The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a nifty tool for comparing school costs or financial aid offers, here. As you get acceptance and financial aid offers, enter them into the site to get apples-to-apples comparisons of what you’ll pay and what you will owe upon graduation.

Did you make a New Year’s resolution to save (or save more) for college? If so, you may be increasing the odds that your student will attend and graduate. Research shows that, across income levels, students who have savings designated for college are more likely to attend and graduate.

A financial aid package often includes work-study as one component. Typically the package includes a dollar sum of work-study income to be used for education costs.

The College Board’s annual Trends in College Pricing report came out recently and as always, includes some fascinating data.

Outside scholarships are those that come from someone other than the federal government or your school. Examples include National Merit Scholarships, scholarships from you or your parents’ employers, or from other civic institutions.

With standardized test season in full swing, let’s talk briefly about superscoring. (Why, on a paying for college blog, are we talking about standardized tests? Because they’re one of the best tools for earning merit aid.)