It’s the time of year for trick-or-treating, football games, and filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Completing the FAFSA is required to take advantage of Federal Student Aid including Federal Work-Study and Federal Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans. Many states will also use the FAFSA for their financial [...]
The College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile takes a more in-depth assessment of a family’s financial situation. Approximately 200 institutions currently use it to determine eligibility for institutional financial aid, and around 100 more for scholarship programs. Schools that give away a significant amount of their own institutional need-based aid use the CSS Profile because [...]
One year ago, Anika Madden and I started planning to launch our podcast and five months ago, Anika and I launched the “Your College-Bound Kid” podcast. It has been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. People often ask, why did you do it? Well, from one perspective, it doesn’t make a lot [...]
There are two primary sources of scholarships. There are what are known as “institutional scholarships,” which are scholarships from the college or university itself. These are often quite large and, by far and away, are the major source of free money for families above the poverty line. The other source of scholarship money is what [...]
There was a time when it was very easy for me to convince people of the danger of private student loans. I would tell families that private student loans almost always require co-signers and usually that was enough to scare them away. If that didn’t work, I could point out that private student loans are [...]
Sometimes, transferring is a prudent decision, but students often don’t realize until they arrive at their new college that a lot of their credits don’t transfer. How can you avoid this dilemma happening to you or someone you care about? Transferring is extremely common, and often it makes sense. I recommended transferring to four or [...]
If you currently have a kid in college, or if you have had a kid in college for the last three years, you should be getting/or have been getting between $1000-$2500 per kid refunded back to you. This article uses questions and answers from an IRS document to answer the most frequently asked questions [...]
I don’t want you to think I put my clients’ business on the street. My client is very thoughtful and considerate, so when I asked her if I could share what happened, she urged me, “Please do.” She said, “I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else.” It was Tuesday, and [...]
GA Tech experiments with the first completely online masters degree program in computer science and and a whole new breed of student flocks to Tech to save money with greater flexibility.
When a college gives the accepted student a more favorable financial aid package in the freshman year, but then in subsequent years, the grants are reduced.
