-
College List BuildingUC Berkeley Common Data Set
Sifting through a college’s Common Data Set can take a lot of time. Instead, we’ve gathered the most important information from UC Berkeley’s most recent Common Data Set to provide you with the information you need at a quick glance. This guide contains key information from UC Berkeley Common Data Set 2025-2026. Berkeley Common Data…
- ACT
- Advice
- Apply
- Careers
- College Admissions
- College Financial Planning
- College List Building
- College prep
- College Sports
- Community College
- COVID-19
- Curated Articles
- Family Journeys
- Federal Loans
- Finance
- Financial Aid Appeals
- Find Scholarships
- Gift Ideas
- High School Academics & Activities
- ICYMI
- Learn
- Merit Scholarships
- Military
- News
- Paying Off Loans
- Plan
- SAT
- SAT Prep
- Season
- Standardized Testing
- Student & Parent Loans
- Student Athletes
- Survive
- Test Taking
- Uncategorized
- Vocational schools
- What You Need to Know
-
FinanceThe Importance of Researching & Comparing Private Student Loans
Paying for college can be an intimidating prospect, but there are a lot of options available that can help. Once your student has applied for all the scholarships and merit aid available, it’s time to consider other options for student loans. Because federal school loans have favorable policies, including lower interest rates, subsidized interest during…
-
Gift IdeasCool Gifts for College Students
The holidays are a few weeks away, and you still haven’t checked certain college students off your gift list? No worries, the fun, practical, and even charitable things we’ve rounded up here would thrill any college kid. We hope you love the products we recommend! We may collect a share of sales from some of…
-
FinanceWhat if Your Financial Aid Award Isn’t Enough?
When you get the financial aid letter from the school, you may be disappointed at what you see. Perhaps your student didn’t get what you expected, or maybe there have been changes that affected the financial picture. You may wonder if the school will reconsider your award, given the new information that you have. The…
-
FinanceHow the Recent Tax Bill Impacts Paying For College
The tax bill passed by the Senate on Friday, December 1st 2018 could have a major impact on higher education and how students and parents pay for college. The House had passed a similar bill in November. The bill is expected to improve economic growth, a major focus of the Trump white house. There will…
-
Merit ScholarshipsMerit Based Scholarships – What Are They? How Do I Apply for Them?
Merit based scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic achievement, leadership skills, community service, artistic talent, acting/singing/dancing talent and other factors. They’re often offered by colleges and universities, but also by private organizations. What Are Merit Scholarships? A merit based scholarship is an award given to students who demonstrate outstanding academic or talent performance.…
-
College LifeChristmas Gifts For High School and College Kids: Dorm Room Essentials
It’s never too early to think about dorm room essentials especially when you can get those items on sale. We’ve gathered together a bunch of things we found that are perfect for a college student, and the best part is you can give them as gifts, knowing they will need them when they are off…
-
FinanceWhat Is Work-Study And How Does it Work?
If your student has looked into the variety of college funding options available, work-study has probably come up. Understanding what work-study is and how it works is an important part of knowing if this is a good option for your child. What Is Work-Study and How Does One Qualify? Work-study is a way for students…
-
College LifeHoliday Gifts For Hungry Teens & College Students
Whether you’ve got a college kid who loves to cook food or just eat it, we think this list of food-centric gifts will appeal to all the gastronomy fans on your holiday list this year. We receive small amounts of compensation from purchases made through some of the links on this page. French Press Travel…
-
Gift IdeasHoliday Gift Guide: Great Ideas for High School and College Students
(We may earn commission from links on this page.) It would be so cliche of us to say that the holidays are “just around the corner,” but THEY ARE!! And just because you’ve been focusing on the college admissions process, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been compiling a holiday gift list…or checking off items on…
-
Gift IdeasHoliday Tech Gifts for College Kids and Teens – 12 Products They’ll Love
The holiday season is just a few weeks away, and depending upon what stage of the college admissions process you and your child are in, the thought of dealing with holiday shopping can potentially send you running for the hills. To help lower your stress levels, we’ve rounded up a selection of great tech gifts…
-
UncategorizedTake A Quiz, Win A Free Report
Some colleges are more generous than others. If you are trying to pay less for college, you’ll need to do research BEFORE your student applies to college to find out which colleges offer students more money than others. Test your knowledge and take our quick quiz below. Loading…
-
FinanceCSS Profile Tips and Tricks
In addition to FAFSA, families with students applying to one or more schools on this list of over 400 colleges, will have to fill out another financial aid form called the CSS Profile. This form asked for more detailed information about a family’s finances. Assets that were not included in the FAFSA, will be asked…
-
UncategorizedFinancial Aid & Merit Scholarship Survey
Each year families receive financial aid and merit scholarship award information. In an effort to create a national database of actual financial aid and scholarship information, we are asking families to share their award information. All information is collected anonymously. The goal of this effort is to share financial aid and merit scholarship information with…
-
FinanceFAFSA FAQs
Frequently asked questions, gathered from our FAFSA webinars…. (Interested to watch our FAFSA webinars? Both recordings are available for just $9.99.) How do I get an FSA ID? https://fsaid.ed.gov/npas/index.htm Is there a good worksheet to collect all the data ahead of starting the online manual input? https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1718/pdf/PdfFafsa17-18.pdf If a father is not a US citizen…
-
ApplyWhy Look Beyond College Rankings?
What makes 50 or fewer colleges so much more attractive than the remaining 1500? Can you say “US News Best College Rankings?” For those who want the short version, the problem with rankings is deciding what to rank. In the case of US News, popularity is a major factor in their rankings; though in their…
-
AdviceFind Out How Generous Colleges Are With Financial Aid And Merit Scholarships
Do you know how generous colleges are with their financial aid and merit scholarships? By the time students get to high school, hopefully their parents have saved whatever they can for college, but most likely that won’t be enough. At this point, the most impactful steps families can take is to make sure students do…
-
College Financial PlanningThinking About How To Pay For College? You Must See This EFC Chart!
Any family starting to search for colleges, must begin the search process by understanding their EFC. No ifs, ands, or buts…what good would it be to consider and visit schools that your family can’t afford. The government and College Board have links where you can enter in all your tax information and get your EFC…
-
ApplyComparison of Early Decision/Early Action Rates vs. Regular Decision
There’s a belief among students and families that the odds of being accepted to a college are better if students apply early decision vs. regular decision. Let the numbers speak for themselves and download our most up to date information showing early decision/early action results compared to regular decision. In some cases the odds of…
