If your student is going to need loans for college, it pays to know what’s available. As of 2016, two-thirds of college graduates had debt when they left school, with an average of $35,000. When you a...
Giving Up Your Dream College To Graduate Debt Free
In 2006, I was accepted to my dream school, New York University. When I saw the financial aid package, I figured I would do what everyone else did and take out loans. I thought that was just the way t...
10 Tips For Helping Parents Pay For College
I wish I could say that if you followed everything we suggest you would never have a problem paying for college – then we’d be a national hero! Though we can’t solve all the proble...
Learning About Financial Aid Isn’t Just For Parents of High School Seniors
In a huge shift to make it easier to fill out financial aid forms and get financial aid decisions back from colleges earlier, yearly FAFSA forms are now available October, 1st instead of January 1st. ...
Rapper Teaches How To Give Sallie Mae the Boot
Most recent college grads who receive a lump sum of cash would probably choose to buy a new car, some clothes, take a vacation, perhaps pay for a wedding or maybe even a down payment on a new home. Da...
How To Pay For College – Learn From Other Parents’ Mistakes
This time of year can be both exciting and scary for parents of high school seniors. The college admissions process (and the high school years leading up to it) are arduous and stressful, so most pare...
Does Saving For College Hurt Financial Aid Eligibility?
Sometimes the best source of advice and information comes from readers’ comments, which are always so valuable to review. Ron Lieber, a personal finance writer for the New York Times, recently w...
What’s The Difference Between Parent Plus Loans and Private Student Loans?
Once students have maximized all of their available financial aid, including grants, scholarships, work-study and Stafford loans, they may discover that they still need a loan to fill a funding “gap.”...
Paying For College: What’s a Divorced Parent to Do?
PARENT STORY I’m a single parent. My ex-husband had no legal requirement to pay for college and did not contribute, outside of the joint savings we had in a Section 529 plan that existed before we sep...
Not All Private Student Loans are Created Equal: Shop Around
If you’ve managed to navigate the FAFSA and secure every scholarship possible, but still find yourself short on tuition funds, you may be considering a private student loan. Your first instinct is pro...