The College Solutions Blog

June 26, 2009

I wanted to share with you three college posts that I wrote this week for my other college blog  at CBSMoneyWatch. Hope you enjoy them! 1. Shrinking Your Federal Student Loans A great federal program will begin this coming Wednesday that will provide relief to many borrowers who are struggling with repaying their federal student loans. 2. Declawing the FAFSA...

June 15, 2009

With colleges struggling to provide adequate financial aid to their students, will affluent alumni step in to help? That apparently is what’s beginning to happen.  Last month three Harvard grads started a nonprofit loan program called UniThrive.  The goal is to play matchmaker to financially struggling students with alumni who are happy to make interest-free loans that come due five...

June 7, 2009

  If you’re confused about your student loan options, Kathy Kristof, a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, nicely presents what your alternatives are in this piece on student loan strategies. Of course, I’m biased since she interviewed me for her piece. If you’ve got to borrow for college – and most parents will – you should check out...

May 27, 2009

A year ago I remember telling my nephew, who wants to be a police officer, about a fabulous deal for students who hoped to major in criminal justice. The state of Missouri was so eager to encourage its young people to become cops that it was practically giving away loans with a miniscule interest rate of .5%.   Students who wanted...

May 15, 2009

Anybody who has been reading my college blog for awhile probably knows my opinion of private student loans. For those who don’t understand why they should stay away from these lenders, I’d suggest you visit my other college blog (Gosh it can be exhausting writing two!) at CBSMoneyWatch.com. If you check out my recent private loan post, you’ll understand why...

April 22, 2009

More college kids are taking out private student loans than ever before.  New federal data shows that the number of undergrads borrowing private dollars has jumped from 5% to 14% in four years. Why do I care? Because private student loans can be dangerous.  Private loans are typically more expensive than federal student loans. And while federal loans offer fixed...

April 13, 2009

I’m petrified about taking out any student loans for my teenagers. Okay, petrified might be a bit strong, but as I’ve spent the last few years researching college issues, I’ve learned how rapacious the student loan industry is. It didn’t used to be that way. The federal student loan effort was launched as a way to help middle-class and lower-income...

February 10, 2009

If you want to be scared straight about college costs, read a Forbes Magazine article entitled The Great College Hoax.The piece argues that graduates who believe that a college degree will start them off on a yellow brick road that leads to greater salaries and a $1 million lifetime advantage over the poor souls who never make it past high...

January 30, 2009

I want to share part of the conversation that I had today with Barmak Nassirian, an official with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. I am doing research for some stories on college so I called Barmak because he is one of the truly thoughtful and compassionate financial aid experts in the higher ed world. Barmak noted...

November 14, 2008

If you spend enough time reading about the higher ed community it’s easy to become a cynic. Learning what really motivates schools, for instance, to drop SAT requirements or to offer certain types of kids tuition breaks and not others can make you incredibly skeptical. I am even more skeptical about anything that the student loan industry says. Lately, lenders,...