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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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The FAFSA’s Asset Protection Allowance
If I were the betting type, I’d bet that the Asset Protection Allowance is the part of the FAFSA that gets the most attention. For this fall’s FAFSA, there’s a little bit of good news: It’s finally going up! This should be tempered by: Not by much!
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%.
What Year? (2020 Edition)
It’s hard keeping track of what matters when in the prior-prior year world of the FAFSA and CSS Profile. Here is a table summarizing tax year and asset dates for the next few college years:
To Defer or not to Defer
Many students are considering deferring enrollment for the fall; surveys show that perhaps as many as 15% of college-bound students in the high school class of 2020 are likely to defer.
About that Facebook Live Event…
My apologies to anyone who tried to access my event on Facebook yesterday. The short story is, the stream went to the wrong place and when you’re in the middle of a live interview there isn’t much you can do to change that!
Common App and Coalition App Essay Prompts
Does your student have some free time on their hands? If so, now could be a great time to start working on college essays. The Common App and Coalition App release their essay prompts well ahead of time– January for the Common App, for example.
My socials are full of prom and graduation pictures, which means it’s time to talk about how you get money out of the 529 plan to which you’ve been diligently (or otherwise) contributing.