for College Ann Garcia Paying for College Ann Garcia

Test Scores and Aid

Does your student have some down time during the winter break? A quick and easy way to make some money is to do some test prep for the ACT or SAT. In fact, this is likely to pay off far more than any juggling strategies you might be attempting with your income or assets in order to bring your EFC down.

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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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