Financial Aid

Are you the legal child of two unmarried parents living together? Maybe the child of two men or two women who are unmarried? And do you need financial help to attend college?
If so, you already know that that the FAFSA has been discriminating against you – or at least, failing to give you the opportunity [...]

StraighterLine is proud to announce that Herzing University is now one of our Partner Colleges
When you first hear about Herzing University and investigate what it’s all about, the first thing you’ll probably think is, “Herzing is America’s only university that is owned by a woman, Renée Herzing. That’s unique.”
Then you read about a Herzing student [...]

If you need financial assistance for college – and who doesn’t? – you need to understand a lot of terms that apply to financial aid.
If a college admissions officer asks you, “Have you filed the FAFSA,” you need to know what that is. (See below for a definition.) Ditto, if a lender says to you [...]

By Susan McCrackin, Senior Director Financial Aid Methodology
Can you show me a “typical” college student today? I know I can’t find one. Some come from public high schools. Others attended private schools or were home-schooled. Some started out by taking courses online or at community colleges. Still others began their college studies while they were [...]

You can read about it in dozens of places online. Just at the time when thousands of American students were expecting to get good news about their Pell Grants, they were told that they were getting nothing – not a cent – from the Pell Grant program this year. Most of the students who are [...]

As you know, Congress and the White House reached an agreement a few days ago that prevented our economy from falling off the so-called “fiscal cliff.” But you might not have noticed that at the same time, American college students and their families dodged a financial bullet too.
As part of the agreement, The American Opportunity Tax [...]

What exactly is the fiscal cliff that’s been making the news lately? You can define it in many different ways. (The taxes go up, up, up, and the services go down, down, down. That’s one way.) But when you boil it all down, you realize that the fiscal cliff can be defined as [...]

By Sani Golriz
Just a few short years ago it seemed that college was the natural next step for graduating high-schoolers. It allowed them to move on to a whole new level of education, helping them develop the skills and knowledge they'd need for the bright, shining future that seemed guaranteed on graduation day.
Today, though, the [...]

Students in Record Numbers are Defaulting on Loans . . . 
“College students defaulting at record rate,”an article that Meghan Hoyer wrote forUSAToday, reports some sobering statistics that have just been released by the U.S. Department of Education.

Last year's 8.8% default rate surged to 13.4% this year.

Nearly half of defaulting borrowers attended for-profit colleges, despite the fact that [...]

By Danielle Koons
I found out today that FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. So when people say, “Hey, have you applied for FAFSAyet?” they’re really saying, “Hey, have you applied for a free application for federal student aid?” Is it proper toapply for an application? I feel that may be redundant.
Regardless of their poorly chosen [...]

A Quick Review of Tax Basics

You don’t have to become an accountant to minimize the taxes you pay. And depending on the complexity of your financial situation, you might not need to hire one either.
But whether you do your taxes yourself or bring in a pro, you can still avoid some of the bigger mistakes [...]